Zaltho Foundation

Why create a Center?

Magnolia Zen Center

A response from Claude AnShin Thomas: "In the way the Dharma manifests itself through me the question has often been asked,"How do people continue after such intense experience of practice, which is often the nature of waking up, the nature of the work that people do with me?" One answer to this question is in having a center where people can practice. This Center presents people with the opportunity to learn how to "continue". It is a place where people can get the necessary support and training to sustain this work, the work of continuing, because after all, the whole focus of practice is not for me to do it for others but to help empower others to continue for themselves.

Through its environment the Center can support its members and visitors in finding tools to bring the practice more consciously into daily life so that healing and transformation have a stronger opportunity to become manifest in their lives.

PERSONAL SUPPORT

Magnolia Zen Center was the next necessary evolution in the process of supporting Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. It was a natural and positive transition to have a place where people who don't have any notion of how spiritual practice manifests itself in everyday life can come to study, to learn and practice. Where they will be find the opportunity to become rooted in a spiritual practice that can work for them. The Magnolia Zen Center is currently providing training and on-going support to people who have a desire and commitment to live differently.

The whole idea of having a center is to challenge people's notions of what a center is or has to be. And to demonstrate that although there is a "center" it doesn't necessarily mean "center" in a conventional sense but rather in the sense of a place that exists as the center of practice, a metaphorical meditation cushion.

It is also true that there are many people who want to have more of an opportunity to spend time with Claude AnShin, to study with him in a fixed place and with the existence of the Magnolia Zen Center this possibility is now provided.

It is important to remember that many of the people who come to spiritual practice come because they are quite damaged and struggling. They gravitate to spiritual practice because most conventional, institutional environments have not provided the tools or the conditions necessary to enhance their opportunities for healing. With the Magnolia Zen Center a more conducive environment for healing exists because rooted in spiritual practice it has the character to produce a more prolonged and intensive opportunity to wake up to the nature of their suffering and find the support of the essential tools of Zen Buddhist Practice that can support them and aid them in the process of awakening, the process of transformation and healing.

SUPPORT FOR ZALTHO

The ZALTHO FOUNDATION also benefits from having another central and stable place and home from which it can continue to reach out in its mission of service, working with the marginalized. Because working with "marginalized cultures" outside the traditional structures and strictures, is such needed and valuable work. This work requires people who are solid in their spiritual practice and the Magnolia Zen Center provides the necessary foundation to help prepare and support people who want to do this work.

Claude AnShin and others within the Zaltho Foundation Board of Directors has often been quoted as saying, "I have no intention of becoming bureaucratic or institutional in any conventional way."

SUPPORT FOR CLAUDE ANSHIN

Claude Anshin at Work

This Center is also of great benefit to Claude AnShin because there are times when he is not traveling and to have a place to rest, study and practice is important, necessary and essential.

SUPPORT FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY

The Magnolia Zen Center is also used in service to the local community. It serves this community in non-institutional and bureaucratic ways by using the tools of Zen Buddhist practice to explore and develop effective approaches for working with traditional community issues.

In conclusion,
While some people have been very generous, the overall Zaltho Foundation fundraising effort had been mostly unproductive. So the focus of establishing the center has fallen on Claude AnShin Thomas himself. It is through his resources that money has been borrowed to purchase, renovate and initiate this project.

However, the goal is for the Zaltho Foundation to develop the resources through its Fundraising efforts so that this property can be purchased outright and become the sole property of the Foundation and this cannot happen "without your individual support"!

Why create a Center?

Magnolia Zen Center

A response from Claude AnShin Thomas: "In the way the Dharma manifests itself through me the question has often been asked,"How do people continue after such intense experience of practice, which is often the nature of waking up, the nature of the work that people do with me?" One answer to this question is in having a center where people can practice. This Center presents people with the opportunity to learn how to "continue". It is a place where people can get the necessary support and training to sustain this work, the work of continuing, because after all, the whole focus of practice is not for me to do it for others but to help empower others to continue for themselves.

Through its environment the Center can support its members and visitors in finding tools to bring the practice more consciously into daily life so that healing and transformation have a stronger opportunity to become manifest in their lives.

PERSONAL SUPPORT

Magnolia Zen Center was the next necessary evolution in the process of supporting Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. It was a natural and positive transition to have a place where people who don't have any notion of how spiritual practice manifests itself in everyday life can come to study, to learn and practice. Where they will be find the opportunity to become rooted in a spiritual practice that can work for them. The Magnolia Zen Center is currently providing training and on-going support to people who have a desire and commitment to live differently.

The whole idea of having a center is to challenge people's notions of what a center is or has to be. And to demonstrate that although there is a "center" it doesn't necessarily mean "center" in a conventional sense but rather in the sense of a place that exists as the center of practice, a metaphorical meditation cushion.

It is also true that there are many people who want to have more of an opportunity to spend time with Claude AnShin, to study with him in a fixed place and with the existence of the Magnolia Zen Center this possibility is now provided.

It is important to remember that many of the people who come to spiritual practice come because they are quite damaged and struggling. They gravitate to spiritual practice because most conventional, institutional environments have not provided the tools or the conditions necessary to enhance their opportunities for healing. With the Magnolia Zen Center a more conducive environment for healing exists because rooted in spiritual practice it has the character to produce a more prolonged and intensive opportunity to wake up to the nature of their suffering and find the support of the essential tools of Zen Buddhist Practice that can support them and aid them in the process of awakening, the process of transformation and healing.

SUPPORT FOR ZALTHO

The ZALTHO FOUNDATION also benefits from having another central and stable place and home from which it can continue to reach out in its mission of service, working with the marginalized. Because working with "marginalized cultures" outside the traditional structures and strictures, is such needed and valuable work. This work requires people who are solid in their spiritual practice and the Magnolia Zen Center provides the necessary foundation to help prepare and support people who want to do this work.

Claude AnShin and others within the Zaltho Foundation Board of Directors has often been quoted as saying, "I have no intention of becoming bureaucratic or institutional in any conventional way."

SUPPORT FOR CLAUDE ANSHIN

Claude Anshin at Work

This Center is also of great benefit to Claude AnShin because there are times when he is not traveling and to have a place to rest, study and practice is important, necessary and essential.

SUPPORT FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY

The Magnolia Zen Center is also used in service to the local community. It serves this community in non-institutional and bureaucratic ways by using the tools of Zen Buddhist practice to explore and develop effective approaches for working with traditional community issues.

In conclusion,
While some people have been very generous, the overall Zaltho Foundation fundraising effort had been mostly unproductive. So the focus of establishing the center has fallen on Claude AnShin Thomas himself. It is through his resources that money has been borrowed to purchase, renovate and initiate this project.

However, the goal is for the Zaltho Foundation to develop the resources through its Fundraising efforts so that this property can be purchased outright and become the sole property of the Foundation and this cannot happen "without your individual support"!