The Engaged Zen Foundation is a 501(c)(3), non-membership, independent organization originally founded to foster zazen (seated contemplative meditation) practice in prison. Meditative training alters the functioning of the mind of the practitioner and these changes manifest with the development of positive perspectives on life. Our initial goal was to urge prisoners to use the time available during imprisonment to foster the practice of zazen, sitting in dynamic, lucid awareness, thus serving prisoners on release by enabling them, through their own efforts, to reenter society with a disciplined, patient, nonviolent and compassionate frame of mind.

Over the years EZF has broadened its perspective to address universal human rights and social justice issues well beyond the prison environment.

From the co-founder

Our activities are geared to assisting individuals on a case-by-case basis and much of our effort is unseen and unacknowledged. EZF was originally founded with the intention of it being a means for fostering zen practice in prisons as a mechanism for bringing about change; initially in the minds of practicing prisoners and then in the prison systems themselves. This, after well over a decade of experience, has proved to be an impractical and short sighted perspective. We have seen, experienced and learned, a lot over the past years about the nature and magnitude of the shortcomings of the criminal justice system and the underlying paradigms that drive it. The ramifications are deeper than just the matter of prisoners engaging in meditation practice while incarcerated. It matters little if one or two prisoners are practicing in a facility if hundreds of others in the same facility are subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment on a daily basis.