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.

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.
🌿

02/15/2026

We often imagine meditation as something complex to master. But as Tatsudo Nicole Baden reminds us here, it begins with something much simpler: intention. Even the smallest intention to stay — instead of chasing every impulse — opens a rich inner landscape.
Meditation becomes a living exploration of the meeting point between what we intend and what resists.

✨ Registration for our live online course Essentials of Meditation closes tonight, and we begin in just 2 days.

If you’ve been feeling the call to deepen your practice, this is your invitation to step in.
Join us and explore meditation in a grounded, guided way.

All details and registration are available through the link in our bio.

We’d love to welcome you online. 🙏

02/13/2026

”Sometimes a tree is a tree. But sometimes a tree is a poem.“ —Suzuki Roshi

We usually move through the world naming and labeling everything — tree, sound, thought.

But what happens when we pause and actually feel our experience, before the labels?

In this Video Tatsudo Nicole Baden offers a glimpse into that shift—from thinking about life to meeting it directly. It’s subtle, but it can change how the world shows up.

If you want to explore questions like this more deeply, our online course Essentials of Meditation is a place to practice together. Registration is open for two more days — you’re warmly welcome to join us. 🌳

Link in bio.

02/11/2026

From Impermanence to Appreciation

Impermanence is usually what we try not to look at. But what if it’s exactly what makes this moment vivid — and worthy of our full appreciation?

In this short clip, Tatsudo Nicole Baden Roshi reflects on how meditation can transform our relationship to change, loss, and beauty — not by turning away, but by meeting life more directly.

If you’d like to continue this exploration in a guided way, you’re warmly invited to join our upcoming online course Essentials of Meditation.

🏔️4 days left to register –
Find all further information and registration options (sliding scale) 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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