Minnesota Zen Center
Minnesota Zen Meditation Center was formed when the founding head teacher, Dainin Katagiri, (1928-1990) was invited to come from California in 1972 to teach a small but growing group of Minneapolis students interested in the dharma.
After his death, Shohaku Okumura served as interim head teacher until the installation of Karen Sunna, who had studied with Katagiri Roshi until his death.
Succeeding Karen as head priest is Tim Burkett, a long time student of both Katagiri and Suzuki Roshi. Tim became the head teacher on November 1, 2002.
Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, attended the Center for a period of time.
Natalie Goldberg studied at the Center for over a dozen years and writes extensively about it in her books Long Quiet Highway and The Great Failure.
