Antei-ji

Antei-ji’s place in the world is simple:

To hold the heart of Zen Buddhism without softening it for modern life.

To offer committed training.

To hold a mirror up to the world in the name of peace.

Antei-ji is an independent, non-sectarian Zen temple and Buddhist community in Lancaster. We have been here since 2014, practising zazen and following the Buddha Way together.

For more than two thousand years, generation after generation of people have sat in the same way as the Buddha. Some were searching for an answer, some were suffering, some were curious, and some simply felt that there must be more to life than the way they had been living it. They were all people just like you. They sat and found that something beautiful happened. 

We are part of that same ancient stream of practice, but we are not trying to recreate that old world, nor are we trying to turn Buddhism into something more comfortable for the modern world. We are simply trying to keep the heart of the practice alive here in Lancaster as a British way of practising Zen.

Our teaching is deliberately simple. We point directly to practice: sitting, walking, breathing, meeting life as it is. For this reason, the life of Antei-ji is lived in the ordinary world: on the meditation cushion, in the cemetery grounds, in work, in relationships, in silence and in conversation. We also show it through pilgrimage, walking as the expression of the peace that the world is so desperately looking for.

We believe that awakening is available to ordinary human beings, to anyone who is willing to fully walk the Way. For people just like you.

Come and see what happens when, for a little while, you stop trying to get somewhere. You are welcome here, you don’t need to know anything, you don’t need to become anything. You just need to walk through the door.

The kettle is on.