Ben Bengtson / North Shore News
NOVEMBER 13, 2017
After 10 years of practising meditation in the downstairs area of resident teacher Kim Hansen’s house, North Shore Zendo has found an actual dedicated space to offer its programs.
The Zendo group moved into its new 1,300-square-foot Meditation House at 238 Fell Ave. in North Vancouver during the summer.
For Hansen, the new space is a way to make Zen Buddhist teachings – and meditation more generally – accessible to more people.
“We’re pretty excited about having moved it more into the open public space,” explains Hansen, a former lawyer and North Vancouver resident who has been practising Zen Buddhism since 1995.
“It was good to move it off premises because there’s more of a sense of it belonging to the group as opposed to being in our house.”
In 2006, when North Shore Zendo was started, Hansen and his wife moved some walls downstairs and created a big meditation space. “It was a warm, intimate space but nothing like the space we have now,” he says.
The group meets four times a week and sessions are free of charge.
When the sessions were held in Hansen’s house, generally 10-20 people would show up, he says. The new space is open to the public, whether or not they are affiliated with Zen Buddhism.
“Some people may just come one time … Some people will come for an extended period of time, some people come in and out. And some people become much more involved,” he says. “Most people come because they’ve read something about meditation or about Buddhism. So many people feel anxious in their lives or they feel they would just like to be able to cultivate the ability to concentrate the mind or to experience some stillness and intimacy and engagement in their lives,” he says.
More information about North Shore Zendo and its new space can be found by visiting northshorezen.org/welcome