About Sokukoji
Sokukoji Buddhist Community is a teaching and retreat center available for weekly meditation meetings, as well as occasional meditation retreats and other classes.
This meditation community started in 1975 as Dharma Study Group and was affiliated with Vajradhatu. We are a community of practitioners who are interested in the study and practice of Buddhism, as well as other awareness-oriented traditions. Although we are primarily a Buddhist community, our members come from a diverse background and may individually hold to other faiths or spiritual orientations, or have no spiritual orientation. We believe in refraining from negative activities, engaging in positive activities, and experiencing our minds through the practice of meditation, which is bringing awareness and mindfulness to the present moment. This helps us to realize our inherent wisdom and compassion and to be of benefit to ourselves as well as to others.
Sokukoji Buddhist Community offers an ongoing weekly meditation practice and discussion meeting. The source for the meditation practice and instructions come mainly from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of the Karma Kagyu lineage, the Shambhala lineage of Chogyam Trungpa, and the Soto Zen lineage of Kobun Chino Roshi. The discussions are usually generated by the group reading of a Buddhist book.
Sokukoji Buddhist Community functions from the basic assumption that there are no membership requirements, that directors and officers govern in order to serve the affairs of the organization, and that consensus, mutual respect and compassion are the guiding principles of decision making.
Additionally, we hold a commitment to offering programs open to all people who live in Battle Creek and the surrounding areas. We support teaching meditation practice to all who want to practice, regardless of religious affiliation, race, gender or educational background. We support teaching meditation practice to prisoners. We support holding awareness classes that give new ways to enjoy and engage in artistic expression. We support doing volunteer work within the community both as a group and individually.
We are dedicated to maintaining Sokukoji Buddhist Community as an oasis of serenity that is conducive to developing ones inherent compassion and deepening ones primordial wisdom.
We value and support the teachings of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje as well as the Sakyong Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche and also the Soto Zen lineage of Kobun Chino Roshi.