Residency
Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community combines the daily contemplative rhythm of Zen with bearing witness and service projects in the local community. Our residency program is designed to take you through meditation training, hands-on service to others, spiritual study, and grounding in the Three Tenets of a Zen Peacemaker – Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Loving Action.
The Bread Loaf Mountain Residency includes:
- Regular 1-on-1 meditation instruction and spiritual direction with the Guiding Teacher and senior practitioners
- Working on our mobile café, StreetGreens and in our soon-to-open Zen Peacemaker House called Gather, to bring caring community to neighbors who feel isolated, lost, and left behind
- Monthly special programs and/or silent meditation retreats
- 2 hours of daily meditation
- Chanting practice and temple position training
- Weekly group study sessions
- Healthy vegetarian meals each day
- Supportive, authentic community
- Many opportunities for hiking and other outdoor activities
- Live surrounded by natural beauty, including miles of trails
- Discernment process to consider a longer commitment to residential practice beyond the initial residential experience
Residents are asked to contribute $300 per month to our communal budget, which includes all housing costs, community meals, and use of a community automobile. This also includes participation in all training programs. We are grateful to our many benefactors who make this affordable regardless of one’s economic situation. Special arrangement for working outside of the community can be made on a case-by-case basis.
We ask that you make a two-month minimum commitment if possible.
Beyond the apprenticeship, those in residential training may live and work at Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community for a mutually agreeable period of time. The suggested financial offering for continued residential training is $300 per month; we ask that all who participate in residential training offer some amount of financial support according to their means to help cover the costs of room, community meals, and study with the teacher. Scholarships or full work exchanges are sometimes available.
For more information about residential training and to obtain an application, contact Joshin at joshin@breadloafmountainzen.org.