Crestone Mountain Zen Center

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Crestone, CO
Crestone Mountain Zen Center

Crestone Mountain Zen Center is a Zen Buddhist monastic practice and retreat center in Colorado.

Crestone Mountain Zen Center offers residential training in Zen meditation and practice under the guidance of Head Teacher Zentatsu Baker Roshi, Dharma Heir of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Resident Teacher, Zenki Dillo Sensei, Dharma Heir of Baker Roshi. Zen practitioners are welcome to join the residential practice as students or apply for programs such as the annual 90-day winter Practice Period, Se

sshins, Seminars, Weekend Sittings and Work Practice Weeks. Crestone Retreat Center offers solo and group retreats throughout the year except during our annual three-month monastic Practice Period (January 9 – April 28). Crestone is one of the most remote and dramatically beautiful places in North America. Nestled against the rugged 14,000 foot peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Southern Colorado and surrounded by 240 acres of Piñon Pine and Juniper forest, the beauty and seclusion of our Center provide a special environment for contemplation and inquiry, or for focusing on writing or other work projects.

09/05/2026

What does it mean to awaken – if we’re not simply the body, the mind, or our thoughts?

Tomorrow, Tatsudo Nicole Baden Roshi will explore this question in the first Living the Question, a new series of live Zen talks shaped by questions arising from the conversations on her YouTube channel.

The talk includes a teaching and a short practice, followed by an opportunity to ask Nicole your own questions in the live chat.

📆Sunday, September 6
10:00 am MT · 18:00 CET
Live on YouTube

Join us live — link in bio.

07/09/2026

A few hours. A shared space. A chance to settle.

Join us for an online Half-Day Sit—three hours of shared zazen, walking meditation, and gentle somatic guidance led by Dharma Teacher Laurie Nusbaum together with Practice Guides Amy Robertson and Sarabinh Levy-Brightman.

Whether this is your first extended sit or part of your regular practice, you are warmly welcome.

📅 Sunday, July 25
🕒 8–11 am MT
💻 Online

Register via the link in our bio.

06/17/2026

There are many ways to come to Crestone Mountain Zen Center.

This summer, artist Kristina Davies Kristina Davies joined us in residence.

Watching creativity and practice meet has been a quiet joy. What has emerged on her canvas carries something of this valley itself, an invitation to slow down, pay attention, and see more clearly.

For artists seeking a similar experience, our Artist Residency Retreat offers a dedicated space for creative work and practice in a setting that naturally supports reflection, presence and discovery.

We are grateful for Kristina’s presence and all she has shared with our community.

05/24/2026

In this new Q&A, Tatsudo Nicole Baden talks about Zen mantras, or “turning phrases” – and how a simple sentence can become an anchor in meditation and daily life. As something to inhabit.

Why do certain phrases stay with us long after meditation ends? And how can you find one that becomes ”medicine“ for your own mind?

The full video is now on YouTube. Link in bio. 🌿

05/17/2026

What if overwhelm isn’t something you have to “fight” — but something you can reframe?

In this short clip, Tatsudo Nicole Baden shares a simple embodied approach for moving from overwhelm → challenge → possibility through what she calls GPS:

Grounding • Physical Center • Spaciousness

A small shift in the nervous system can change how we meet difficult situations.

Watch the full video on YouTube (link in bio.)

05/10/2026

What’s the difference between practicing generosity and truly acting from a generous state?

Trying to be generous can be an important practice — but it also reveals that generosity has not yet become natural.

Real transformation begins when generosity is no longer something we aim for, but something we genuinely act from.

In this short clip, Tatsudo Nicole Baden reflects on the difference between temporary experiences and lasting inner change.

Watch the full Q&A on YouTube (link in bio) 🌿

05/03/2026

“It’s too big to just be in one body.”

When astronaut Victor Glover described his experience of seeing Earth from space, it pointed to something hard to put into words.

What actually changes in a moment like that?
Is it the view — or the feeling it evokes?
And if it’s the feeling… could it be accessible, even here?

In her latest video, Tatsudo Nicole Baden explores a subtle shift in attention that opens up a very different sense of self — not as separate, but as part of a shared, living reality.

Watch the full video on YouTube — link in bio.

04/12/2026

What happens when a beautiful insight appears during meditation?

Do you stay with the practice — or write it down?

In this Q&A, Tatsudo Nicole Baden speaks about thoughts that arise in meditation that don’t feel like ordinary thinking.
She sometimes calls them “a postcard from the Buddha.”

In the conversation she touches on questions like:

What is the difference between discursive thinking and insight? What do we mean when we talk about stillness? When is something a living wish rather than a goal?

Find the full clip through the link in our bip.

04/11/2026

We’re hiring.

Crestone Mountain Zen Center is looking for an Office & Guest Relations Manager to help support the life of our practice community in the mountains of Colorado.

Could this be you?
Learn more through the link in our bio.
🌿

Address

2000 East Dream Way, PO Box 130
Crestone, CO
81131

Telephone

+17192560285

Website

http://www.dharmasangha.org/

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