Sunday Morning Zazen
with the Bozeman Zen Group
8:00 – 9:15 am
This group meets our need for shared practice using the Zoom platform. Instructions on how to use Zoom may be found here. You can also use this link to attend this meeting.
Our time together will include meditation, chanting, and a Dharma talk, activity, or practice.
Anyone and everyone is welcome – newcomers and beginners are always welcome, just let us know if you are new and we’ll make introductions and offer instructions.
For more about the Bozeman Zen Group and our teacher, Karen DeCotis, please click here to go to our website.
Please note: these Sunday mornings will not be held when the Dharma Center is hosting a weekend retreat. Please check this website’s calendar if you’d like to be sure of the meeting. Thank you.
Our calendar program automatically offers links to other websites in the bottom corners of the page. Note: these events maybe very out of date. Please check the date carefully when using these arrows to access other events. Thank you.
Meditation Instruction
with Ying Chen
April 28
10-11:30 AM
via Butte Insight Community’s Zoom
The Bozeman and Butte Insight Communities invite you to a morning of meditation, instruction, and conversation with Ying Chen. Ying Chen was born in China and immigrated to US as a young adult. She took refuge with Venerable Ji Ru in 1995. After coming to the US, she first practiced Chinese Mahayana Buddhism. Since 2001, she’s been drawn to the Theravada tradition and has been practicing primarily under the guidance of Gil Fronsdal at his center in California. Ying is a graduate of the Sati Center Chaplaincy program and Local Dharma Leader program from Insight Meditation Center (IMC). She currently facilitates the IMC support group for people living with illness and co-leads IMC’s Asian Dharma Circle with Lilu Chen.
NOTE: This is NOT the BDC Zoom number. Please use the Butte Zoom Meeting#: 567 641 174 (or click button below) and enter password: 628468
Bozeman Zen Group
Sundays
5-6:30 PM
In person Only
This is an opportunity to practice in the Soto Zen style with our forms and practices. All welcome; no prior experience needed.
Contact bznzen@gmail.com for more info.
Morning Zazen
ONLINE with Bozeman Zen Group
Weekdays, 6 – 6:30 AM
The Bozeman Zen Group is offering online, morning zazen (silent, sitting meditation) to all interested. You do not have to be a Zen practitioner to participate. Start your morning practicing intention!
Schedule:
6:00 AM: Robe chant, Bell rings three times
Zazen for 25 minutes, bell rings once
6:25 AM Chant Pali refuges.
Drop-In Meditations
Mondays-Fridays
12:00 – 1:00 pm
(except holidays)
Everyone is welcome to attend. A bell-ringer will open and close the session with three bells and will ring one bell at 12:30. The meditation will be in silence, but people are welcome to connect before and after each session.
Drop-in meditations are offered free of any charge, as a communal support to practice. Come and go (quietly) as you need to, latecomers welcome.
Everyone is welcome at Dharma Center programs and resident group meetings.
The Dharma Center is an inclusive, safe refuge for all ages, all sizes, all colors, all sexes, all religions, all beliefs, all cultures, all types, of all people.
Afternoon Meditation
5:20-6:00 PM
Mondays & Fridays
IN PERSON ONLY
Join us for this drop-in sit hosted by the Bozeman Zen Group. We will sit silently for 35 minutes and then do a short chant. All welcome!
Meditation & Mindfulness Practice in the tradition of Plum Village
& the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh
Meets IN PERSON
Mondays, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
facilitated by Steve Allison-Bunnell
“Engaged Buddhism” is Thich Nhat Hanh’s name for practicing mindfulness in order to manifest joy, peace, and compassion in our relationships and daily lives.
Each week, we do sitting and walking meditation together, and learn from each other by sharing our experiences in the practice. First Mondays of the month, we recite the Plum Village Five Mindfulness Trainings, and other weeks we read and study Thay’s teachings.
All are welcome, and we offer brief instruction and guided meditations to develop our practice and nurture sangha energy.
Please visit Plum Village online for more about our tradition, including practice resources and talks.
Open Way Sanghas are the family of Plum Village practice groups here in Montana, offering semi-annual retreats and days of mindfulness in Missoula, Kalispell, and Helena.
Steve Allison-Bunnell (True Spring Branch) is an ordained member of the Core Community of the Plum Village Order of Interbeing.
