World Religions in Greater Boston: Home

The Greater Boston Zen Center, a Boundless Way Zen affiliate located at 288 Norfolk Street, 2nd Floor, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a welcoming community of Dharma practitioners. Our lineage roots are in the Japanese Soto tradition through Jiyu Kennett Roshi, the Soto reform Harada-Yasutani koan curriculum through John Tarrant Roshi, and the Korean Linji tradition.

Boundless Way Zen teachers offer guidance in all forms of Zen meditation including breath practices, koan introspection, and the subtle art of shikantaza, or just sitting.

The Greater Boston Zen Center offers introductory orientation classes by appointment, a weekly zazen (Zen meditation) schedule of morning and evening sits, as well as a Precepts study group, a Dogen study group, and opportunities for Dharma dialogue discussion groups.

We offer all-day sits (zazenkai) approximately once a month, and a “commuter meditation retreat” consisting of two all-day sits in a row once a year. We all offer a full schedule of weekly programs, including Zen meditation, Zen liturgy, and meditation instruction.

The Greater Boston Zen Center is under the spiritual directorship of Sensei Josh Bartok.

Charles River Zen is a Rinzai Zen community is in the lineage of Rōshi Kyōzan Jōshū Sasaki, who came to America in 1962. CRZ is an outgrowth of Hōun-an, Dharma Cloud Hermitage, a Zen temple which was incorporated in 2001.

Dharma Cloud Hermitage was responsible for the Zen activities at the Cambridge Buddhist Association between 2004 and 2011. With the closing of the CBA practice facilities Dharma Cloud Hermitage needed to find a new home. We relocated our center to Watertown Square and adopted the name Charles River Zen while preserving the temple name Hōun-an, which was given  by Jōshū Rōshi.

The logo is composed of waves and empty space, manifesting movement and stillness in one, embraced in a circle of wholeness. Charles River Zen is an all-inclusive practice community that strives to serve the sangha (community) in exploring the way of Zen both as a householder practice and as the practice of ordained, monastic participants.

The Cambridge Zen Center is a not for profit Zen Buddhist organization founded according to the teachings of the late Zen Master Seung Sahn and the tradition of the international Kwan Um School of Zen. The center provides Zen training, education and support through formal practice and everyday life. Vision: Cambridge Zen Center provides a Zen environment that supports, trains and educates those who want to balance living in the world with deep practice, to "Wake Up!" and take enlightened action to contribute to a better planet.

The Henry David Thoreau Zen Sangha is named for the great Unitarian Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau who in many ways anticipated Zen practice and thought. This Sangha seeks to honor both the eastern traditions of Zen practice and the western and particularly Unitarian Universalist traditions of social concern and engagement. Often simply called “Hank,” it is a Zen meditation group in the combined Harada/Yasutani and Soto Zen lineages.

Anybody who pursues living an enlightened and compassionate way of life may come and join Won-Buddhism of Boston. We are sure that the teachings of the Great Master Sot'aesan will guide your spiritual journey, meditatively, philosophically, or practically, in all aspects of your life.

Insight Meditation is based on an ancient Buddhist Meditation tradition that is very much relevant today, offering tools that can help us to live with more calm, clarity, and insight in our lives.

Originated in the Buddhist tradition more than 2500 years ago, it is a simple practice that steadies the mind by grounding attention in the present moment. As our awareness grows, we learn to see into our experience in a way that frees us to meet life’s challenges with openness and inner strength.

We offer a variety of practice opportunities including daily sittings, classes, retreats, workshops.  We also have a lending library with texts from various Buddhist traditions. The center is designed to offer opportunities for new students as well as those with a deeper ongoing commitment to practice.

Although it is a completely independent organization, IMCN was founded with the intention of being part of larger 'floating campus' in which non-residential centers like IMCN (and Cambridge Insight Meditation Center) and residential centers like the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, together can provide a full spectrum of practice opportunities depending on the needs of the student. Grounded in the presentation and reflection on classical teachings of the Buddha, these range from daily sittings, introductory classes and applications in daily life all the way to extended silent residential retreats.

Ayyā Gotamī (Dr. Rev. Prem Suksawat) is the abbess of Dhamma Cetiya Buddhist Vihara in West Roxbury.  She founded this temple in 1997.  Before becoming a nun, she worked in the mental health field with public and private agencies.  As a nun, she uses this background to integrate Western psychology and psychiatric treatment with Buddhist teachings to educate and help her students.

The temple observes a form of Mahayana Buddhism that seeks to combine aspects of Pure Land Buddhism with the Zen tradition.

The Founder and the Cofounder have guided us to understand that the true spirit of Shakyamuni is wisdom and compassion described in the Lotus Sutra.

Hoi Phat Giao Lam Ty Ni was founded about twenty years ago with the support of the local Vietnamese community of Lawrence. Today, there is one resident monk who conducts services and acts as the spiritual director. The temple maintains relationships with a number of other Vietnamese Buddhist temples in the Greater Boston area including those in South Boston, East Boston, Dorchester and Worcester.

The center offers weekly services in Vietnamese each Sunday at 11 A.M. for Dorchester's growing Vietnamese population and for a small number of Chinese, Laotian, and Cambodian Buddhists from around Boston.

The Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC) was established in 1985 as a nonprofit, nonresidential urban center for the practice of insight meditation. Located in the heart of Cambridge, CIMC provides an environment where the contemplative life can be developed and protected amidst the complexities of city living. We offer a place where people come together to learn, support and deepen practice. People of all religious, non-religious, and philosophical persuasions are welcome.

Our mission is to empower people with profound, accessible spiritual practices that support their individual and collective work to become better people and to make a better world.

Offering both beginning and advanced courses, Lama Migmar teaches Abhidharma, Madhyamika, Prajnaparamita, Tantra, and Mind-Training, such as Parting From the Four Attachments, Wheel of Sharp Weapons, Seven Points of Mind-Training, Bodhicaryavatara, Triple Vision as well as classic Sutra texts such as the Dhammapada.

The practice taught at Sakya Institute for Buddhist Studies is based on the classic gradual approach, beginning with Mind-Training and concluding with advanced Vajrayana deity practice.

Now an international network with centers and groups in eleven countries around the world, Rigpa seeks:
* To make the teachings of Buddha available to benefit as many people as possible, and
* To offer those following the Buddhist teachings a complete path of study and practice along with the environment they need to explore the teachings to the fullest.

Under the guidance of resident teacher Geshe Tsulga, Kurukulla Center's mission is to provide a community of support for those who are studying and practicing the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Jokhang Institute's mission is to provide a sacred spiritual space and educational facilities.

To empower people with profound, accessible spiritual practices that support their individual and collective work to become better people and to make a better world. We provide powerfully transformative practices from Tibetan Buddhism adapted into new forms that can meet the hearts and minds of people from all backgrounds and faiths,so as to help them bring out the best in themselves within relationships, service and social action. Through practices that awaken the heart of innate wisdom and compassion, we also provide methods that can support a complete path of spiritual awakening in our time.