Sweetwater Zen Center

To study the Buddha way is to study the self.
To study the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.
~Dogen Zenji

Introduction to Meditation Schedule

Sesshin Precepts Sutras & Gathas

Membership

Daily Monthly

Sutras Gathas

Teachers Facilities Residency Governance

Practices

Programs

Affiliate Groups

Grievance Policy Children Guidelines

Council Communication

Non-violent Direct Indirect

Community Outreach Youth Outreach Prison Project

Dharma Talks Readings & Other Practices

How can I donate? Youth Outreach Community Outreach

2727 Highland Avenue
National City, CA 91950
619-477-0390 info@swzc.org

Anne Seisen Saunders, Roshi

The Abbot and head teacher of Sweetwater Zen Center is Anne Seisen Saunders, Roshi. Seisen has been practicing and teaching Zen Buddhism for nearly 20 years.

Seisen is a student of the late Taizan Maezumi Roshi and a Dharma successor of Bernie Tetsugen Glassman, Roshi, cofounder of the Greyston Mandala and the Zen Peacemaker Order.

Seisen lived at the Zen Center of Los Angeles for 15 years, and worked on ZCLA's administrative staff. She served for four years as the co-abbot of Zen Mountain Center, a traditional monastery and practice center in Idyllwild, California.

The founding of SWZC marks Seisen's return to San Diego. Before coming to Zen practice Seisen attended UC Berkeley and then later went to UCSD, where she worked as a biochemist. Establishing SWZC is the unfolding of her vision for an urban residential Zen practice community.

Listen to our SWZC Song
by Bobby Werner

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Sweetwater Zen Center relies mostly on user support. Any and all donations via PayPal are welcome.

We are a 501(c)3 corporation
and as such your donation is tax deductible.

Pay your Monthly Membership:

The suggested membership fee
is $50.00 per month, however you can contribute as much as your situation allows.

Bernie Tetsugen Glassman Roshi

Roshi Bernie Glassman, the first Dharma Successor of Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi, was the first Abbot of the Zen Community of New York. Along with his wife, Sensei Jishu Holmes, he cofounded the Peacemaker Community, an international order of social activists and peacemaker villages engaged in peacemaking based on Three Tenets: penetrating the unknown, bearing witness to joy and suffering, and healing ourselves and others. The two also cofounded the Zen Peacemaker Order and interfaith Peacemaker Order.

Roshi Glassman is also the cofounder of the Greyston Mandala, a network of businesses and not-for-profits engaged in community development in southwest Yonkers, New York. He was the second Spiritual Leader of the White Plum Asangha (after Maezumi Roshi died) He is a former aerospace engineer who worked on manned missions to Mars at McDonnell-Douglas during the 1970s. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from UCLA.

In addition to training in Zen Buddhism under Taizan Maezumi Roshi in Los Angeles, he studied with HakuunYasutani Roshi and Koryu Osaka Roshi. He studied with Krisnamurti, received a mantra from Swami Asheshananda in the Vedanta tradition, took hand with Sheik Lex Nur Hixon in Islam, and considers Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi his current spiritual guide. Roshi Glassman has empowered many teachers and clergy in both the Soto Zen and Zen Peacemaker Order traditions. He is also the author of Bearing Witness and Instructions to the Cook, a translation and commentary on Dogen Zenji's Tenzo Kyokun.

Taizan Maezumi Roshi

Maezumi Roshi was ordained as a Soto Zen monk at the age of eleven. He received degrees in Oriental Literature and Philosophy from Komazawa University and studied at Sojiji, one of the two main Soto monasteries in Japan. He received Dharma transmission from Hakujun Kuroda, Roshi, in 1955. He also received approval as a teacher (Inka ) from both Koryu Osaka, Roshi, and Hakuun Yasutani, Roshi, thus becoming a Dharma successor in three lines of Zen.

In 1956, Maezumi Roshi came to Los Angeles as a priest at Zenshuji Temple, the Soto Headquarters of the United States. He devoted his life to laying a firm foundation for the growth of Zen Buddhism in the West.

In 1967, he established the Zen Center of Los Angeles. ZCLA was the first practice center of the White Plum Asanga, named after his father Baian Hakujun Daiosho. The White Plum Asanga has grown to include 14 additional Zen temples and practices centers in the United States, Mexico,

and Europe. Six temples are formally registered with Soto Headquarters in Japan.

In 1976, Maezumi Roshi established the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values, a non-profit educational organization formed to promote scholarship on Buddhism in its historical, philosophical, and cultural ramifications. The Institute also publishes a book series with the University of Hawaii Press devoted to the translation of East Asian Buddhist classics and presentations of scholarly works from its conferences. Maezumi Roshi also founded the Dharma Institute in Mexico City.