Core Assumptions of Baker Roshi’s Teachings
„The joy of my life is practicing Zen with people.“ – Zentatsu Baker Roshi
Stillness and Non-duality
Zen Practice is the craft of mind and body realized through the experience of stillness and nonduality. My effort is to make these Zen Buddhist teachings conceptually, emotionally, and practically accessible to myself and to you: Us contemporary Western practitioners.
I am offering a ‚Path for Seekers‘: Someone who feels the questions about life.
The 4 Possibles
These teachings are based on the following basic assumptions, Four Possibles, without which practitioners would be unable to notice the Path as it unfolds in experience:
- Personal and Societal Transformation is Possible.
- Freedom from personal Mental Suffering is Possible.
- Living close to how we fundamentally exist is Possible.
- Living in Ways Beneficial to all sentience and things is Possible.
Exploring the Unknowable
Our teachings and practices are rooted in actual and ethical experience. It is an exploration of the views and the craft that can open us into the immediacy of how we and the world actually exist: As ‘Relationality‘, not ‘Reality‘. As activities, not entities. And as mostly unknown, mostly even unknowable. I’ll be so happy, if you join me in exploring the unknowable!
The Seeker
Sometimes, it’s a missing answer. Sometimes, it’s a missing question. Sometimes it’s a vague sense of missing something that’s missing – even if we don’t know what it is. The Seeker feels questions. Seeks them. Lives them. Baker Roshi’s talks a way to explore questions: The questions of Zen and the questions of Life.
This picture is taken during a Practice Period at the Crestone Mountain Zen Center, overlooking the vast San Luis Valley.
New Views, Experiential Shifts & the Craft of Zen
Weekly Zen
A journey from culture & art through the use of language to the heart of Zen Buddhism. Join Zentatsu Richard Baker Roshi in exploring the Mind of Meditation.
Enter the World of Zen Buddhism
…which barely fits into our cultural categories. Baker Roshi will shape language and develop perspectives that will help you see the world from a yogic point of view.
Develop the Craft of Practice
…which can be learned by cultivating ‚attentionality‘. Attention unlocks the doors to new perspectives. Let’s study how to widen our attentional bandwidth.
Connect with other Practitioners
…whom you’ll first just meet in the lectures and Q&A’s online. If you participate though, we are ready to build community around our Weekly Zen meetings.
What Our Community Says
"It’s just us!"
Baker Roshi showed me the whole world—people, cars, woods—in a teapot lid. We looked at each other: It's just us! Baker Roshi established countless extraordinary and ordinary moments in my life.
Heike Esser
"Words for Another World"
Baker Roshi is not just embodying an alternative world view—he is also able to find words for it!
Andrea H.
"Transformation Made Real"
‘Baker Roshi’ is synonymous with a life-long dedication to practice. Thank you, Baker Roshi, for making transformation and the changing of world views real.
Caroline MacLean
"Willing to Die, Grateful to Live"
‘Willing to die
Grateful to live’
This powerful advice
from Baker Roshi
more than twenty years ago
changed my fear and changed my life.
Doris Mauthe-Schonig
"Unceasing Joy"
To encounter the Buddha’s teachings in the person of Baker Roshi has been and continues to be an immeasurable joy that continues unceasingly in the world along visible and invisible paths.
Günter Obijon
"Sowing Seeds of True Aliveness"
In Baker Roshi I see a great willingness to face what’s difficult, great determination to co-create beauty, to sow seeds of true aliveness. I am grateful to him for embodying an alternative way of being in the world: Yes, it’s actually possible! What a powerful reminder, what a call for action—and stillness!
Sascha Borrée
"A Life Changed Forever"
Practicing with Baker Roshi, meeting him and getting to know him has changed my life in a way nothing else could have. I’m deeply grateful.
David Dörken
"Endless Possibility"
Wisdom beyond wisdom, manifested in each moment, offered without limits, in a way that we can hear, see, witness, feel, and that tells us there is endless possibility.
Laurie Nusbaum
Upcoming Events
Rohatsu Sesshin
11/30/2024 until 12/08/2024
Rohatsu Sesshin' ('Shakyamuni Enlightenment Day, Heart/Mind Practice') is the traditional December, 'Seven–day Meditation Intensive' of sitting and walking meditation, three–bowl (oryoki) meals, daily Dharma talks, and personal interviews (dokusan) with the teacher.
New Year's Seminar 2025
28/12/2024 until 01/01/2025
Join Crestone Mountain Zen Center’s Annual New Year’s Seminar. The seminar features morning and afternoon teaching sessions, discussions, and shared work. On New Year’s Eve, enjoy a festive dinner, dance party, and Zazen meditation leading up to midnight, with participants taking turns ringing the Densho Bell 108 times. The event concludes with a New Year’s Day brunch.
„Life begins with the Breath. Practice begins with Attention to the Breath.“ – Zentatsu Baker Roshi
Latest Videos from Baker Roshi
Zentatsu Richard Baker Roshi, a direct lineage successor of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (author of "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind"), brings you insights from over 70 years of Zen practice and 60 years of teaching. On this channel, he shares his profound and original thoughts through concise "Zen Flashes" videos. Explore where Baker Roshi is at with Zen today and find inspiration in his teachings. Enjoy the journey!
Baker Roshi's Newsletter
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