Tasaajara was my home for several years, when I lived there for Zen training. The zendo was the center of life there, where the students and residents sat zazen for many hours every day. In the summer, we also cared for guests who enjoyed the hot springs, while they took workshops with Zen teachers.

Late at night on March 26, 2026, during the last hours of the Spring Practice Period, a fire broke out in the Tassajara zendo. While no one was hurt, the entire building burned to the ground. Other structures and most surrounding trees were saved.

My daughter had invited me to join her family for a summer family retreat at Tassajara, and we had all been looking forward to be sitting in the zendo again, but we had to relocate to the large conference building that is being used as an interim zendo.

Zen practitioners are quite aware of impermanence and constant change. There had been fires before, and the first zendo, where Shunryu Suzuki taught, had also burned down. So things felt almost normal, when we arrived on July 28th. But when you looked up from the courtyard to where the zendo is “missing”, it felt strange.

Still, children, parents and grandparents had a great time, and there were many highlights, like bathing in the creek, a Jizo workshop, preparing meals, and going for hikes.