Dear Friends:

This is the time of year when many of you are looking for your Tassajara brochure in the mail, checking our website for opening dates, and setting aside time for your summer visit to Tassajara.

San Francisco Zen Center’s leadership, along with our Health & Safety Committee, have been meeting for months to discuss the question of opening Tassajara for the 2021 Summer Season. As you may imagine, Tassajara presents many unique and complex challenges in order to open safely during a pandemic.

After much deliberation, we made the difficult decision not to have a regular Tassajara Summer Guest season this year. The shared bathhouse, communal dining, and other factors mean that even with a vaccine, it may be difficult for us to assure the health and safety of our guests and residents. In addition, there are challenges around gathering enough staff to run Tassajara properly, and the ability to hold our volunteer work periods which are so crucial to our functioning.

While our hearts are heavy, we look forward to the time when we will find ourselves together once again, enjoying the sound of the Tassajara creek, the cool morning breezes and the good company we have cherished throughout the years.

There is a small group of residents currently living at Tassajara to perform maintenance and basic upkeep, making sure that we are ready for the time when you can visit once again. Until then, we hope you and your loved-ones are safe and healthy, and we look forward to seeing you as soon as it is safe to do so.

With warm bows,

For more information on how people are doing at Tassajara and the decision to not offer our regular Summer Guest Season, see the article Tassajara in the Pandemic.