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Monday 6pm - 7:30pm Thursday 7:45am - 8:45am

Pamsula Zen Center

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Iowa City, IA
Pamsula Zen Center

Twice weekly Meditation experience — Open to All.

In-Person @ Iowa City Zen Center & On-line

Mondays

5:00–6:15p CDT/6:00p–7:15p EDT/3:00–4:15 PDT

Morning Sits with ICZC – Online

2 Affiliates — Youngstown Zen Center & Pamsula Zen Westchester

Roshi is the Guiding Teacher for the Iowa City Zen Center Virtual (Zoom & Facebook Live)

Monday Evening

6:00 — Beginning Instruction/Informal Gathering*
(If You are new to Meditation/Zen style or want

a refresher)
6:10 — 6:35 Zazen/Seated Meditation*
6:35 Check-in/Dharma Talk/Discussion*

Friday Morning

7:30 — Informal Gathering*
7:35 — 8:00 Zazen/Seated Meditation*
8:00 — 8:05 Walking Meditation / Kinhin
8:05 — 8:30 Zazen/Seated Meditation*
8:30 — Four Bodhisattva Vows Chant

(*) — Possible to join or leave at any time. Donations suggested

Also: One-on-One session with Roshi Daiken available by request

Questions about Practice / Spiritual Guidance / Pastoral Counseling /
Rites of Passage: Taking Refuge (Jukai) / Novice Priest Ordination (Tokudo)

Baby Blessings / Weddings / Funerals / Memorial Services / Multi-Faith Celebrations / Public Talks

Reiki Sessions Available

We have an affiliate in Youngstown, OH: Youngstown Zen Center. There are monthly in-person & hybrid Meditations plus quarterly Zazenkai / Half-Day Meditation Session with Roshi Daiken in attendance.

08/31/2026

Meditation This Evening/Afternoon

To be wild is not to be crazy like a criminal or psychotic,
but “mad as the mist and snow.”
It has nothing to do with being childish or primitive, nor does it manifest as manic rebellion or self-damaging alienation.
The marks of wildness are a love of nature, a delight in silence,
a voice free to say spontaneous things, and a vivacious curiosity in the face of the unknown.
— Robert Bly, The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart

The “sacred” is not something primarily religious
or even spiritual.
It is not a quality we need to learn or to develop.
It belongs to the primary nature of all that is.
When our ancestors knew that everything they could se
was sacred,
this was not something taught but instinctively known.
It was as natural as sunlight, as necessary as breathing.
It is a fundamental recognition of the wonder,
beauty and divine nature of the world.
And from this sense of the sacred, real meaning is born,
the meaning that makes our hearts sing with the deepest purpose of being alive.
— Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Greetings Sangha,

We will meet this Evening/Afternoon, 31 August at 5:00 p.m. CDT— In-Person & Online — for our weekly Evening/Afternoon Meditation. (6:00 EDT / 3:00 PDT).

In-Person:
Iowa City Zen Center
1025 Fairchild Street
Iowa City

And, we will meet via Zoom:

PM for Zoom link

And, please join the Morning Sits — In-Person & Online. Please join us: 07:00 – 08:00 CDT; 08:00 – 09:00 EDT. PM for link.

Please join us as we express a love of nature, a delight in silence, a voice free to say spontaneous things, and a vivacious curiosity in the face of the unknown then experience a fundamental recognition of the wonder, beauty and divine nature of the world; feel the meaning that makes our hearts sing with the deepest purpose of being alive….

May You all be well & healthy.

Take good care.

Blessings,
Daiken

Begging Bowl: Please support our continued offerings—make a donation: Venmo https://www.venmo.com/Daiken-Nelson

Join Our Mailing List:
https://tinyurl.com/PZCMailListSignUp

08/24/2026

Conscious of the reality of evil and the tragedy of the individual life, and conscious, too, of the demand that life be conducted with decency.
― Dag Hammarskjöld

If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, — quieter, warmer.
― Dag Hammarskjöld

Greetings Sangha,

The above 2 quotes came from Rick, a person here in Iowa City who stands on a corner here reciting poetry & quotes to passersby.

We will meet tomorrow Evening/Afternoon, 24 August at 5:00 p.m. CDT— In-Person & Online — for our weekly Evening/Afternoon Meditation. (6:00 EDT / 3:00 PDT).

