Zen Center of New York City: Fire Lotus Temple is a refuge for spiritual practitioners in New York City. With a regular schedule of morning and evening zazen, Saturday workshops and meditation intensives, a Sunday Morning Program, and residential opportunities, you’ll find instruction, support and inspiration for practicing at home and at work. Our doors are open to beginners as well as experienced practitioners.
Our temple is part of the Mountains & Rivers Order and is affiliated with Zen Mountain Monastery.
Retreats & Programs
Deepen your practice and your life by joining us for dharma practice in community. We offer regular zazen intensives, as well as programs on creative expression, Buddhist studies and other inspiring and engaging opportunities to be together in the dharma.
Sunday Morning Program
Introduction to Zazen -Orientation for First Time Participants
Are you new to Fire Lotus Temple? We’d love to have you join us. Please make your first visit to Zen Center of New York City on a Sunday morning. Each Sunday from 9:30 to 12:30 we offer a program that includes liturgy, instructions in zazen, (Zen meditation), and a talk on some aspect of the dharma. Once you’ve been oriented to the Temple on a Sunday, you can join us for any of our weekday meditation sessions. No registration required–just show up!
We begin the Sunday Morning Program at 9:30am. You’re welcome to come a little earlier on Sunday (at 8:30 am) to sit quietly in the zendo or to participate in our caretaking practice (silent work). We begin caretaking with some brief chanting together, and then each person receives a simple task to help ready the Temple for the morning program.
What to Expect at the Sunday Morning Program
Are you new to Fire Lotus Temple? We’d love to have you join us. Please make your first visit to Zen Center of New York City on a Sunday morning. Each Sunday from 9:30 to 12:30 we offer a program that includes liturgy, instructions in zazen, (Zen meditation), and a talk on some aspect of the dharma. Once you’ve been oriented to the Temple on a Sunday, you can join us for any of our weekday meditation sessions. No registration required–just show up!
We begin the Sunday Morning Program at 9:30am. You’re welcome to come a little earlier on Sunday (at 8:30 am) to sit quietly in the zendo or to participate in our caretaking practice (silent work). We begin caretaking with some brief chanting together, and then each person receives a simple task to help ready the Temple for the morning program.
The Arts at ZCNYC
“Creativity is our birthright. It is an integral part of being human, and like a spiritual journey, is intuitive, nonlinear, and experiential. It points us toward our essential nature, which is a reflection of the boundless creativity of the universe.” —John Daido Loori, Roshi
When Daido Roshi founded the Mountains and Rivers Order, he put an emphasis on the creative process as an integral part of Zen training that continues in our training at the temple. Practitioners can develop art as a practice in both the traditional arts of Zen as well as the more modern forms. Movement, photography, sound, painting, sculpture, voice, electronics, and drawing are just a few mediums through which you can explore art practice.
Art practice becomes a gate to embody the way of simplicity, spontaneity, and direct insight while polishing our understanding of ourselves and the nature of reality. The practice is open to everyone, because everyone is naturally creative. The Temple offers ongoing programs in Art Practice, and Hojin Sensei offers a regular online art practice session most Friday mornings at 10:30.
See our galleries of practice
When Daido Roshi founded the Mountains and Rivers Order, he put an emphasis on the creative process as an integral part of Zen training that continues in our training at the temple. Practitioners can develop art as a practice in both the traditional arts of Zen as well as the more modern forms. Movement, photography, sound, painting, sculpture, voice, electronics, and drawing are just a few mediums through which you can explore art practice.
Art practice becomes a gate to embody the way of simplicity, spontaneity, and direct insight while polishing our understanding of ourselves and the nature of reality. The practice is open to everyone, because everyone is naturally creative. The Temple offers ongoing programs in Art Practice, and Hojin Sensei offers a regular online art practice session most Friday mornings at 10:30.
Deepen Your Practice
Teaching content from Zen Center of New York City
