Kanzeon Zen Center, Buddhist meditation center in Salt Lake City, Utah, US
Kanzeon Zen Center is a Buddhist meditation center in the Avenues neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah, situated on G Street. It has dedicated rooms for seated practice and instruction, open to both beginners and people with an existing practice.
The center was founded in 1984 and grew out of the White Plum Asanga, a network of Zen communities shaped by the teachings of Taizan Maezumi, a Japanese teacher who helped establish Zen practice in the United States. Its founding placed Salt Lake City among the American cities where Zen Buddhism took root during that period.
The name Kanzeon refers to a bodhisattva associated with compassion in the Zen tradition, and this choice of name reflects the spirit the founders wanted to give the place. People who come here regularly form a small community built around shared practice rather than formal religious membership.
Sessions run in the morning and evening, and multi-day retreats are also offered throughout the year, so it is worth checking the current schedule before visiting. For longer programs, signing up in advance is generally expected.
Beyond the city location, the center also runs a separate retreat space in Torrey, a small town near Capitol Reef in southern Utah, surrounded by red rock country. This gives practitioners the option of sitting in a setting that feels far removed from daily urban life.
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