In-Person:
Iowa City Zen Center
1025 Fairchild Street
Iowa City

And, we will meet via Zoom:

PM for Zoom link

And, we will be back Zooming the Morning Sits beginning tomorrow. Please join us: 07:00 – 08:00 CDT; 08:00 – 09:00 EDT.

Please join us as we grow firmer, simpler, — quieter, warmer to respond to the demand that life be conducted with decency….

May You all be well & healthy.

Take good care.

Blessings,
Daiken

Begging Bowl: Please support our continued offerings—make a donation: Venmo https://www.venmo.com/Daiken-Nelson

Join Our Mailing List:
https://tinyurl.com/PZCMailListSignUp

08/22/2026

When You get that the self is just an idea and all wealth is impermanent, without any real substance,
one stops clinging to things.
And that, my Friend, is the most complete
‘generosity’ one can have.
— Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

I believe that at the center of the universe
there dwells a loving spirit who longs for all that's best
in all of creation,
a spirit who knows the great potential of each planet
as well as each person,
and little by little will love us into being more
than we ever dreamed possible.
That loving spirit would rather die than give up on any one of us.
— Fred Rogers

Greetings Friends,

And, we’re back.

Another road trip, this time in a U-Haul truck, with the remainder of my stuff. Now, once my soul catches up with me, am fully arrived in Iowa City.

Tomorrow, Sunday 23 August, I will lead the Iowa City Zen Center for our Sunday Morning Program In-Person as Resident Teacher & via Zoom.

In-Person at ICZC: 1025 Fairchild Street, Iowa City

Zazen begins at 09:00 CDT (10:00 EDT; 07:00 PDT).

Zazen (25”)
Kinhin (5”)
Zazen (25”)
then a brief service — Heart Sutra.

Dharma Talk begins at 10:00 CDT (11:00 EDT, 08:00 PDT)

I will be offering dokusan: an opportunity for discussion and exploration of one’s Practice, aspects of Zen (liturgy, history, readings), and perhaps koan study, all with an emphasis on realization and the personal integration of the Teachings.
The procedure will be introduced & explained.
Please consider participating in this dynamic form of our Practice.

PM for Zoom Link

Join us as we stop clinging to things, then generate the most complete ‘generosity’ one can have to become a loving spirit who longs for all that's best in all of creation….

Have a great weekend.

Be well.

Blessings,

Roshi Daiken

Begging Bowl: Please support our continued offerings—make a donation: Venmo. www.venmo.com/Daiken-Nelson

Join Our Mailing List:
https://tinyurl.com/PZCMailListSignUp

08/17/2026

You become.
It takes a long time.
That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily,
or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.
Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off,
and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby.
But these things don’t matter at all,
because once you are Real you can’t be ugly,
except to people who don’t understand.
— Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit

Greetings Sangha,

Reminder: We will NOT meet this Evening/Afternoon, 17 August at 5:00 p.m. CDT— In-Person & Online — for our weekly Evening/Afternoon Meditation. (6:00 EDT / 3:00 PDT).

And, Morning Sitting in conjunction with the Iowa City Zen Center will resume today, though it may not be Zoomed; the Morning jikido is not technically adept, so may not sign on. Definitely back next week.

Please endeavor to become Real….

May You all be well & healthy.

Take good care.

Blessings,
Daiken

Begging Bowl: Please support our continued offerings—make a donation: Venmo https://www.venmo.com/Daiken-Nelson

Join Our Mailing List:
https://tinyurl.com/PZCMailListSignUp

08/02/2026

Meditation Tomorrow Afternoon/Evening

You Reading This, Be Ready

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life––

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?
— William Stafford

Greetings Sangha,

We will meet tomorrow Evening/Afternoon, 3 August at 5:00 p.m. CDT— In-Person & Online — for our weekly Evening/Afternoon Meditation. (6:00 EDT / 3:00 PDT).

In-Person:
Iowa City Zen Center
1025 Fairchild Street
Iowa City

And, we will meet via Zoom:

PM for Zoom link

We will offer our Full Moon Transference of Merit intention.

Please join us as we contemplate the question: what can anyone give us greater than now….

May You all be well & healthy.

Take good care.

