VALLEY — There is now a San Luis Valley Zen group—a group of people getting together to sit zazen (Zen meditation). Participants come from many parts of the Valley—Alamosa, Antonito, South Fork, Saguache.

Earlier this summer, the Valley Courier reported on a survey being made by a Zen monk resident in Crestone, and as word got around the group coalesced.

At first not having an indoor meeting place, in July the group held an initial sitting in Cole Park, Alamosa. Ten participants spread tarps and sat on the grass, fresh and green from recent rains. A period of zazen was followed by remarks by the monk—a Soto Zen priest in the lineage of Suzuki-roshi and Zentatsu Richard Baker-roshi—and then a business meeting to assess how the group might move forward.

Participants were enthusiastic to know more about meditation and the Soto Zen tradition.

A second gathering, at which zazen instruction and zazen were followed by a lengthy discussion, was this recent weekend, on Friday, August 18, at a house in Alamosa near the high school.

A third meeting is scheduled for the evening of Friday, August 25, with regular weekly meetings to follow, usually in Alamosa on Fridays.

Rei-Un Dennis, the monk who initially coordinated the activity, will be in Germany for three months, September into December, at an ango training period at Baker-roshi’s Black Forest monastery. The new Zen students will take over arranging future meetings.

More information can be had from Sharon, 623 969-9481 ([email protected]).