Upaya Zen Center

a place of refuge and beauty

Welcome to Postcards from New Mexico!
Two Sundays a month I share beauty, stories, and culture from this region that has been my home since 2008.

Upaya’s Circle of the Way Temple (photo: Melissa White)

Located inside city limits but in a world all its own, Upaya Zen Center is situated in the hills just north of downtown Santa Fe.

Roshi Joan Halifax founded Upaya in 1992, with the intention for it to be a place of study and practice in the tradition of Zen Buddhism. Over the years, it’s become a powerful refuge as well, a gathering place for spiritual seekers to come together and discover how this ancestral practice is relevant for contemporary times, and how meditation and social action are not two separate things. Upaya is one of the most important centers of socially engaged Buddhism that you’ll find anywhere in the world.

It's also an incredibly gorgeous place. The campus is tucked into the Santa Fe River valley, nestled between Canyon Road and Cerro Gordo. As you walk from one serene building to the next, you get acquainted with the riparian landscape and you can hear the flow of the river down the hillside. As Roshi Joan once wrote:

We find ourselves in the Valley of Holy Faith, a valley that runs east/west with the Santa Fe River flowing through it. Directly behind us is Cerro Gordo Mountain; to the east is Atalaya Peak. Our adobe buildings, wetlands, and Southwest gardens gather into the mandala of mountain, valley, and river. Through the strong change of seasons—the monsoons of summer, the cool of shade, the heat of sun—we open ourselves to a landscape within and without that is constantly unfolding and enclosing. The sky is big here: big mind, big heart. The valley is intimate: abiding in ultimate closeness. ¹

Recently, the Center has been re-wilding the area and planting many native trees, and there are also several gardens where vegetables are grown which are later transformed into delectable meals from the temple kitchen.

There’s a lot of history on this land. The original meditation hall, Cerro Gordo Temple, encloses the Maha Bodhi Stupa, the first public stupa in the United States, consecrated in 1973 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Dodrupchen Rinpoche.

Roshi Joan and Tibetan monks at the Maha Bodhi Stupa in the courtyard of the Cerro Gordo Temple

I’ve had the privilege of being connected with Upaya for more than 30 years. My first visit was in 1994, when the Center was still very much in its nascent phase. We would sit zazen inside the intimate Cerro Gordo Temple and do walking meditation in the city park next door. In 2001, the Circle of the Way Zendo was dedicated, creating a much more spacious place for practitioners. Over the years, many gifted teachers and thought leaders have come to Upaya, including Roshi Bernie Glassman, Sharon Salzberg, Stephen Batchelor, Kaz Tanahashi, Natalie Goldberg, and Rhonda Magee — just to name a few.

inside the Circle of the Way zendo

Upaya has a full schedule of retreats that are offered to the public, as well as professional training programs such as the Buddhist Chaplaincy Training and Being With Dying (for clinicians and healthcare providers). If your time is limited or you’re new to Zen practice, the best way to experience Upaya and get a flavor or what happens is to come to the Wednesday evening program. The evening begins at 5:30 pm with a 15-minute sitting meditation period followed by a Dharma talk. The talk is freely offered, and at the conclusion you’ll be invited to express your generosity with a donation.

Whether you live in the Santa Fe area or are traveling through, it’s well worth your time to stop at this place of peaceful refuge and exquisite beauty.

Roshi Joan and Zen student during a jukai ceremony / photo: Noah Roen

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1. from The Mindfulness Bell, 1997, Sangha Profile: https://www.parallax.org/mindfulnessbell/article/sangha-profile-3/