Transmission ceremony at the Mason Farm in November 2025, with upgrades still under construction.
Photos by: Photos by: Deborah Ball, Andrew Mason, Jonathan Mills, Davis Reeves

Ring of Moss Zendo is moving forward toward constructing a new zendo in Milwaukie, Oregon. We intend to do a barn-raising – or multiple barn-raisings – with training periods bringing together construction and seated practice.

After some 30 years of rambling Zen in the Portland metro area, the group has secured control of a three quarters of an acre plot in Milwaukie, a suburb on Portland’s south side. The sangha did this by securing a $1 per year lease of the old barn on the historic Mason Farm site, from Lori Mason and Andrew Mason. The latter is a longtime sangha member and now teacher.

Ring of Moss is currently rehabbing a house next to the barn to serve as an interim site, while the sangha develops the 1,800-square-foot barn. Our hope is to establish a design for the barn during the coming winter, secure permits in spring 2026, and begin work in summer 2026.

The Mason Farm is a 1916, two-story farmhouse, originally built by Florence and Jelmer Mason on their 10-acre apple orchard near their parents’ 100-acre farm in what is now Milwaukie, just south of the Portland line. The Masons had no family connection with Andrew Mason, now lead teacher of Ring of Moss Zendo.

The Mason Farm lot retains a park-like character amidst its subdivision/suburban surroundings.The Bing cherry, the most widely-planted cherry tree in the U.S., was created on an adjacent farm in 1875, securing the area’s horticultural legacy.  

The barn facility will provide Ring of Moss with room to grow, in terms of numbers and options. It will become a spot dedicated to practice, designed for practice, something that will speak to newcomers and old-timers alike. It will serve as a place of refuge during turbulent times, much as monasteries have through the ages. It’s here to stay.

With a virtually cost-free 30-year lease for the Mason Farm barn, we now need to identify funds for materials, and skilled labor to transform the barn into a contemporary zendo. We are working with Telford+Brown architect on a zendo design that will promote strong practice, advance the tradition as we embody it, connect with the neighborhood, and meet municipal historic and building codes.

In September we met for the first time in the barn, sat on cushions protected from the dust and damp by garbage bags, and discussed with the architects early questions of the design. What will accessibility be like? How will the building interact with the lovely setting? How will the layout minimize bustle in the actual zendo? How can we minimize costs?

Ring of Moss’ current offerings includes two Zen practice sessions weekly on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings, and monthly zazenkai. We offer two residential sesshins each year, one for five days in May, and a second for eight days in December. We also offer two six-week seasonal intensive periods in the spring and fall, which include additional zazen sessions and thematic readings and discussions.

Our sangha’s limited experience in project management and construction pose a major challenge to our progress. And as much as we’d appreciate the sort of imperial support enjoyed by many of our Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty predecessors in ancient China, making our own way has been as fun and educational as it has been challenging.

Here’s how we got to this critical place:

From the beginnings of Zen, a perennial feature has been wandering to find good spots to practice. At the very beginning of Buddhist history, monasteries and seasonal practice periods evolved from finding refuge during India’s monsoon season. Now 2,500 years later, we are all still finding a range of best places for practice. The record chronicles cave dwellers, tree sitters, reclusive hut dwellers, itinerants, urban vagrants, tea sellers and monastery practitioners grand and humble. What is our own way?

In the years since the Buddha’s celebrated gesture of touching the ground to claim his awakening on the spot where he sat, despite Mara’s best efforts to get him to waver, the record chronicles numerous approaches to following the way. These include myriad rambling lifestyles, which 21st Century American sanghas have adopted to varying degrees.

Ring of Moss has utilized a series of practice locations – rotating through sangha members’ homes, meeting in parks, renting space – as we have endeavored to find the best places for practice in our 21st century urban and suburban setting. How can we highlight the importance of climate and flora? How do we best co-exist with the nearby 75 bus line, and with neighbors who’ve never heard of Zen?

In looking for an appropriate place to practice, Ring of Moss needed to find a home that would highlight our practice style’s two major influences. The first of these is Robert Aitken and the Diamond Sangha lay tradition in Hawaii, replete with social activist and literary influences. The second comes from  Ring of Bone Zendo’s teacher, Nelson Foster, who is based in California. Ring of Bone’s rigorous off-the-grid practice grew from Aitken Zen’s intersection with the Beat-style Zen crafted by author Gary Snyder, and fortified by Snyder’s well-honed literary and translation skills. 

Our journey to where we are now has been circuitous. In 2021, longtime sangha member and newly-appointed teacher Andrew Mason acquired a small bungalow in Milwaukie, and offered it up as a practice place. Finding the steady location a very positive impact on practice, we in 2025 signed the lease for the Mason Farm.

In developing the barn we will be following the tradition of our Diamond Sangha sisters and brothers who came together to build the Ring of Bone Zendo in one summer in 1982, and who built the Palolo Zen Center in Honolulu from 1988 through 1992. Ring of Moss plans to hold “barn raising” training periods over the next few summers, to invite practitioners to come together to build community by renovating the barn, and by practicing together.

All of this will require raising funds for the project, which we hope to secure directly from the sangha and from other supporters of Buddhist practice. We anticipate the project taking a few years and many hands, and we look forward to building an asset that preserves local history and advances our rich tradition. You can stay tuned to our progress on our Ring of Moss website, and you’re welcome to join in the fun!