Dharma Bum Temple

The Dharma Bum Temple grew out of a conversation between two young Westerners at a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan in 2005. They talked about a place in America where people could learn Buddhism and practice meditation while staying comfortable in their own culture. They had met in San Diego in 2003 at Hsi-Fang Temple and later lived for stretches at Fo Guang Shan's monastery in Taiwan. They liked Buddhism, Bob Dylan and Jack Kerouac, and they accepted that their karma had placed them in the United States.

The first Dharma Bum Center opened on December 31, 2006, in a downtown San Diego building dating to 1924. A local historian told them it once slept Chinese workers, back when the area was Chinatown. It had a second-floor zendo, where Eddie Santiago led the midnight meditation that welcomed the new place. There was no sign, no flag and no charge. The classes were in English, with no expectation of bowing, chanting, incense or robes. People found it anyway, and for each group that arrived, another class was added.

The temple now sits at 4144 Campus Ave. and does not favor any one school of Buddhism. Teaching centers on the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path and the Six Paramitas. Classes are free, held in person and mostly streamed online. They include Introduction to Buddhism and Meditation, Silent Meditation, Metta, Tibetan Shamatha and Tonglen, and recovery groups. A Half-Day of Silence Retreat runs the first Saturday of each month, 8am to noon, with no registration. Sitting, walking and temple cleaning are all done in silence.

Service is part of the practice. Each Thursday volunteers prepare food that would otherwise be thrown away and carry it to people living on downtown streets, a practice now in its sixteenth year. The eight-week Engaged Buddhist Training Program, limited to 18 people, pairs Saturday study with community service and ends with a Taking Refuge and Five Precept ceremony. Those who want longer stays can book a two- or three-night personal retreat, with private rooms, a Japanese Zen garden to rake and a meditation each morning at 8am, at $108 per night.