Zen Center Manila

We are a community of Zen practitioners in the Philippines We view introducing Zen and Mindfulness meditation to the public as a service we offer to the community, regardless of whether or not you decide to continue after your first visit. Our teaching and methods are focused on two principles: providing a venue for personal spiritual development and familiarizing people with standardized Zen training practices, protocols and etiquette. What is Zen? Trying to explain or define Zen, by reducing it to a book, to a few definitions, or to a website is illusion. Instead, it freezes Zen in time and space, thereby weakening its meaning. Defining Zen is like trying to describe the taste of honey to someone who has never tasted it before. You can try to explain the texture and scent of honey, or you can try to compare and correlate it with similar foods. However, honey is honey! As long as you have not tasted it, you are in the illusion of what honey is. The same goes with Zen, because Zen is a practice that needs to be experienced, not a concept that you can intellectualize or understand with your brain. The information that we’ll give here won’t cover all of what of Zen is, but is a starting point to the Zen experience. Sanbo Zen Lineage Sanbô Zen was founded in 1954 by the former Soto Zen monk Haku’un Yasutani Roshi (1883-1973) who left the Soto monastic order to found a lay line of Zen. Following the tradition of his master, Harada Sogaku Roshi, he integrated Soto-style practice with the Rinzai method of koan study in his teaching to help students attain what is both the origin and goal of Zen: realization of the true self. In the last decade of his life Yasutani Roshi traveled abroad to the United States and Europe in order to spread the dharma to westerners.