Welcome

Format of Services

Anyone is welcome to join our services -- you do not have to be Buddhist or experienced with Buddhist services. If you let us know ahead of time that you are new, we will walk you through the service.

If you are uncomfortable attending a service without any previous experience, we conduct half-day workshops quarterly, which introduce meditation and the rituals we follow. The Ann Arbor Zen Buddhist Temple and Deep Spring Center, also in Ann Arbor, also hold introductory workshops and courses.

Attire is casual, loose and comfortable in subdued colors (no short shorts). Please avoid wearing colognes or strongly scented lotions. We ask that you remove your shoes while in our meditation room.

When you arrive, just open the door and enter. Go upstairs, take your shoes off on the last landing, and find a seat either in a chair or on a mat and cushion. We keep silence until the end of the service.

Students are welcome to attend our services as part of assignments for religion classes. We ask that you participate in the service, not just sit and observe, and that you not take notes during the service. Please consider joining us for tea afterwards (on the second and fourth Sundays), where the leader and other members will be happy to answer questions.

At 7:00 PM we begin by chanting the Refuges, then have a 25-minute sitting meditation. At the end of this period we stretch, chant or do walking meditation for 10-15 minutes, and begin another 25-minute period of meditation. If two periods of meditation are too difficult for you, you may arrive between 7:30 and 7:40 before the start of the second period of meditation. If you arrive early, please wait downstairs until you hear the bell ring to end the sitting.

Following this, we read from the Dhammapada, then have a short dharma talk and discussion of the teachings or practice. We then formally bow and greet each other to end the service.