As of 2024, we are meeting every other Tuesday from 7:00 - 9:00 pm at the "Partners in Wellness" Annex at the Desert Hills Presbyterian Church, 56750 Mountain View Trail Yucca Valley (View Google Map). Please email mojavezen@gmail.com if you'd like to join and to find out which Tuesdays we'll be meeting.
Mojave Zen is a satellite group of Yokoji Zen Mountain Center. The group is led by Jim Lakey, a Zen teacher and Dharma-successor of Tenshin Fletcher Roshi.
Everyone is welcome, regardless of experience. Please email me at mojavezen@gmail.com if you'd like to come for the first time. Wear something comfortable. If you have something you like to sit on for meditation, bring it along. We have a few meditation benches and cushions for people to try out. We also have lots of padded chairs.
We ask for a $1 donation per person which goes to the church for the use of the space.
For those who have been before and don't require instruction, please be in your seat by 6:55 pm at the latest. The meditation period starts at 7:00 pm promptly.
Please park in the dirt lot beside the annex (the freestanding classroom-type structure on the right hand side of the church). See map below.
We will sit for two 30 minute periods of seated Zen meditation, or Zazen as it's known in Japanese. Zen practice involves silent seated meditation. We sit together in silence and follow the breath and experience our life as it is. Instruction will be given at 6:40 pm each night for those who are new or would like further instruction before the sitting periods begin at 7:00 pm.
In between each sitting period, we will do walking meditation, or kinhin. This is a continuation of meditation and also a chance to stretch your legs a little as we walk first slowly, following each breath, and then a little faster. Again, instruction will be given!
After we finish both meditation periods, we have a cup of tea together and then sit down for a short talk or discussion on Zen practice.
Mojave Zen is led by Jim Lakey. Jim is a Soto Zen priest and teacher in the White Plum lineage. He moved to California from the UK in 2008 to train with Tenshin Fletcher Roshi at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center. Jim completed his formal studies in 2014 and received Dharma Transmission (authorization to teach) in 2021. He lives in Yucca Valley with his wife, Melissa, and they work together making wedding films as The Quail & The Dove.
Email me at mojavezen@gmail.com — I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
