Minnesota Zen Meditation Center

Home
United States
Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota Zen Meditation Center

Zen Buddhist temple and meditation center. We welcome all who want to learn more about Zen Buddhist meditation.

Minnesota Zen Meditation Center is a welcoming space for people to awaken wisdom and compassion, to embody Buddhist teachings, to honor our ancestors and descendants, and to joyfully serve our wider communities. Our vibrant community is committed to Zen practice and teachings, and offers daily sitting meditation, weekly classes and lectures, and monthly intensive meditation retreats. Our Center is located on the eastern shore of Lake Calhoun in south Minneapolis. People from all over the region come to here to listen to talks by teachers, attend classes and workshops, participate in retreats, attend services, and, most importantly, to do sitting meditation (zazen).

12/26/2025

Therapy and Buddhist Practice: Experiencing Joy by Moving through Difficulty
with Tim Burkett and Judith Weyl
Thursday evenings, January 15 - March 5 (8 weeks)
7:15 – 8:45 pm
Offered online and in person.
Register
https://www.mnzencenter.org/store/p139/Therapy_and_Buddhist_Practice.html

This class will explore both Buddhist and conventional psychotherapeutic practices that open a practitioner to the intrinsic healing power of Buddha Nature, the heart-mind we already have within us.

Through dharma talks, discussion, and experience, the group will explore how healing happens when the practitioner mindfully and skillfully moves through the stress and heart break encountered in ordinary daily life. The class will explore the compatibility of ancient Buddhist and contemporary psychotherapeutic practices in transforming everyday difficulty into an opportunity, or opening, for greater awakening to the JOY of being.

12/23/2025

MZMC's Ben Connelly joined several other clergy leaders in making this short inspiring video “We Believe in Minnesota”: Twin Cities Faith Leaders Unite in Holiday Solidarity Video to Support Immigrant and Refugee Neighbors.

12/11/2025

Rohatsu 2025
Gratitude to all who participated!

11/28/2025

Blank Friday: Open House, Classes, Meditation
Friday, November 28

Open House: 12:00 – 4:00 pm
Bring your family and friends!

Classes: Mindfulness and Meditation
1:00 and 3:00 pm (same class both times)

Open Meditation:
20-minute meditation sessions on the hour and half-hour

Blank Friday: A Zen Alternative
On the day of the year that has become most associated with consumerism and shopping, MZMC offers a respite and alternative. In meditation, we face the blank wall, return to our original stillness, and find relief from a busy mind. Join us!

11/21/2025

Join Us for Blank Friday: A Zen Alternative
Friday, November 28

Open House: 12:00 – 4:00 pm
Bring your family and friends!

Classes: Mindfulness and Meditation
1:00 and 3:00 pm (same class both times)

Open Meditation:
20-minute meditation sessions on the hour and half-hour

On the day of the year that has become most associated with consumerism and shopping, MZMC offers a respite and alternative. In meditation, we face the blank wall, return to our original stillness, and find relief from a busy mind. Join us!

11/15/2025

Rohatsu Sesshin
with Ben Connelly and Ted O'Toole
Sunday, November 30, 7 p.m. – Sunday December 7, 4 p.m.
Hours for full days are 5:45 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
The hours on Sunday, December 7, are 5:45 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
There are a variety of attendance options for in person and online participation.
Please register by November 25 at 5 p.m.
Register
https://www.mnzencenter.org/store/p100/Rohatsu_Sesshin.html

Rohatsu (Buddha's Enlightenment) sesshin is arguably the year's most important event for Zen Buddhists. All over the world we sit in meditation, celebrating Buddha's awakening to an intimacy with all life as our own awakening. This formal retreat includes zazen, kinhin (walking meditation), liturgy, dharma talks, meal breaks, dokusan (one-to-one meetings with the teachers), and work practice.

11/12/2025

Beginner's Mind Retreat
with Doshin Mark Turbak
Saturday, November 22, 1 - 4 pm
Register
https://www.mnzencenter.org/store/p114/Beginner%27s_Mind_Retreat.html
Enter the transformative stillness of Zen retreat practice in this afternoon immersion in meditation, silence, and teachings. This brief retreat includes both guided and silent meditation as well as an introduction to the basics of traditional zen forms, walking meditation, and a short dharma talk.

