Welcome to Floating Zendo, we are a Sangha practicing Soto Zen in the Bay Area since 1999 under the guidance of our teacher, Angie Boissevain, Sensei. 

We offer weekly meditation on Tuesday nights 6:30-8:00 pm at the San Jose Friend’s Meeting House on 1041 Morse St., with longer meditations once a month on Saturdays (also in San Jose) and an annual week-long sesshin. 

Bring your own cushion, or use the pillows and chairs available.  Beginners are welcome and individual instruction is provided upon request.

• • For the first ten minutes, we do walking meditation (kinhin) which allows for late arrivals to remove their shoes and join the circle. 
    
    
  • For seated meditation (zazen) we face the wall with our eyes half-closed and maintain silence.  The sound of the bell tells us when to begin and when to end.  

On Tuesday nights after sitting meditation and a short service, Angie comments on a study text, which can be a foundational sutra, the writings of Dogen, or contemporary commentary on Buddhist literature.  The nature of the self and how to know this self are recurring themes during these studies.

As a community of lay practitioners centered in San Jose, we approach the precepts practically, asking how they can be applied to our daily lives.  We are very grateful to be students of a dedicated and wise teacher in the evolving lineage of American Zen Buddhism.

Although we do not maintain a permanent zendo, there are many opportunities for service and socialization in the San Jose area.

“…we are all connected to that empty circle at the top of the lineage chart, with not only all the many names that follow the red line down, but with the countless others those names stand for, including myriad women.”

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“Zazen practice brings us back to our only-ness, our aloneness, our oneness. It helps us face the lies and the sometimes difficult truth of how our life is going.  Even when we discover mistakes and lies we’ve been hiding from our self, in the end there’s a tremendous freshness and a great relief to be honest.  ….Our only activity is to return to the present, to be this right now place. “  Angie Boissevain, Seeds of Virtue, Seeds of Change… pp. 106-108

 

 

Weekly Zoom Meeting

During the coronavirus pandemic, our regular meeting place at the San Jose Friends Meeting House is not available.

We are meeting online via Zoom:

Meditation and Dharma Talk or Dharma Study Session

Tuesday evening: 5:30 to 7:00 PM via Zoom

For information and a link to the Zoom meeting, contact the Floating Zendo Secretary at: [email protected]