about DRZ

Desert Rain Zen is a Zen Buddhist sangha located in Tucson, Arizona. You can join our
meditation and koan conversation sessions in person on Thursday evenings at
Little Chapel of All Nations on the University of Arizona Campus
and on Zoom on
Sunday afternoon and Tuesday and Thursday evenings

Desert Rain Zen was started in late 2008 by Jennifer Sellers and Tenney Nathanson, who were authorized as Meditation Instructors in this new Open Source sangha by our holding teacher Joan Sutherland Roshi. In early 2012 Tenney was authorized by Joan to teach as an Open Source Sensei; he received full transmission as an Open Source / Pacific Zen School Roshi in 2023 from Joan Sutherland Roshi and Sarah Bender Roshi. Tenney is our resident teacher. Jen is our Head of Practice.

Desert Rain is committed to developing an open, welcoming, and democratic sangha; most of our meetings balance silent meditation and other formal Zen activities with ample opportunity for group exploration of our individual practices, our evolution as a group, and the not always perfectly seamless integration of practice and life.

We meet on Zoom as well as in person at the Little Chapel of All Nations on the University of Arizona campus. We hold weekly Zoom sits on Sunday afternoons, a Tuesday Evening Study Group each week on Zoom, and an in-person Thursday evening sit (with a Zoom hybrid component) each week at Little Chapel.  We also hold periodic One Day Retreats (All Day Sits) at Little Chapel and an annual spring multi-day residential retreat at the Redemptorist Renewal Center at Picture Rocks (in the Tucson Mountains west of downtown). We also participate in Cloud Gate Zen (Open Source) mahasangha residential retreats, typically in fall.

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this page last modified August 28, 2026