Enpuku-ji is a Rinzai Zen practice centre located in a lively neighbourhood of Montreal. The centre provides a daily schedule of Zen practice in the style and spirit of the teaching of Kyōzan Jōshū Sasaki, Rōshi. The resident monk and abbot is Zengetsu Myōkyō. In addition to the regular zazen schedule, the Zen Centre offers one-day retreats, five-day sesshins, Buddha ceremonies and personal ceremonies such as weddings and memorials.
Myōkyō began her training with Jōshū Rōshi in 1980 and moved to Mt. Baldy in 1985. She was ordained as a Zen monk in 1986 at Mt. Baldy Zen Center, and practiced at Mt. Baldy and Rinzai-ji Zen Centers in California and Bodhi Manda and Albuquerque Zen Centers in New Mexico before returning to Canada in 1995. She was ordained as a Zen Osho (Priest) in 1999, receiving the religious name Zengetsu, and continued to study with Jōshū Rōshi until his death in July, 2014. In Montreal, Myōkyō is involved with the larger Buddhist community. She served as Associate Buddhist Chaplain at Concordia University and at McGill University for two decades.
Centre Zen de la Main was founded in 1995 by Myōkyō, with the help of generous donors. In 2009, its name was changed to Enpuku-ji with the move to its new location at 4620 Saint-Dominique Street. Enpuku-ji is the temple name which was given to Myōkyō by her teacher. The meaning of the kanji for Enpuku-ji is Temple of Full Prosperity. Enpuku-ji is an affiliate centre of Rinzai-ji in Los Angeles, the motherhouse of a network of centres which are committed to practicing Rinzai Zen as was taught by Kyōzan Jōshū Sasaki, Rōshi. It has grown in its first decades to the point of being able to provide a strong and consistent practice environment for members, newcomers, lay monks and practice residents.
A dharma talk is occasionally offered during the Saturday morning zazen session and is part of retreat schedules.
“The real Zen practice is to realize that you have the
center of gravity of the universe. When you realize
that you have the center of gravity which is one with
the center of gravity of the universe, then you unify
the world and you are unified by the world. You are
embraced by the world. When you unify the world
and you are unified by the world, that center of
gravity is only one. So you cannot call it your own
center of gravity. That center of gravity doesn’t
need to call itself “self,” because there is no object.
Since it unifies the world. There is no object. It is
very difficult to understand, so you need more zazen
to experience it.”
- Kyōzan Jōshū Sasaki, Rōshi
Excerpt from Buddha is the Center of Gravity
Those interested in formal Zen practice are asked to attend an instruction session in order to join the regular zazen schedule. The instruction session is usually held on the second Saturday of each month from 12:00pm to 1:30pm. The session outlines the form and etiquette of practice, as well as a brief history of the Centre and Jōshū Rōshi.
Please confirm your attendance by email to [email protected]
The main entrance for Enpuku-ji is in the garden. Follow the path to the left of the parking area and go through the gate to the deck doors with the Enpuku-ji logo.
Here we are at the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Wood Snake. This past year has been an interesting and challenging one. I finished my two years of going back and forth from California on a monthly basis in August of 2023, and Listen arrived a month later. So the Zen Centre is once again the home of a dog. 2025 marks the 30th year of the Zen Centre, formerly known as Centre Zen de la Main, and, for all but five of those years, there has been a resident dog.
I have been very glad these past 16 months to witness that new practitioners at the Zen Centre have responded in such a wonderful way to having a dog present for practice and, sometimes, in our faces. Some of us are allergic to dog dander so we are trying to keep the Zen Centre cleaner with regular vacuuming and dusting. I would say that part of the training that goes on at Enpuku-ji is actually learning to be with Listen and so, as well as training the dog, there is training the human to communicate with and to understand the dog.
In this year of the Wood Snake (the snake being my Chinese horoscope sign), I am looking forward to cultivating a good practice environment with the new people who have been coming in in the past 16 months together with the long-time practitioners of Enpuku-ji. We have started to do monthly day-long zazenkais and, at some point this year, we will be returning to five-day sesshins.
Three of us travelled to Colombia mid-January to do a one-day zazenkai followed by an inauguration ceremony for Seiun's zendo. I gave Seiun the name of Tenkū-ji/Empty Sky Temple/Templo de Cielo Vacio. Seiun built a zendo at his farm in the mountains outside of Pereira and also holds zazen sittings in Pereira. He is establishing a regular schedule at Tenkū-ji, and, for our week there, morning zazen had between seven and ten practitioners. Seiun will be setting up a website for Tenkū-ji which will be included on our website.
A charitable organization associated with my head temple in the United States has kindly donated funds for a project to improve the Enpuku-ji zendo with a paint job and the addition of a tokonoma (alcove) to house a beautiful Kwan Yin scroll as well as a new shoji screen and plinthes for the butsudan. We would like to gather funds to obtain larger mokugyo/gongs for chanting. If you would care to contribute funds for this equipment specifically, please note that when you make the donation on the CanadaHelps site.