10/31/2025

One-day Retreat
with Ted O'Toole
Saturday, November 8, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Offered in person and online.
Register
https://www.mnzencenter.org/store/p120/One-Day_Retreat.html

One-day Retreats are conducted in a contemporary context, without the formal elements involved in sesshin. They include walking and sitting meditation, a dharma talk, one-to-one meetings with the teacher, and work practice. Meditators at all levels of experience are invited. A vegetarian lunch is served for those attending in person.

10/18/2025

October Weekend with Paula Arai

Friday Evening Public Talk
"Stories Liberating Dharma in the Home"
Friday, October 24, 7 pm
Offered in person at MZMC and online.
No registration is needed. Suggested donation $20
If attending online, find the Zoom link here.
https://www.mnzencenter.org/zoom-program-links.html
She will sign copies of her new book, "The Little Book of Zen Healing."

Workshop Saturday, October 25, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
"Women Liberating Dharma"
Offered in person and online.
Suggested donation $80. Vegetarian lunch included.
Some space still available.
Register here.
https://www.mnzencenter.org/store/p148/Paula_Arai_Workshop.html

We will explore the unheralded contributions women have been making since the beginning of the Buddhist tradition. They laid a deep and strong foundation upon which the tradition depends. Their influence runs deep inside the home and heart. Telling their stories is liberating for them and for us. Applying their wisdom to our lives is healing. We will animate these dimensions through creative activities.

Paula Arai (Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies, Harvard University) holds the Eshinni & Kakushinni Professor of Women and Buddhist Studies chair at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California.

10/02/2025

Join us for Fall Movie Night! "Perfect Days"
This Saturday, October 4, door opens at 6 pm and movie at 6:30 pm
Refreshments and popcorn will be provided. Please bring a treat to share, if you'd like.
No cost; offered by donation.

This is an evening for the community to enjoy together! Join us for great company and conversation, delicious treats, and a wonderful, award-winning film.

About the film:
Hirayama works as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. He seems content with his simple life. He follows a structured everyday life and dedicates his free time to his passion for music and books. Hirayama also has a fondness for trees and photographs them. More of his past is gradually revealed through a series of unexpected encounters. Written by Wim Wenders and Takuma Takasaki. Directed by Wim Wenders.

This event is sponsored by the MZMC Membership Committee.

09/25/2025

Women Liberating Dharma: Workshop with Paula Arai
Saturday, October 25, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Offered in-person and online.
Vegetarian lunch included.
Suggested donation: $80
Limited to 35 in-person participants.
Register
https://www.mnzencenter.org/store/p148/Paula_Arai_Workshop.html

We will explore the unheralded contributions women have been making since the beginning of the Buddhist tradition. They laid a deep and strong foundation upon which the tradition depends. Their influence runs deep inside the home and heart. Telling their stories is liberating for them and for us. Applying their wisdom to our lives is healing. We will animate these dimensions through creative activities.

Friday Evening Public Talk on October 24
Paula will also be giving a Friday Evening Public Talk at MZMC (also online). The title of the talk is "Stories of Women Liberating Dharma in the Home." You are invited to attend, and no registration is necessary. The suggested donation for the talk is $20.

More about Paula Arai
Paula Arai (Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies, Harvard University) holds the Eshinni & Kakushinni Professor of Women and Buddhist Studies chair at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California. She is author of "Women Living Zen;" "Bringing Zen Home;" "Painting Enlightenment;" and "The Little Book of Zen Healing." She also co-edited "The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice." Her forthcoming book is "Of Mud & Lotuses: Dreaming the Lives of Buddhist Women." Under the tutelage of Aoyama Shundō Rōshi, she did Zen training at the Aichi Senmon Nisōdō nunnery in Nagoya, Japan. Steeped in ethnographic research, she takes an embodied approach to her work and finds poetic immersive storytelling a potent medium for conveying the experiences of transformative healing she researches. An active public speaker, Arai also leads workshops on healing rituals. Website: Zenhealing.org

Address

3343 E Bde Mka Ska Pkwy
Minneapolis, MN
55408

Website

http://www.mnzencenter.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Minnesota Zen Meditation Center posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Minnesota Zen Meditation Center:

Shortcuts

Want your practice to be the top-listed Clinic in Minneapolis?