Email bozemantnh@gmail.com with questions or to join our email list and receive Zoom links and weekly announcements.
Morning Zazen
ONLINE with Bozeman Zen Group
Weekdays, 6 – 6:30 AM
The Bozeman Zen Group is offering online, morning zazen (silent, sitting meditation) to all interested. You do not have to be a Zen practitioner to participate. Start your morning practicing intention!
Schedule:
6:00 AM: Robe chant, Bell rings three times
Zazen for 25 minutes, bell rings once
6:25 AM Chant Pali refuges.
BIC Drop-In Meditation
Meeting Our Lives with Kindhearted Awareness
Tuesdays
10:30 – 11:30 AM
Led by Suzanne Colón
UPDATE: This meditation is offered over Zoom. Instructions on how to use Zoom may be found here. You can also use this link to access BDC remote meetings.
This program shares the meditation practices that expand our capacity to meet life with an open, stable heart-mind. Guided meditations will vary week to week, providing an opportunity to try new practices and ways of working with life’s challenges. The four heart qualities known as the Brahma Viharas (Noble Abodes) will be cultivated with variations on ways to evoke and develop them: Kindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity.
Program Schedule:
10:25 – Zoom Room Opens
10:30 – 10:55 – Guided Meditation
Collective Sharing of Delights or Difficulties
Short Reading: Guidance in the Buddhist Practices of the Heart
Discussion until 11:30
Following the guided meditation, we’ll give each other the opportunity to connect, to be supported in times of difficulty, and be witnessed in times of joy. The collective “Sharing of Delights or Difficulties” is formal practice of briefly naming a sorrow or difficulty, a joy or delight, and having the group witness and resonate with each other’s experience.
No prior meditation experience is needed to attend this program. Please make every effort to arrive by 10:30.
This program is offered freely, which means this is a gift to the community, and you are encouraged to pay the gift forward to help cover costs to the degree that you can. This is a program of the Bozeman Insight Community (BIC), offered to the entire Dharma Center community and general public.
Everyone is welcome at Dharma Center programs and resident group meetings.
The Dharma Center is an inclusive, safe refuge for all ages, all sizes, all colors, all sexes, all religions, all beliefs, all cultures, all types, of all people.
Drop-In Meditations
Mondays-Fridays
12:00 – 1:00 pm
(except holidays)
Everyone is welcome to attend. A bell-ringer will open and close the session with three bells and will ring one bell at 12:30. The meditation will be in silence, but people are welcome to connect before and after each session.
Drop-in meditations are offered free of any charge, as a communal support to practice. Come and go (quietly) as you need to, latecomers welcome.
Everyone is welcome at Dharma Center programs and resident group meetings.
The Dharma Center is an inclusive, safe refuge for all ages, all sizes, all colors, all sexes, all religions, all beliefs, all cultures, all types, of all people.
Pali Canon Study Group
Tuesdays 1:15-2:15 PM
Although Bozeman Dharma Center houses groups from multiple lineages, one thing we all have in common is a reliance on the teachings of the Buddha. The Pali Canon is recognized as the earliest written record of the Buddha’s teachings, given before the Buddhist community divided into different schools. This peer-led study group will begin by tackling readings from the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha. You do not need to own the book to participate and do not need to commit to attending every week. Already having a practice and familiarity with the Dharma will be helpful.
Basic Schedule
1:15 Short sit
1:30 Read portion of Pali Canon with discussion afterward
2:10 Short sit and closing chant
MindSpace
A Meditation Group for adults Ages 18 – 40
Tuesdays 6:30 – 7:45 pm
In Person Only
MindSpace is an open community gathering of young adults 18-40 years of age. Through meditation we foster a clear mind, compassionate heart, and develop an intimacy with human experiences. We encourage and support each other in daily practice to embody mindfulness in everyday life.
We come together with open hearts and curious, non-judgmental minds to explore meditation practices and share experiences in bringing practice to daily life. Together we create a supportive community, including everyone– from every background, race, gender identity, orientation and ability.
Please email info@bozemandharmacenter.org if childcare would be helpful for you to attend this group.
Meeting Structure
6:25: Gather
6:30: 30 minute meditation
7:00: Reading and Discussion
7:45: End
We choose books that are easy to pick up at any point. Drop-ins are welcome! You do not need to have own the book to participate.