Blessings,
Daiken

Begging Bowl: Please support our continued offerings—make a donation: Venmo https://www.venmo.com/Daiken-Nelson

Join Our Mailing List:
https://tinyurl.com/PZCMailListSignUp

07/31/2026

Meditation Tomorrow — Youngstown Zen Center

There is no separate future waiting somewhere ahead,
because today is the future you once imagined.
Life does not have a final destination where you suddenly arrive,
like reaching the summit of Mount Everest.
Wherever you are today is the summit of your life in this moment.
When we are always waiting for a future climax—
success, happiness, achievement, or recognition—
we may miss the beauty of the life we already have now.
The art of living is to enjoy today and fully accept who you are,
what you are, and where you are.
From this attitude of acceptance and presence,
you can still work sincerely toward a better future—
but without sacrificing today.
— Chogyal Rinpoche

Greetings Friends,

Tomorrow, Saturday August 1st, I will lead The Youngstown Zen Center for our twice monthly hybrid Meditation — 09:00am – 10:00am EDT (08:00-09:00 CDT; 06:00-07:00 PDT

Zazen
Kinhin (Walking Meditation)
Zazen

It is possible to come & go as You need.

Local folks will meet in person at the First Unitarian/Universalist Church
1105 Elm Street Youngstown, OH 44505:
upstairs in the Youth Room (follow signs).

PM for Zoom Link

Please join us as we aspire to not miss the beauty of the life we already have now then to enjoy today and fully accept who we are, what we are, and where we are.…

Be well.

Blessings,

Roshi Daiken

Begging Bowl: Please support our continued offerings—make a donation: Venmo: www.venmo.com/Daiken-Nelson

Join Our Mailing List:
https://tinyurl.com/PZCMailListSignUp

07/27/2026

In order to be open we have to overcome
the fixation upon our self-willed identity.
We have to be able to relax the psychic and spiritual cramp
which knots us in the painful, vulnerable, helpless "I" that is all we know as ourselves.
— Thomas Merton

Inside the word "emergency" is "emerge";
from an emergency new things come forth.
The old certainties are crumbling fast,
but danger and possibility are Sisters.
― Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power

Greetings Sangha,

We will meet tomorrow Evening/Afternoon, 27 July at 6:00 p.m. EST— In-Person & Online — for our weekly Evening/Afternoon Meditation. (5:00 CST / 3:00 PST / 00.00 CEST).

Iowa City Zen Center
1025 Fairchild Street
Iowa City

And, we will meet via Zoom:

PM for Zoom link

Please join us as we understand from an emergency new things come forth, then we aspire to
overcome the fixation upon our self-willed identity to be able to relax the psychic and spiritual cramp which knots….

May You all be well & healthy.

Take good care.

Blessings,
Daiken

Begging Bowl: Please support our continued offerings—make a donation: Venmo https://www.venmo.com/Daiken-Nelson

Join Our Mailing List:
https://tinyurl.com/PZCMailListSignUp

07/19/2026

Intellectual loneliness isn't about wanting 'deep talks.
It's about realizing how few people can tolerate complexity.
It's noticing how quickly people rush to have an answer
not to understand, but to feel right.
It's watching people form entire worldviews off headlines,
vibes, and whatever reels told them last.
It's the silence that follows when you say something
that doesn't fit neatly into someone's script.
It's not arrogance. It's exhaustion,
from always having to code-switch
between what you actually think and what's safe to say around people who shut down at nuance.
And no one warns you: Once your brain learns to stretch,
small talk doesn't just bore you, it alienates you.
You're not looking for smart people.
You're looking for people who are still thinking.
— Author Unknown

Greetings Sangha,

We will meet tomorrow Evening/Afternoon, 20 July at 6:00 p.m. EST— In-Person & Online — for our weekly Evening/Afternoon Meditation. (5:00 CST / 3:00 PST / 00.00 CEST).

Iowa City Zen Center
1025 Fairchild Street
Iowa City

We will offer our monthly New Moon Memorial & Healing Ceremonies.
And, we will meet via Zoom:

PM for Zoom link

Please join us as we still think (and explore & experience for ourselves)….

May You all be well & healthy.

Take good care.

