Intensive Training Program Fall 2026

Opening to the Four Noble Truths

The Zen Center of Syracuse’s Intensive Training Program is a chance to deepen your practice and develop an understanding of how consistent Zen training can help you meet the challenges of your personal life, your community, and the complex issues of our times.

The theme for discussion and investigation during this training period will be The Four Noble Truths.

We will be reading The Dhammapada (edited with an Introduction and with commentaries by Eknath Easwaran) and discussing it in our Tuesday evening meetings.

Additional suggested readings include:

• Subtle Sound: The Zen Teachings of Maurine Stuart (edited, with an Introduction, by Shinge Roshi Sherry Chayat)

• Opening to Oneness by Roshi Muho Nancy Baker

• The Path to Bodhidharma by Shodo Harada Roshi

ITP Submission Due Date: August 8, 2026
ITP Start Date: September 8, 2026
End Date: November 17

If you have any questions concerning the Intensive Training Program, please contact us at admin@zencenterofsyracuse.org or use our Contact Us page.

Meetings: Six Tuesday evenings from 7:15 to 8:30 p.m., immediately following the regular 6 to 7 p.m. sittings:

• September 8

• September 22

• October 6

• October 20

• November 3

• November 17

ITP participants are strongly encouraged to join those sittings beforehand. Local participants must attend ITP meetings in person. Zoom will be available for those who live out of town.

For students new to the Zen Center, emphasis will be on basic forms and terminology, establishing a regular practice, volunteering at the Center, and working with a mentor who is a Dharma Teacher at the Center.

More advanced students will challenge themselves to intensify their daily practice, participate more fully in ceremonies, learn officer roles, broaden the scope of their readings in Buddhism, memorize all sutras and dharanis chanted in morning service plus Tei Dai Denpo (lineage chanting done on dokusan evenings), and increase their commitments to the Zen Center. Each will work with a Zen Center Dharma Teacher and see Shinge Roshi for dokusan.