about the Community

The Montreal Zen Center is a lay community. In its early years it was simply an affiliate of the Rochester Center. By the late 70's the sangha or community had grown large enough to warrant a full-time director. Albert Low and his wife Jean were sent in 1979. Under their direction the Center underwent some major changes. Chief among these was that in order to be able to handle the needs of the growing community it moved into a bigger facility.

Now a full schedule of sesshins are held each year (see the Montreal Zen Center Schedule). In 1986 Albert Low was given full transmission and became a teacher in his own right. At the same time the Montreal Zen Center became a fully autonomous Center of which he is the teacher-director.

The Center now has a membership of over 200 people, who come from all walks of life: professors, lawyers, psychiatrists, psychologists, businessmen, journalists, computer experts, nurses, students and many other professions, and from such places as Europe, the United States, South America and other parts of Canada.

The members are directly involved in running the Center, from looking after the grounds and buildings to supervising daily practice, both in the mornings and evenings. One member comes each week during the summer months to mow the lawn. Others weed the beautiful gardens which bloom from early spring to late fall creating a wonderfully serene atmosphere. Every member's talent is put to good use at the Center! One member is an expert in construction and often donates long hours to the maintenance of these old and beautiful premises. Another looks after the various kinds of office work from answering the phone to sending out newsletters. Other members come each month to set up the house, carefully and meticulously, for each sesshin. Some stock the house with household necessities and others buy the food necessary to feed all the participants for the sesshins.

The more senior members take turns to monitor the daily practice coming faithfully all year long. These monitors also help the teacher-director, Albert Low with the sesshins. In addition we now have two assistant teachers who look after the shorter sesshins.

We have two workdays a year: one in Autumn and the other in Spring. These are wonderful community events and about 40 members work together painting, cleaning, gardening and doing whatever needs to be done at the time. It is a day members look forward to, getting together, working side by side and then having bagels and soup at the end, catching up on each others gossip!

Every member, even if they just come to one of the Workdays during the year, helps make the Center the wonderful oasis it is.

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