We are currently reading Training in Compassion by Norman Fischer (Zen tradition)
Examples of other books we’ve read:
— No Self, No Problem by Anam Thubten (Tibetan tradition)
— Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach (Insight tradition)
Current Facilitators
Kerry Neal has practiced in the Zen tradition for 8 years. She sits with the Bozeman Zen Group. She helped start MindSpace in 2016 and facilitated until early 2019. She loves the lifelong nature that is meditation practice and working mindfulness into everyday life.
Mary Corelli has 12 years of practice in the Zen and Insight Meditation traditions. She is a mother and a therapist. Mary is a Certified Mindfulness Teacher through Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield’s two year training program. She emphasizes ecological awareness in practice.
Allison Howe has 4 years of meditation practice and has been practicing regularly with MindSpace since 2022. She is an experienced group facilitator and therapist in private practice, helping clients bring mindful awareness into daily life and deepening their relationship with themselves through an embodied sense of openness, compassion, and curiosity.
Palyul Tibetan Buddhist Sangha
Meditation/Book Reading Group Tuesdays 7-8 PM via Zoom
Note that the Zoom link for Palyul (below) is not the same as the regular BDC Zoom link.
Morning Zazen
ONLINE with Bozeman Zen Group
Weekdays, 6 – 6:30 AM
The Bozeman Zen Group is offering online, morning zazen (silent, sitting meditation) to all interested. You do not have to be a Zen practitioner to participate. Start your morning practicing intention!
Schedule:
6:00 AM: Robe chant, Bell rings three times
Zazen for 25 minutes, bell rings once
6:25 AM Chant Pali refuges.
Drop-In Meditations
Mondays-Fridays
12:00 – 1:00 pm
(except holidays)
Everyone is welcome to attend. A bell-ringer will open and close the session with three bells and will ring one bell at 12:30. The meditation will be in silence, but people are welcome to connect before and after each session.
Drop-in meditations are offered free of any charge, as a communal support to practice. Come and go (quietly) as you need to, latecomers welcome.
Everyone is welcome at Dharma Center programs and resident group meetings.
The Dharma Center is an inclusive, safe refuge for all ages, all sizes, all colors, all sexes, all religions, all beliefs, all cultures, all types, of all people.
Tergar Bozeman
Joy of Living Practice Group
Wednesdays, 5:30 – 7 PM (Mountain Time)
Tea Social Time: 5-5:25
In person and via Zoom
Group/Practice Co-Coordinator: Sheila Devitt & Janet Dochnahl Email: bozeman@tergar.org
No Registration Necessary
Ter is a Tibetan word for treasure, Gar means gathering. So, Tergar can be understood as a place where people come together to find the sublime treasure … that helps us calm our minds, open our hearts and awaken wisdom.
We are a practice group within the Tergar International Meditation Community under the guidance of Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Master Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Based on the Joy of Living teachings of Mingyur Rinpoche, our weekly meditation group explores awareness meditation techniques designed to calm the mind, open the heart, and awaken wisdom. Each week we will explore a different topic, using guided meditations, video teachings from Rinpoche, short readings from his first book, The Joy of Living, as well as group discussion and ways to apply these practices to daily life.
We are using Mingyur Rinpoche’s book The Joy of Living as a supplement to our sessions to give greater context to the practices we share. It can be purchased by order at Country Bookshelf or online at Amazon.
If you are new to meditation and would like to learn more, or if you are a seasoned practitioner and would like to deepen your practice, please join us as we learn how to transform the challenges of day-to-day life into sources of joy and inner peace. Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings offer a fresh, accessible approach to these ancient practices. Drop in any time. All are welcome.
Monthly Session Topics
Beginning Feb 28 to May 1st we will do a “deep dive” into “Opening the Heart” – Loving-kindness and Compassion practices.
When meditating on loving-kindness and compassion, we begin by learning to appreciate ourselves which enables us to understand the basic human desires to be happy and free from suffering. This lays the foundation for cultivating loving-kindness and compassion for others, through which we develop a deeply connected relationship with all life.
During these months we will deeply practice lovinging kindness and compassion for Oneself, for a Loved one, for a Difficult one, and for Neutral ones/All Beings.
