About Us
Zen Mountain Monastery has been introducing people to the practice of meditation through its retreats and programs for 40 years. For almost that long, The Monastery Store has been a way for the Monastery to support itself financially, allow its monastics and residents to engage work as spiritual practice, and to support the spiritual practice of people who live in the world.
The Monastery Store is staffed by monastics who've taken a lifetime vow of service and Monastery residents who have made a year-long commitment to practice and train here. The practice of zazen (seated Zen meditation) is the heartbeat of our training. We sit together each morning and evening and spend a week of each month in an intensive silent meditation retreat called sesshin. When we're not in silent retreat, we spend much of our day doing the work of running Zen Mountain Monastery, The Monastery Store, Zen Center of New York City, and the National Buddhist Prison Program.
All of the proceeds from The Monastery Store go to supporting the hundreds of people who come through Zen Mountain Monastery every year—for a morning or evening, a day, a weekend, a month, a year or a lifetime.
In our experience, we've found that meditation is beneficial not just for the monks and residents who live here, but for people who live in the world. Because we’re so familiar with the power and challenges of meditation, we designed the Mountain Seat—a unique meditation cushion made by a small, family-owned business in Massachusetts. It has a stable buckwheat hull base topped by memory foam that conforms to your body. Whether you’re sitting for a few minutes or for hours a day, it’s built to last a lifetime—a cushion you’ll return to again and again.
And because we want people to benefit from using our meditation cushions, we’re also here to answer questions and offer training in meditation. You can reach us at (845) 688-7993 or at customerservice@dharma.net.
The Monastery Store Blog
Learn more about the products we sell—how to use them and how they're made.
Zen Mountain Monastery
Zen Mountain Monastery is one of the West’s most respected Zen Buddhist monasteries and training centers.
Zen Center of New York City
The Zen Center of New York City: Fire Lotus Temple is the city branch of Zen Mountain Monastery.