Saturday Morning Zazen Class

I sit zazen each Saturday morning at the Hill Street Center in Santa Monica, California according to the following schedule:

On Saturdays I do my daily zazen practice at the Hill Street Center (HSC) and I open the doors and welcome others to join me. On days when I can't be at Hill Street I usually have someone there to open the door and continue the practice as I do.

If you cannot make it by 9:55 AM, please either 1) come in quietly and take a spot while the others are doing zazen or 2) wait until 10:50 and come in while the others are having tea. The rule of thumb is to be quiet and unobtrusive. There will be no special instructions if you come in late, so please watch what the others are doing.

UPCOMING CLASSES:

ALL DATES ARE SUBJECT TO CANCELATION. PLEASE CHECK THIS PAGE BEFORE YOU COME TO SANTA MONICA.

Wear loose comfortable clothes. The suggested donationto attend is at least $15 per person ($20 for the all day sittings, see here for details). It is those who attend these classes who pay the rent for the use of the center. If we can't make the rent, we'll have to close down. So feel free to donate more if you can. Remember this is by far the cheapest meditation class available in the area!

Beginners are welcome. But if you've never done zazen before, please look at the following page:

HOW TO DO ZAZEN

PARKING: You can usually use the parking lot next to the Hill St. Center. However, sometimes folks got blocked in by the people from the church next door who also use the lot. So we cannot guarantee this won't happen. To avoid this, there is a public parking lot just off Main St. with meters which charges 50 cents per hour. There's a Starbuck's on the corner of Hill & Main. The lot is more or less across the street from the Starbuck's. There's also some on-street parking in the area which is free. Your best bet is to park above 4th Street (meaning in the direction away from the ocean).

The focus of the class is on zazen practice. So come prepared to do the practice. If you come late, please enter quietly and start sitting. Watch everyone else if you don't know what to do. There are about ten zafus (sitting cushions) at the Hill St. Center. If you have your own, though, it may be best to bring it along in the unlikely event we run out.

Here is some brief information about Brad:

Brad Warner was born in 1964 and first started studying and practicing zazen in the early 80's under the instruction of Tim McCarthy who was a student of Kobun Chino. He was ordained in the Soto School of Zen Buddhism by Gudo Wafu Nishijima. Nishijima along with his student Mike Cross produced the most complete translation of Dogen's Shobogenzo ever published. Brad wrote a book called Hardcore Zen which was put out by Wisdom Publications. He taught weekly zazen classes and led retreats in Japan for several years before moving to California.