Jikoji Retreat Center, 12100 Skyline Blvd, Los Gatos, CA 95033, phone: (408) 741-9562
Jikoji Retreat Center, 12100 Skyline Blvd, Los Gatos, CA 95033, phone: (408) 741-9562
Thank you for your interest in residency at Jikoji. Please look over carefully all the information and the application process in the website. Whether you have formally applied yet or just beginning a consideration, it is highly recommended that you first visit Jikoji, that you practice with us first - in a sesshin, Sunday program, workshop, etc. or simply come visit, book as a guest for a time, so as to know the place, people, practice etc.
Jikoji is a small center in the country, not a monastery but a lay practice place. Nonetheless it is a place that has formal practice traditions. It becomes a host at times for other groups, individuals on retreat and an extended sangha. Jikoji would welcome residents who are clear, stable and self-motivated, willing to enter a practice path, are able to help maintain the center, and interested in supporting a community life.
Jikoji invites applications for residency. There are also opportunities for short-term residents. We are particularly interested in recruiting zen practitioners who might eventually join our staff, or complement our staff.
Any residency starts with a trial period, subject to mutually agreeable terms that frequently include a break between the initial trial and commitments for longer arrangements. Trial and short term residents are asked to practice as well as to work with the staff for a few hours/day. Longer term visitors also contribute several hours of work per day and practice cooperatively with our staff.
Visiting residents are required to pay the daily dorm or room Rental Rates or, longer term, a $500/month fee, $750/month for those who are employed and thus unable to participate fully in Jikoji's ongoing caretaking of the facilities and guests.
A small number of practitioners maintains Jikoji. Our practice includes morning and evening Zazen weekdays and a Sunday program, as well as four to six sesshins per year. Jikoji serves as a lay practice center for its extended Sangha, and at times hosts other meditation groups' rentals of some or all of Jikoji's facilities.