About Blue Cliff Zen Center

Blue Cliff Zen Center is a western hybrid of Japanese Soto and Rinzai Zen. We hold the Soto Zen lineage through Daizan Skinner and the Rinzai Zen lineage through Shinzan Miyamae. Through Shinzan Roshi we teach the Hakuin-Inzan koan curriculum. We are not a monastery nor a temple. We are a Zen center, emphasizing lay practice.

Among our unique features is how we offer an adaption of East Asian yoga blended with Indian yoga (Zen yoga) as a part of our regular practice. And we’ve adapted a form of the Enlightenment Intensive first developed by Charles and Ava Berner into our foundational practices.

Our style is informal, but our Zen is rigorous. We are committed to the Bodhisattva way, and the path of the awakened heart. Anyone of good will is welcome to join us.

We offer weekly Zen meditation sessions, Zen yoga, mindfulness courses, and teacher trainings. We also do Breakthrough to Zen Retreats, community service projects, and Zen ceremonies. Our vision is to support the greater community by offering meditation and mindfulness activities that foster well-being, vitality, and awareness. We are committed to making these practices accessible for everyone and helping to foster a more awakened community and world.

Our teachers: Matt Shinkai Kane is currently the guiding Zen teacher (roshi) at Blue Cliff Zen Center. For a biography about our teachers please visit this page. Please visit the Zen shop page for other books and resources about our lineage.