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Welcome to the Wild Flower Zen Sangha, a borderless community of Zen practitioners. The world is our meditation hall, the earth is the altar. We have no monks, no priests, no robes, no walls. Everyone is invited to join us here and now, in our weekly meditation practices and our workshops and retreats throughout the year.
Based in Paris, where it was founded by the Zen teacher Roshi Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell, and with affiliate groups in Portugal, Wild Flower Zen Sangha is rooted in the ancient teachings of the Buddha and is therefore dedicated to actively engaging in the whole of life, flourishing moment to moment, with wisdom and compassion.
In the Wild Flower Zen Sangha, that practice is radical : The universe is our zendo, the earth is the altar, all beings are buddhas and hungry ghosts and they all belong to our sangha, the dharma is everywhere we turn, our practice is to include whatever arises wherever we are.
Wild Flower Zen Sangha is registered in France as an „association loi 1901”.
Why are we called Wild Flower Zen?
Wild flowers are always local. They are natives of a specific place and time, arising in a particular environment, climate, geography, season. They are at home wherever they grow, they know no borders, flourishing in a seemingly endless multitude of varieties and manifesting an inexhaustible diversity of shapes, sizes, colors, fragrances, properties and more. Which is also true of all beings and things.
And whether in the mountains or prairies, in forests or jungles, in city parks, along streets or highways, in sidewalk cracks or suburban gardens or lawns, the existence of wild flowers depends upon the local conditions – air, light, water, soil – and on the help of their “neighbors” – the other plants, animals, insects, humans with whom they share and participate in the functioning of their local “neighborhood.” Those local ingredients are always enough, exactly what the wild flowers need to grow and thrive and, of course, wilt and die, as a part of that whole interconnected ground of their being. Which is also true of all beings and things.
Yes, what’s true for wild flowers is true for the rest of us, for the entire universe. When we truly see and experience that, we discover peace and freedom, as well as love and compassion.
Everything is wild – meaning that the true nature of everything is free and open, boundless, unconstrained by our limited notions of how things are or are not, by fixed positions of what is self and other. Wild means whole. Wild means diverse. Wild means to respect one’s own original element, one’s own original place, one’s own original life and also those of others. Wild means to be fully alive here and now, at peace with things just as they are.
At Wild Flower Zen, our Zen practice and meditation is inspired by the example of wild flowers as we seek to bear witness to the whole of life and experience directly the oneness and diversity at play in our lives just as they are, wherever and whoever we are.
