Talking about money inside a Soto Zen Buddhist community can feel uncomfortable for some people.

A common assumption is that spiritual life should remain outside economic concerns, as if naming money somehow contaminates practice. In reality, this view often creates confusion and tension.

Our community receives no public subsidies and no external institutional funding. Practice spaces, ordinary expenses, and activities are sustained through the conscious effort of practitioners.

Far from being a problem, this fact clarifies who we are and how we walk together.

In Soto Zen, practice is never separate from daily life. Dogen taught that the Way is expressed not only in zazen or texts, but in concrete actions. Managing resources, caring for shared spaces, paying rent, and assuming necessary expenses are part of the same field of practice.

There is no fixed split between “spiritual” and “material” dimensions.

A healthy Buddhist community’s economic life rests on several foundations.

1. Transparency

People who sustain a sangha have the right to know how common resources are used.

Clarity builds trust, and trust is one of the invisible foundations of long-term community life. When financial use is clear, contributing stops feeling like an obligation and becomes shared responsibility.

2. Shared responsibility

In a community without subsidies, no one should carry the whole project alone.

Every contribution matters. This is not about equal amounts, but about honest participation: giving according to one’s real possibilities, without comparison or guilt.

This expresses interdependence directly: what I receive from the community is also made possible by my own involvement.

3. Inner practice around money

Money often carries personal stories: fear, scarcity, distrust, identity.

Practicing in sangha includes observing these karmic tendencies when topics like membership fees, donations, or shared expenses arise. In this sense, economic life becomes another place of awakening practice.

Dana, not transaction

Contributing financially to a Buddhist community is not buying a service.

We are not purchasing meditation, teachings, or belonging. We are actively caring for a space that supports practice now and for future practitioners.

From this perspective, contribution shifts from transaction to dana: conscious generosity.

A community sustained without subsidies develops a particular strength. It depends on real member commitment, not on external structures. This supports a grounded sangha where decisions, including economic ones, are made through listening, dialogue, and mutual commitment.

Managing money with honesty, simplicity, and clarity is not an obstacle to practice. It is part of the Way itself.