Treeleaf Zendo
an all-digital practice place for Zen practitioners who cannot easily commute to a Zen Center due to health concerns, living in remote areas, or childcare, work, and family needs, and seeks to provide Zazen sittings, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Soto Zen Buddhist Sangha. The focus is Shikantaza “Just Sitting” Zazen as instructed by the 13th-century Japanese master, Eihei Dogen.
Treeleaf Sangha is a multicultural Zen Buddhist Community opened in 2006 in which people of all socio-economic classes, nationalities, races, ages, creeds, genders, sexual orientation and identification, and physical abilities discover shared humanity by direct experience of one another’s lives. We are open to all.
We commit ourselves to cultivating a practice in diversity and multiculturalism by incorporating into our practice the dissolving of all barriers that perpetuate the suffering of separation, prejudice, and discrimination. We intend to expand and develop our awareness of the ways we are conditioned to separate ourselves by socioeconomic class, nationality, race, age, creed, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability and other forms of identity.
Many Treeleaf Sangha priests are members of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.
PRACTICE OPPORTUNITIES
Find out how and when you can join the sangha for practice
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Treeleaf Weekly Zazenkai
Join the sangha for practice at our weekly zazenkai. We begin with a short service, then sit for two periods…
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Treeleaf Monthly Zazenkai
Join the sangha for our long monthly zazenkai. This meeting lasts for 3 hours, and it includes a long ceremony,…
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Treeleaf Monthly Ryaku Fusatsu
From the time of the early Buddhist sangha, monks and nuns would gather at the time of the full and…
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Treeleaf Sangha, 2026 Jukai Ceremony
The time for our annual Jukai – undertaking of the Bodhisattva precepts – ceremony is here! Learn hot to participate
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Beyond Words and Letters Book Club : Stories of the Lotus Sutra by Gene Reeves
Join Treeleaf’s Book Club reading of Gene Reeve’s “Stories of the Lotus Sutra”.
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Living the Precepts in Today’s World: A Discussion on the Bodhisattva Precepts
Our last monthly precept study meeting and dharma talk for this Ango period will take place on Saturday, December 20th,…
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Weekly Precepts Study Meeting
A weekly Zoom meeting focused on studying the precepts, in preparation for Jukai, begins next Wednesday, December 10th.
Daily Practice
The Practice Calendar offers a complete list of all the daily sittings we offer at Treeleaf, plus all the regular weekly and monthly events, and anything else scheduled. You are invited to join anything that fits your schedule. No experience is needed.
Staying Connected
At Treeleaf, we constantly try to find ways to connect with each other and to engage more with Zen practice as an expression of every day life. Have a look at some of our practice groups, focused on different topics.
Retreats and Events
Treeleaf has a rich practice schedule that includes daily zazen, weekly and monthly Zazenkai, which include liturgy and Dharma talks, yearly retreats, held fully online. You can find details about these events by clicking below
Roshi Jundo Cohen:
Moderation, Simplicity, Balance
AN OFFERING
from
ROSHI JUNDO COHEN
What is the practice of “just enough”? What is the role of simplicity and moderation? The practice of putting down desires in excess and knowing simplicity and balance frees us of the “little self”. With less desire comes less frustration; less anger because we are balanced and moderate. This puts the “little self” out of a job…
Treeleaf Zendo Podcast
New episode available
BODHISATTVAS IN ACTION
Until peace and sanity return, so that our Treeleaf members and visiting friends may show their support for everyone in this world affected by war, especially our friend and Ukrainian priest Washin and other Zen practitioners in the Ukraine Sangha or from other places where armed conflict makes life challenging, we invite everyone to join us for peaceful sitting every Sunday. The event is hosted by our priests Washin and Kotei.
The sitting period is 40 minutes, and we chant together the Heart Sutra in various languages, including Ukrainian and Russian.
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Bodhisattva Action: Lending a Hand
We ask our members who come to our forum, to only do so after they have dedicated a “Lend-A-Hand” act of charity, aid and good works, whether big or small, within the prior 24 hours…
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Treeleaf’s Engaged and Charitable Projects Center
A Treeleaf forum for the creative development of charitable and socially engaged projects and practices seeking to aid and assist our fellow sentient beings in this world. We will introduce from time to time…
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One Plate, One Planet
| Get Involved If you’re looking for a simple way to start taking action now, to do something that can benefit the entire planet, here’s a suggestion from a Treeleaf sangha member. Our friend…
NOTICE BOARD
- December 24th – Sign Up for the Book Club reading of Geene Reeves’ “Stories of the Lotus Sutra”
- January 3d – New Treeleaf Podcast Episode Available
- January 4th – Weekly Zazenkai with Dharma Talk and Discussion
- January 6th – Jukai Study – New Precept Discussion
- January 6th – The Jukai Ceremony Guide is here!
- January 7th – Weekly Precept Discussion Meeting
- January 12th – Jundo Roshi’s Recommended Forum Discussions
- January 14th – Weekly Precept Discussion Meeting
- January 18th – Treeleaf Sangha Jukai Ceremony
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Jukai Ceremony at Treeleaf Sangha
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Our 2026 Treeleaf Jukai (Undertaking the Precepts) Celebration was held on Sunday, January 18th!
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In Loving Memory of Kōjitsu Brett Williams
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Our friend Koji was an example of resilience, endurance and dedication to the practice of the dharma. He was always…
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Tōsei 東西 Shoemaker: Of Priests and Potters
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For centuries, Zen Buddhists have been supported by, and been, artists, craftspeople and artisans. They make the beautiful implements that…
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2025 Home-Leaving Ordination of Kojitsu, Shinkon & Koriki
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We are very content to make this announcement, and ask everyone sitting with our sangha to join in its celebration. Our…
DHARMA
Lessons, preachings, and beseechings by Jundo and our priests
“Whether it’s a server glitch, a restless mind in Zazen, or life not going the way we hoped, the more we cling, the more we struggle.
In Shikantaza, we practice meeting each moment just as it is, not trying to fix or escape it. The path is delicate, like filigree, subtle and beautiful, but easily bent when we lose attention.
So we return — again and again — to this breath, this body, this fleeting moment. Not to hold it in place, but to meet it fully, and let it go.”
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Sit Zazen as a Photon
Some time ago, I learned a strange fact about time: The photon, because it is light, travelling by definition at the speed of light, is…
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Jundo Offers: The Answer to -All- Complaints about Zazen
In Just Sitting, one can leap through the little self’s selfish wants and desires to a wholeness free of all little wants and desires. The wholeness…
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Hard Way, Gentle Way, Middle Way, Non-Way
Whether hard path or gentle path, this path is ultimately a non-path of non-practice. There is ultimately nothing to attain that has not been here…
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How To Travel In Space Without a Rocket
Here, I will tell you the secret to travel across the cosmos, all without need for a rocket, not bound by the speed of light.…
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Just Sitting and Being With Serious Health Issues
To live with serious illness such as dialysis-dependent kidney failure, heart disease, and pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lungs) is not simply to endure…
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Bowing to the Harm Doer
Sometimes I am asked why, in some of our ceremonies such as Jukai (Undertaking the Precepts) we bow to our parents even if, in some…
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How to Stop Time
I will now teach you how to stop time, halting right in its tracks the rush of passing time from yesterday to today to tomorrow.…
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223 – Precepts, Not Politics
In our Sangha, we believe in upholding the Precepts and our Bodhisattva Vows to save suffering sentient beings, but we avoid debate and discussions of…