Upaya Zen Center

07/18/2026

It's Roshi Joan's birthday month! An auspicious 84th, Roshi celebrates the completion of her 1,008th month on July 30th. Join us in wishing our beloved Roshi a happy continuation day here:

This July, our beloved Roshi Joan Halifax, founder and abbot of Upaya Zen Center, turns 84. In several Eastern traditions, this is considered an especially auspicious age…

07/17/2026

Roshi Joan has written another essay, "Doing the Impossible: The Four Bodhisattva Vows." You can read it here on Upaya's blog and explore her many other essays released over the past month:

There is a story I have carried with me for some decades, and it gets truer every year. The Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi, a man of considerable learning…

07/17/2026

Next weekend's Calligraphy program will be streamed online for FREE. We hope you will join us and participate in the rare opportunity to practice and learn with Sensei Kazuaki Tanahashi. Sensei Kaz will be joined by Dr. Bruce Linton.

Register here:

Soon after you register, you will receive an email with a link to the Resource Page, where all of the recordings and readings are listed. It may take a few minutes to reach you. If the program has…

07/16/2026

Want to stay close to what's happening at Upaya, and to be connected to this sangha wherever you are? Our weekly newsletter is the best way, with sangha news, programs, and teachings, once a week, straight to your inbox. Sign up here:

Upaya publishes a weekly email newsletter with program highlights, essays, insights, teachings, poems, photos, and timely information about Upaya's many offerings. You can subscribe below…

07/15/2026

It is a great privilege to have Sensei Koshin Flint Sparks with us to give tonight's Dharma Talk, "Caught in the Self-Centered Dream." We hope to see you there!

Join us in person, or online here via YouTube Live: https://ow.ly/bgjZ50ZnPkh

07/14/2026

We want to ensure "The World We Know is Possible" retreat reaches as many BIPOC practitioners as possible, and we're asking for your help in spreading the word. Please share it widely!

Exhale deeply in Upaya’s first retreat designed for Black, Indigenous and People Of Color (BIPOC) that creates a refuge of belonging, connectedness, and joy…

07/13/2026

Thank you to all who joined Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi yesterday for a deep and powerful teaching on WISDOM and WISE DISCERNMENT.

As Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi shared, The Measure of Our Humanity is such an important series during a time of harm that undermines the humanity we all share. We are very grateful for the growing community that has come together throughout this series.

All past sessions are available and can be accessed by registering for FREE (with donations appreciated) here: https://www.upaya.org/program/the-measure-of-our-humanity-full-series-online-2026/

07/12/2026

Now in its third year, Inner Practice of Medicine is a gathering of remarkable physicians from around the country, and is currently underway at Upaya.

Together, they form a community of care that continues to grow year after year. We are so grateful to Sensei Wendy Dainin Lau, MD, Roshi Joan, PhD, Clayton Genryu Dalton, MD, Elena Brower, and all of the participants.

Read reflections from our physician participants this year:

https://www.upaya.org/2026/07/reflections-inner-practice-medicine-2026/

07/12/2026

TODAY Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi will join us for The Measure of Our Humanity.
WHEN: 11 am – 12:30 pm MDT (recording available) FREE, ONLINE

In this talk, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi will explore the major threats we face today to our sense of a shared humanity and to sketch, at least in outline, a path away from the abyss toward the kind of world we wish to shape here and now and for future generations.

Wisdom involves the ability to see beneath the surface of immediate events into the deep underlying currents that entail future harm, to envision more…