Your support of Enpuku-ji is always appreciated and especially so in these lean times. I appreciate very much those of you who are not practitioners but who responded to my request two years ago for a small contribution each month and who continue to support the Zen Centre in this way.
The link to CanadaHelps, if you choose to make a one-time donation or a monthly contribution:
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/enpuku-jicentre-zen-de-la-main/.
Flor de café
Tenku-ji zendo
The Zen Centre continues to keep its doors open and a zazen schedule in place because of your monthly contributions. Please do make that donation, after your newcomers session, through the CanadaHelps link.
Seiun Thomas Henderson, autism and education specialist, was an integral part of Enpuku-ji for a decade, assisting Myōkyō with all of the programs/events
that the Zen Centre offers, until he moved to Colombia in early 2023. Seiun has built a zendo on his farm and has established a weekly zazen group in the small city of Pereira.
Ekyō Diane Poissant, retired administrator and educator, lives in
Kingston, Ontario. She established a zendo, Ryokusui-an, in her home
in 2013, where a regular schedule of zazen is offered.
Jion Ned Shepard, DJ, producer, musician and remixer, was a regular
practitioner at Enpuku-ji for eight years before moving to
Los Angeles, CA in 2012. He created a beautiful zendo in his
Beverly Hills home for which Myōkyō bestowed the name, Kattō-an - Hermitage of Entangling Vines. Jion lends invaluable support to Rinzai-ji, Myōkyō's motherhouse, in LA.
The tokudo-shiki (ordination) ceremony for Seiun and Jion was held at Enpuku-ji in January, 2011 and that for Ekyō at Ryokusui-an in October, 2013.
Volunteers and the understanding of dana have always been important aspects of the Zen Centre. Dana is considered to be the Buddhist practice of cultivating generosity, or some might say, selfless spontaneous giving.
Enpuku-ji has always had much help from members and from friends of the Zen Centre, those who do not come to practice but want to support the existence and future of Enpuku-ji. We have help with the garden, the current Zen Centre dog, Listen, house maintenance, snow-shovelling, the website, translation, and so on. Most of this help goes unnoticed by others but is essential to the spirit and stewardship of Enpuku-ji.
The Montreal Zen Poetry Festival was conceived of by several
young poets who were practitioners at the Zen Centre
around 2005. We held three festivals – 2007, 2009 and
2011. We have
been fortunate to have hosted the likes of Jane Hirshfield,
Robert Bringhurst, Red Pine, Steve Sanfield, David Budbill,
Peter Levitt, Chase Twichell, Kaz Tanahashi and others. The
Montreal Zen Poetry Festival, a small niche festival,
led to rich collaborations with McGill University and with the
Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival over
the years.
Enpuku-ji published two collections of the works of our 2007
and 2009 invitees under the imprint of Enpuku-ji Press. The
collections, "Forget the Words" and "Words have no Meaning",
are available for purchase at the Zen Centre.
The Rumi Li Zen Poetry Library, housed on the second
floor at Enpuku-ji, has a special collection of Zen poetry and haiku
works. People
are invited to sit and read, by appointment.
An offshoot of the Festivals has been the acquisition by
Myōkyō and a former resident practitioner and Festival
volunteer, Ian Sullivan Cant, of a small letterpress.
The
rabbit fish logo, for the 2009 festival, was created by Ian
who is a very fine zine artist and illustrator.
Enpuku-ji is incorporated under Federal law as a charitable
organization and, as such, issues tax receipts for donations and
membership payments via CanadaHelps. The Centre is supported by general donations,
membership payments, retreat and ceremony fees, resident and
guest practitioner income and donations to the Abbot, Membership, General Donations, Practice Scholarship and Temple Maintenance Funds.
Those attending regularly
are asked to contribute as a member after
their newcomers session.
Donations and membership payments are payable online through
CanadaHelps.
To make such a payment via CanadaHelps,
simply click on the “Contribute” button on this page. A screen with
the Enpuku-ji logo will appear. Then choose "Donate Monthly" for a
membership payment and follow the instructions. If you wish to make
a single donation, click on "Donate Now" and, on the next screen,
after entering the amount, go to “Fund/Designation” and choose
which fund you would like to contribute to. CanadaHelps allows
donors to download a tax receipt at any time.
Payments other than donations and membership payments are not
tax-receiptable and are made by Interac e-transfer to [email protected].
$125/month
$50/month
$40/month
$70/month
$20/month
non-practicing supporter
No one will be excluded from practicing at the Zen Centre because of inability
to pay.
It is possible to make alternate arrangements involving work at the Zen Centre and/or in-kind contributions.