Rockridge Meditation Community

The Rockridge Meditation Community is the Oakland home of the Pacific Zen Institute. We offer a quiet and inviting space for meditation, Koan study and conversation.This is a meditation retreat for discovering how to navigate in a world with few familiar landmarks; it is seven days along the deepest path.

Zen is a mystery school—we enter the mystery to be transformed. The transformation is through the life we already have, toast and heartbreak. We notice our kitchen loves us. The gate is not knowing. We don’t try to explain life, or defend against it, we enter it deeply, we don’t make ourselves certain.The Rockridge Meditation Community teachers offer encouragement in the practice of meditation, working with zen koans, and beginning meditation. You can meet a teacher at our meeting place in Oakland, near Berkeley, on Wednesday evenings, Sunday mornings, or at one of our monthly Beginners Meditation classes. You can also arrange to meet with a teacher individually.

David Weinstein, Roshi, is the Director of the Rockridge Meditation Community where he teaches regularly. As the Senior Supervising Teacher of PZI he oversees the teacher training program. He is interested in discovering Zen practice in the midst of ordinary life. He is especially interested helping people cultivate an appreciation of koan practice as a way of recognizing our lives as works of art.