Founded in 1997 and affiliated with the Kwan Um School of Zen, the Gateless Gate Zen Center is a nonprofit Buddhist organization that provides a place for spiritual practice and meditation instruction in the Zen Tradition. Modeled after the Providence and Cambridge centers, the Gateless Gate serves as a regional Zen Center for North Central Florida, and is comprised of the Gainesville Zen Circle, the Orlando Zen Circle and the Les-Bi-Gay Orlando Zen Circle. The Center is directed by Abbot K.C. Walpole and six board members.

The heart of the Kwan Um School of Zen is daily meditation practice. The goal of meditation is to gradually attain a clear compassionate mind that, moment to moment, is able alleviate suffering and help all beings. Local Zen Centers, such as the Gateless Gate, provide a place for individuals to share fellowship through meditation, discussion, work and eating, thereby providing support for individual transformation.

Every action or non-action we take from moment-to-moment has meaning whether we acknowledge it or not. The practice of Zen meditation brings us to awareness of the relevance of every action and word we speak, as well as of our responsibilities to ourselves and all of humanity. The practice of meditation can be likened to passing through a transforming fire that leads one to a meaningful life of compassion, honesty, and intimacy. At the Gateless Gate Zen Center we are dedicated to practicing and supporting such transformation.

The Gateless Gate Zen Center can provide an excellent introduction to the practice and principles of Zen Buddhism, and serve as a supportive environment in which to develop one's meditation practice. The Center provides a quiet setting in which to study one's life. The Center is open to anyone genuinely interested in exploring and practicing Zen Buddhism — those new to Zen or meditation practice, as well as more experienced practitioners.

Current Programs

Daily Mediation Practice
Monday through Thursday we meet for morning and evening meditation from 6:30-7am and from 7-8:30pm. General, Monday nights are ideal for beginners as the abbot gives instruction and a Dharma talk.

Meditation Retreats
Retreats are a time to investigate your life closely. This experience can bring about a clearer, more compassionate direction, and more harmonious relationships within all aspects of life. Conducted in silence, the daily schedule includes sitting, chanting, walking, and bowing meditations, as well as work practice. Meals are eaten in silence in traditional temple style. The retreat leader gives dharma talks and kong-an teaching interviews.

Monthly Retreats
Gateless Gate holds monthly meditation retreats led by the Abbot and/or by Dharma teachers. Scheduled for the first week-end of each month, the retreat goes from noon-9pm on Saturday and 8am-noon on Sunday. Long sitting retreats generally consist of 30-40 minute sitting periods with 15 minute walking mediation periods between each sitting; dinner (vegetarian) is served at 5pm. People are encouraged to join as their time permits and leave as their schedule demands.

Yong Min Jong Jin Retreats
Yong Maeng Jong Jin (YMJJ) retreats are three-day long retreats led by a guest Zen teacher. Each day of the retreat begins at 4:30am and ends 9:30pm and consists of meditation, work and rest periods, formal vegetarian meals, and private interviews with the retreat leader. These retreats are an excellent opportunity to clear the mind of habitual thinking and generate energy to practice in everyday life. Participants should register at least 48 hours in advance. Yong Min Jong Jin retreats occur every three months at one of our three Zen circles in the state (Tallahassee, Gainesville, Orlando or Miami). The next YMJJ retreat will be in September 2005.

Past guest teachers have included Zen Master Soeng Hyang (Barbara Rhodes), Zen Master Wu Kwang (Richard Shrobe), Zen Master Bon Haeng (Mark Houghton); Zen Master Bon Yeon (Jane McLaughlin-Dobisz), Myong Oh Sunim, JDPS, and Ken Kessel, JDPS.

Kol Che Retreats
Kol Che retreats occur in the summer (two weeks) and winter (90 days) respectively. A Kyol Che ("coming together") is a longer, intensive meditation retreat. At this time, Kol Che retreats are held at our Diamond Hill Zen Monastery in Providence Rhode Island, and are modeled after the traditional winter and summer retreats in the mountain temples of Korea. Sometime in the near future we will be holding Kol Che retreats at the Gateless Gate Zen Center; please check our Bulletin Board periodically for updates.

Guest Speaker Series
The Center brings speakers and spiritual leaders from around the country to give lectures and workshops on issues related to practicing Zen Buddhism. Recent guests have included Zen Monk Claude Anshim Thomas author of At Hell’s Gate: a Soldier’s Journey from War to Peace and Zen Master Bon Yeon (Jane Dobisz) author of The Wisdom of Solitude and editor of The Whole World is a Single Flower.

Pasta and Movie Night
Every Friday all are welcome at the Center for a vegetarian meal and movie. Meal preparation begins around 6pm. There are no greater goals to this event than the fellowship of people coming together for company, food and entertainment.

Prison Outreach
Since 1998 the Center has provided instruction in the practice of Zen meditation to inmates in federal, state and county facilities throughout North Central Florida. Currently, twelve prisons and jails participate in the prison outreach program, in which approximately 400 inmates are served annually. Through instruction and study of Zen meditation that emphasizes high personal standards, participants are given the tools to cultivate a strong, life-affirming self-image that looks beyond the stigma of “convict” to view themselves as individuals with much to offer others and the community as a whole. Mediation instruction includes methods for breaking the cycle of drug addiction and violence, reducing stress and managing chronic pain. Participants meet on an individual and/or group basis once or twice a month. Instruction also takes place through regular correspondence and the provision of books. Dedicated volunteers share their practice and contribute their time, energy and money to meet and meditate with inmates at the participating facilities.

Interfaith Meditation
Interfaith meditation utilizes the forms of meditation, such as centering prayer, that are common to all faiths. The Gateless Gate Zen Center facilitates interfaith meditation at both Coleman Federal Prison (medium security) and Lawtey C.I., which is the nations first faith and character based prison. At Coleman we have developed an intensive meditation retreat program and regular interfaith meditation sessions at Lawtey.

Spanish Translation Project
The need for meditation literature and other reference material in Spanish became apparent at the outset of the interfaith meditation program at FCC Coleman: inmates who are skilled in both English and Spanish took initiative and translated much of the available materials. About 40 percent of the inmates attending the Coleman retreats are native Spanish speakers who required simultaneous translations.

Inmate Voices
The Gateless Gate provides a forum for inmates to express their thoughts on spirituality, personal experience, and other topics through writing. It’s often the case that after meditation retreat inmates achieve clarity about many issues affecting their lives and we encourage them to submit their writings for posting on our website. Inmates have the option of maintaining anonymity.

Higher Education Initiative: Prison to College
Our experience with prison outreach has taught us that one of the major obstacles preventing individuals from attaining independent, drug and crime-free lives is lack of education. With the goal of creating higher education opportunities for inmates before and after their release, we have developed the Prison to College Initiative, a proposed partnership between the Florida Department of Corrections and local community colleges. This innovative partnership would allow inmates to begin college coursework while incarcerated so that they can enroll full or part time as matriculated students upon their release. The ultimate goal of the proposed partnership is to facilitate re-entry and prevent recidivism. Currently the proposal is under review by the Florida Department of Corrections and community college administrators and so far feedback has been positive.

Volunteer Teachers Initiative: Fall 2005
Led by William Stephenson, former Chair of the English Department at Santa Fe Community College, a group of four to six college professors are preparing a curriculum to teach college preparation courses and college entrance test preparation to female inmates at Lowell C.I..