Mountain Rain Zen Community — Vancouver, Canada
Soto Zen zendo and practice house in Vancouver, in the Suzuki Roshi lineage
On a Sunday morning at the Wall Street zendo in East Vancouver, the schedule is simple. Thirty minutes of zazen, ten of walking meditation, another thirty of sitting, then a dharma talk, a sutra chanting service and informal tea in the kitchen. The core practice is shikantaza, or "just sitting," grounded in awareness of the breath and body.
The community's roots go back to 1983, when the Zen Practice Group of the Karuna Meditation Society first invited Zoketsu Norman Fischer to Vancouver. Mountain Rain Zen Community was founded in 2002 and is registered as a non-profit and a religious organization in British Columbia. The Wall Street zendo opened in April 2012. In spring 2023 the community was given the Koryuji practice house and temple, now called Bright Stream Temple, on Sherbrooke Street.
Fischer, a Zen priest and poet who served as abbot of San Francisco Zen Center until 2000, remains the founding teacher. The guiding teachers, Myoshin Kate McCandless and Shinmon Michael Newton, began Zen practice in 1983 as university students in Japan, at an ancient temple on Mount Tsukuba, and later studied in Kyoto. They have practiced with Fischer in Vancouver since 1987, received dharma transmission from him in 2011, and were installed as guiding teachers in 2017.
Mountain Rain is primarily a lay community, with traditional monastic forms serving as a container for family, work and social engagement. It is self-governing and largely volunteer-run. The year includes half-day retreats, day and weekend retreats, seven-day sesshin at Brew Creek Centre, and an annual practice period. The 26th begins on October 14, 2026, under the theme Koans of Knowing and Not-knowing. Both sites stand on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
Traditions: Soto Zen, Shikantaza, Zazen, Kinhin, Dokusan, Oryoki
Programs: Sunday Morning Zazen and Dharma Talk, Weekday Morning Zazen (online), Wednesday Evening Dharma Seminar, ZenYU: Young Urban Zen, Collective Liberation Sitting Group, Sunday Half-Day Retreats, Zazenkai Day Retreat, Annual Practice Period