A crow flies over this valley,
white with frost.
Dawn comes with flashing blade
and a bowstring’s hum,
thrusting through with her spear
the poles of the spinning world.
What is the goal of the Patriarchs?
Gathering twigs for a fire,
pulling in our chins
against the cold.
– Korinji's founding poem, November 2013
About
Korinji
What is the uniqueness of Korinji?
"It is a place in the heartland of North America where anyone determined to realize the highest potentials of human wisdom and compassion can enter a path of awakening. It is a Zen Buddhist monastery preserving an unusually rigorous curriculum, including koan training and the orally transmitted practices of the Rinzai lineage. It is a center for traditional cultural and martial arts. It is the organizational and spiritual center of a worldwide sangha. It is a non-sectarian temple, offering gateways to multiple Japanese Buddhist traditions. It is open to everyone, monastics and laypersons alike.
It is all these things. There are few places like Korinji in the West, or indeed in the world. Yet here, remarkably, it sits in this silent Wisconsin valley. And the feet of sincere people from around the world walk the forest trail to our gate."
– Meido Moore Roshi
KORINJI is a Rinzai Zen training monastery, or sodo, located on seventeen forested acres about fifty miles from Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Dedicated in 2013 as a place for preserving and transmitting Rinzai Zen training, it now serves as the headquarters of Rinzai Zen International, a worldwide sangha of affiliated practice groups. Korinji preserves an approach to Zen training transmitted through the great twentieth-century Zen master Omori Sogen Roshi: Zen-Ken-Sho, the unity of Zen, martial arts, and fine arts such as calligraphy and tea ceremony. Korinji is additionally recognizeed as a broader, non-sectarian center for the practice of Japanese Buddhism: Shingon, Tendai, and Shugendo practice takes place here.
Mission
Korinji's three-fold mission has been described by our founder thus:
-
WISDOM: intensive practice of the Buddha Way, maintaining the rigorous training methods and liberating teachings transmitted by the great masters of the past.
-
COMPASSION: cultivating a broad spirit of inclusivity and tolerance, expressed through profound care for one another, our world, and every being without exception.
-
DYNAMIC ACTIVITY: with both joy and urgency, creatively expressing these things within the world, for the benefit of all.
International Community
The monastery is maintained by The Korinji Foundation, a federally recognized not-for-profit charity, and serves as the organizational and spiritual headquarters of Rinzai Zen International, our worldwide community of affiliated practice groups. New groups can form wherever sincere students gather together. We invite you to walk this path together with us.
Opportunities
Annual and daily Zen training schedules at Korinji are modeled on those experienced by our teachers at Japanese Rinzai monasteries, including Tenryuji in Kyoto. Beyond the opportunities of residency and training for Buddhist ordination, we offer many public events at the monastery and internationally. These opportunities are offered at different levels of intensity, from introductory events to full residential monastic training: intensive Zen meditation retreats (sesshin), beginners' retreats, meditation groups open to all, monthly goma (fire ritual) and other ritual observances, Shugendo training, classes in tea ceremony, martial arts, and fine arts, seminars with eminent visiting teachers, and more. We also provide membership with a rich online collection of digital resources to support your home practice.
Because of Korinji’s natural terrain, steep slopes, stairways, and distance from available parking, the monastery is not presently able to accommodate residents or guests who use wheelchairs or who cannot safely navigate uneven ground and stairs. Prospective guests with access concerns are welcome to contact us before applying or registering so we can discuss what is realistically possible.
