The Buddhist Dharma Center of Cincinnati began in the mid 1980’s as a handful of meditators sitting in one another’s living rooms on an increasingly regular basis. After a time, we found a home above the Prasada Press, then located in Northside, a neighborhood that has been our home ever since. In 1992, we moved to the Off the Avenue Studios, where we stayed until spring of 2001, when we moved into our present location at 15 Moline Court, just off Hamilton Avenue, in a facility which was renovated specifically for our use. It includes a spacious, well-lit meditation hall, an adjacent room for tea and conversation, and a back library room.

Since its beginning, the focus of the center has undergone several shifts, but has always emphasized welcoming a broad range of people working within the various Buddhist traditions. Although various members of the center have done some study in the Tibetan traditions, the predominant forms of practice among us have been vipassana, zen, and meditative inquiry. The center has always been funded by individual donations and has no affiliation with other organizations.

Openness and inclusiveness are at the heart of Dharma teachings and practice. The center is committed to kindness and respect for others, regardless of race, religion, cultural expressions, gender, gender identity, age or abilities.

The Dharma Center has no resident or guiding teacher. We are entirely community-led and supported. Sitting quietly, each person practices within the tradition that is most heartfelt. There is both deep respect for the paths we and others are on, and a sense that we are all engaging the core or common denominator of Buddhist practice. Some of our members identify with no particular tradition and study with no teacher outside our center; others maintain links to teachers and styles of practice found elsewhere. No one seems to “represent” any particular school, and in discussions over tea, we find both genuine differences of approach and lots of common ground.