Blessings,
Daiken

Begging Bowl: Please support our continued offerings—make a donation: Venmo https://www.venmo.com/Daiken-Nelson

Join Our Mailing List:
https://tinyurl.com/PZCMailListSignUp

Daiken Nelson

07/18/2026

Try to Praise the Mutilated World

Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June's long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.

You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You've seen the refugees going nowhere,
you've heard the executioners sing joyfully.

You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.

Praise the mutilated world
and the gray feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.
— Adam Zagajewski (Translated by Clare Cavanagh)

Greetings Friends,

Tomorrow, Sunday 19 July, I will lead the Iowa City Zen Center for our Sunday Morning Program In-Person as Resident Teacher & via Zoom.

In-Person at ICZC: 1025 Fairchild Street, Iowa City

Zazen begins at 10:00 EDT (09:00 CDT; 07:00 PDT; 16.00 CEST).

Zazen (25”)
Kinhin (5”)
Zazen (25”)
then a brief service — Heart Sutra.

I will be offering dokusan: an opportunity for discussion and exploration of one’s Practice, aspects of Zen (liturgy, history, readings), and perhaps koan study, all with an emphasis on realizing and the personal integration of the Teachings.
The procedure will be introduced & explained.
Please consider participating in this dynamic form of our Practice.

PM for Zoom Link

Join us as we try to Praise the Mutilated World then realize our participation in it….

Have a great weekend.

Be well.

Blessings,

Roshi Daiken

Begging Bowl: Please support our continued offerings—make a donation: Venmo. www.venmo.com/Daiken-Nelson

Join Our Mailing List:
https://tinyurl.com/PZCMailListSignUp

06/30/2026

Dear Sangha,
I hope this finds You well and healthy.

Many of You know already, and many do not, but this Evening's Weekly Pamsula Zen Center Meditation & Discussion was the final event at Union Theological Seminary.

I will be departing NYC for Iowa City, IA (in the Midwest, near Chicago). I have been asked to be the Resident Teacher for the Iowa City Zen Center, for which I have been Guiding Teacher for 3 years, and where I began my Zen Practice 39 years ago.

Leaving NYC is bittersweet: I will miss Friends & Belovéds, Central Park, and all the fascinating activity. And yet, I am feeling like my time here has drawn to a close. I am looking forward to living somewhere greener, with a different pace. It has become clear that, at this moment in my Life, I desire a big change and a different energy — a reboot, as a Friend said.

So, I will make my way West this week, arriving on the 4th of July. I will begin my Residence on Sunday, 5 July, with the Sunday Morning Program plus some remarks.

Not much will change with the Pamsula Zen Center offerings. We will meet each Monday Evening/Afternoon/Morning (depending on where on the planet You are living).

We will discontinue the PZC Friday Morning Zazen. Instead, everyone is invited to join the Monday–Friday daily Sitting in conjunction with the Iowa City Zen Center — 40 minutes Zazen, Verse of the Robe, then a short Service. Invites, liturgy, and links will be provided.

We will continue to have quarterly Zazenkai / Half-Day Meditation Retreats in Iowa City, our Affiliate Youngstown Zen Center, and our other Affiliate, the Pamsula Zen White Plains Sitting Group. We will also offer our Urban Zazenkai in NYC, plus, tentatively, a Street Retreat in NYC every 6 months. Again, invites, liturgy, and links will be provided.

The Pamsula Zen Center began in November 2015. We started at St. Mary's Episcopal of Manhattanville, then moved to West End Presbyterian Church for 2 weeks before the pandemic bumped us. We continued online, picking up people from all over the country. We then sat for a while at Natural Essentials & Wellness, a Health store in Harlem. Then we landed at Union Theological Seminary for the past 3 years.

Thank You to the Admin and Staff at Union, and to all who have shown up to participate, in person or online.

I look forward to our continuation in a new configuration in the flow.

Be well.

Love & Blessings to You All.

Roshi Daiken

All are welcome to continue in-person or online.

Begging Bowl: Please support our continued offerings—make a donation: Venmo https://www.venmo.com/Daiken-Nelson

Join Our Mailing List:
https://tinyurl.com/PZCMailListSignUp

Address

1025 Fairchild Street
Iowa City, IA
52245

Opening Hours

Monday	6pm - 7:30pm
Thursday	7:45am - 8:45am

Website

http://www.pamsulazen.org/

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