All are welcome to join us in this exploration of these beautiful teachings and practices.
Those who are subscribed to our weekly newsletter will receive additional information and practice tools related to the topic.
General Schedule
5:00 – 5:25 Tea Social Time
5:15 Newcomer Instruction
5:25 Gather
5:30 Opening Aspiration
Participants check in on their practice
Meditation (15-20 minutes)
Group discussions on particular questions related to the current topic.
Meditation (15-20 minutes)
Q&A
7:00 Closing Dedication
* We do two 10 min walking meditations every 3rd week in the Practice only session
Learn more about Tergar International! Find more information on The Joy of Living course here. Learn more about Tergar Bozeman here.
Morning Zazen
ONLINE with Bozeman Zen Group
Weekdays, 6 – 6:30 AM
The Bozeman Zen Group is offering online, morning zazen (silent, sitting meditation) to all interested. You do not have to be a Zen practitioner to participate. Start your morning practicing intention!
Schedule:
6:00 AM: Robe chant, Bell rings three times
Zazen for 25 minutes, bell rings once
6:25 AM Chant Pali refuges.
Drop-In Meditations
Mondays-Fridays
12:00 – 1:00 pm
(except holidays)
Everyone is welcome to attend. A bell-ringer will open and close the session with three bells and will ring one bell at 12:30. The meditation will be in silence, but people are welcome to connect before and after each session.
Drop-in meditations are offered free of any charge, as a communal support to practice. Come and go (quietly) as you need to, latecomers welcome.
Everyone is welcome at Dharma Center programs and resident group meetings.
The Dharma Center is an inclusive, safe refuge for all ages, all sizes, all colors, all sexes, all religions, all beliefs, all cultures, all types, of all people.
Dependent Origination and the Path to Freedom
Five Thursdays: April 4- May 2
7-8:30 PM
taught by Suzanne Colón
There’s an essential paradox at the heart of Buddhist practice: We must get exquisitely intimate with the moment-to-moment mind-body experience of the (small, relative) self in order to transcend it. The boat to ‘the far shore’ is built of our messy, frustrating stuff of life on this shore. The way beyond our reactivity, our back pain, our nagging inner commentary is to equanimously and compassionately embrace it. This is Alan Watts’ “backwards law” and the meaning of Dogen’s Genjo Koan.
This class will begin with the teachings on the Five Aggregates and build up to an understanding of the chain of Dependent Origination – the Buddha’s map for what’s going on in human experience, how we get caught and why we suffer. We will explore the practices that intimately “study the self” and how those lead to “forgetting the self.” The chain becomes a liberative cycle of expanding wisdom and freedom.
Each week there will be a suggested home practice to deepen our experiential knowledge of the concepts. The series is designed to be sequential but anyone is welcome to attend sporadically or singly as their schedule and interests allow.
This class, designed for meditators with some experience, will be offered in our weekly Thursday sangha meetings on a drop-in basis. We welcome anyone in the community who’d like to explore the nuances of these intricate teachings of the Buddha’s.
Class Schedule
April 4: The Five Aggregates and the Importance of Vedana (feeling tone)
April 11: Perception, Mis-perception, Mental Formations and the mind’s reactivity
April 18: Further links in the chain: how we get hooked and how we can unhook
April 25: The Chain of Dependent Origination and how it illustrates the Four Noble Truths
May 2: The Liberative chain spiraling toward wisdom, insight, compassion and freedom
Drop in to one, some or all five sessions of the series. No prior registration is necessary.
Zoom connection will be available as per usual on our Thursday evenings.
This course is offered on a dana basis, meaning it is our gift to you, freely offered. We gratefully accept support and gratitude to pay the bills and keep the sangha going. (For those that want it: the suggestion donation would be $5-15 per session)
The exception is the evening of March 22 – all funds will go to Pamela Weiss, our guest teacher.
Morning Zazen
ONLINE with Bozeman Zen Group
Weekdays, 6 – 6:30 AM
The Bozeman Zen Group is offering online, morning zazen (silent, sitting meditation) to all interested. You do not have to be a Zen practitioner to participate. Start your morning practicing intention!
Schedule:
6:00 AM: Robe chant, Bell rings three times
Zazen for 25 minutes, bell rings once
6:25 AM Chant Pali refuges.