About Us

Mission Statement

ZCOC is a community of practitioners actively engaged in Zen awareness practice for the purpose of awakening, healing, and transformation. Zen practice as taught at ZCOC emphasizes seated meditation and its application in our daily lives.

Some Reflections

Meditation is not a difficult task. It is a way to lead you to your long-lost home.  (Soen Shaku)

No-self is not a concept or an entity: it is a state of immediate, undivided awareness, presence. And in that presence the entire circuit of self-centeredness is illumined. This is attention.  (Toni Packer)

When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything.
(Shunryu Suzuki)

Sitting is something we do for a lifetime. There is no end to the opening up that is possible for a human being. Eventually we see that we are the limitless, boundless ground of the universe. Having more and more contact with this reality always brings compassion for others and changes our daily life.
(Charlotte Joko Beck)

Yield to the willow
All the loathing
All the desire of your heart.
(Basho)

Organization

ZCOC is a not for profit organization.  The Zen Center is supported soley by its practitioners and donors.  Contributions are tax deductible under federal 501(3)(3) guidelines.

ZCOC’s heritage is in the Soto and Rinzai Zen traditions.  One of the teachers, Deborah Barrett, received her ordination as a Zen priest from Charlotte Joko Beck in 1995.  One of the other teachers, Carol Aguilar, studied extensively with Taizan Maezumi and Charlotte Joko Beck.  Carol was ordained in 1996. The Zen Center of Orange County is an independent Zen Center, unaffiliated with other schools.