About Us

Founded in 1999, Delaware Valley Zen Center (DVZC) offers to the community an environment for Zen practice. Our weekly practice includes chanting, sitting meditation and walking meditation. We offer meditation instruction on the first Wednesday of the month, and Zen meditation retreats once a quarter. DVZC is one of more than sixty centers and groups worldwide affiliated with the Kwan Um School of Zen, an international organization founded by Zen Master Seung Sahn.

Our guiding teacher and abbot is José Ramírez, JDPSN, who received Inka in April 2009.

The Delaware Valley Zen Center (DVZC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit religious corporation of the State of Delaware. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. DVZC is supported, administered and maintained by its members.

Some History

In 1999, after moving to Delaware, Won Shim began sitting Zen with Mr. Diccon Bancroft who, at the time, was running a meditation night at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Newark. Several months went by where he was sitting either with Mr. Bancroft, or by himself. These were trying times full of great faith, great courage and great doubt. Out of this practice the Delaware Zen Group was formed to spread the teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn. A few months later Zen Master Dae Kwang became the guiding teacher of the new Sangha. The group had its first retreat with Ken Kessel, JDPSN on November 2000.

The year 2001 was a turning point for the Sangha. We launched a web page, we changed our name to Delaware Valley Zen Center, and moved to a new location. We had five retreats with different teachers, four members took the Five Precepts, a satellite group affiliated with the University of Delaware was formed, and we began the process of becoming a non-profit organization. In 2005 William McCracken became the first Dharma Teacher of the Delaware Valley Zen Center. A satellite group, Open Heart Zen Group, was started in 2010 by Dharma Teacher Ben Fleury-Steiner.

Frmm 1999 to 2009 our guiding teacher was Zen Master Dae Kwang, an American monk who received transmission from Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1996. The abbot of the international Kwan Um School of Zen, and guiding teacher of the Providence Zen Center, he has traveled widely, leading retreats throughout North America, Europe and Asia, including 90 day retreats in Korea. His interests include meditation practices common to Christians and Buddhists.

Today the DVZC Sangha is an active community that provides a place of practice and instruction in Zen Buddhism, under the guidance of José Ramírez, JDPSN.

Our Officers