I have been a long-term resident of Austin. Recently, I was shocked to learn that the salaried…read morepriests of this temple demand exorbitant Dakshinae for services already paid for at the temple. The charges at the temple are not cheap. After the pooja at home or after a new car pooja at the temple, the priests demand that their Dakshinae be the same amount as the service charge that was already paid. The practice of giving Dakshinae has been a tradition when the priests are not salaried but use the money given for personal expenses. However, at this temple, the priests shamelessly demand in front of guests that we match their Dakshinae with the service charges paid at the counter! The hosts of the event, in all their pious praying mood, are in disbelief when the priests don't leave the premises without being satisfied! Are the priests reporting these unethical earnings to the IRS? Should we bring it to the attention of the IRS? Young children and older adults are falling at their feet for blessings! What kind of role models are they for our community in Austin? Why are they blackmailing the hosts with extortion? These charges were not disclosed at the time of booking the event. This is BLACK MAIL in the name of religion!

While I'm still new to Austin and discovering places, this temple is a place you want to go if you…read moreare Shirdi Sai Baba devotee. Also in the same complex you will see Tirupathi Balaji temple, it is as authentic as it gets. I was floored the very first time I visited both the place. Tip: Take your time and plan to spend at least 15 mins of quite time at each place.

Beautiful and peaceful temple with friendly and inclusive people. Kirtan was really energetic and…read moreeveryone participated. Prasadam was served with much love and generosity. We felt very welcomed and supported.

Very clean, beautiful and comfortable masjid for prayer. Very warm and friendly society. Thanks for…read moreletting us having chance to pray. Thanks to the developers and society of this masjid.

The best community center and mosque i think the biggest in austin and they have so many activityread more

Worst masjid management! If you plan on moving near this masjid for the convenience, try somewhere…read moreelse. For the amount of money people have paid in parking tickets, they could have built another masjid. Unfortunately, they thought double sizing the building and adding a soccer field would do much more benefit versus having enough parking for Friday prayers. For Ramadan, you'll need to be lucky to find a space unless you come during Maghrib for Isha/Taraverh. Again, one star for the leadership of this Masjid. Hopefully, they can re-think this project and not wait on someone to sell their land to add parking. **Avoid this masjid at all cost** - if someone knows a Musalla nearby, please comment here.

Wow this masjid amazed me. I've been to lots of masjids and this was better than the ones in Dallas…read moreand Houston. I hope to come back again just to see this masjid

I've been meaning to visit some of the Buddhist temples in/around Austin and I finally got a chance…read moreto this past Saturday with my daughter who is home from college for the summer. We really enjoyed this temple. It was clean and quiet. The grounds were beautifully kept. There were a few people inside and one guy spoke to us and gave us a card to tell us when they have English and Chinese/Mandarin meetings. There was another person sitting at the inside table who I asked if I could take a pamphlet about Buddha and she said those were for people to take and read. I've been looking for a place to meditate and practice so I may be back here again soon. I love that this temple is easily accessible and fairly centrally located.

What a beautiful Buddhist temple!…read more Came for Chinese new year eve in year of the dragon for a chanting ceremony. The monk let everyone feel welcome, even those not speaking mandarin or not Buddhist. Explaining everything that was going on including when to kneel; stand; bow, etc. It was so beautifully decorated for new year and they had red enveloped to give away to visitors as well as incense to burn. Would definitely like to come back for other ceremonies as I felt very much included.

Small and beautiful Turkish mosque. You feel like you are home. There is a Turkish Barbar here as…read morewell.

I started my practice at Austin Zen Center about 4 years ago. I moved away from Austin and one of…read morethe things I miss the most is AZC. I loved the no-pressure to be or do beyond what I felt comfortable with. My introduction to the practice was held by Pat as part of their weekly Beginners Instruction class. I enjoyed the gentle and to the point guidance so much that I took the class several more times since they use different teachers each weekend and I wanted to gain insight from different perspectives. An underlying theme there was the point of trying and doing without judgement. AZC is a place of refuge where you can build community and people will meet you where you are without the pressure to become or do more than what you want to seek and explore. Love it.

I went to their Beginner class this morning because I've been reading and enjoying a fair amount of…read moreZen literature over the past year and one of the authors said joining a zendo was critical to growth in the discipline. This one seemed reasonable on the face of it because I wasn't sure I wanted to get involved in heavy Buddhism right away. I have a background in a different world religion that wasn't the best experience, so a place focusing more on the philosophy than the religion sounded like it might be the right speed. I read up on the FAQ and Etiquette on their site ahead of time and saw they have a particular dress code asking that people wear loose clothing with no brands or designs in calming colors that covers from shoulders down to below the knee. I had to do some digging in the closet to put something like that together, as athleisure is too tight and all my non-branded tops are tank tops. Ended up going with a loose long skirt and a T shirt turned inside out to avoid having a design on it. A little weird, but not too much effort to put in to be respectful. I showed up a little early to avoid being late and much like the other 1 star review of this place, I was a little shocked at the way the monk or teacher etc I was in proximity to on the porch deliberately cut his eye contact away and made an effort to turn his shoulders away from me. My normal experience with Buddhist monks is that they are at times reserved but generally friendly, so to get the "popular girl refused to see you in the hall" treatment from one raised my eyebrows a bit. But I rallied and sat outside waiting for the class to begin, as after that greeting I certainly wasn't going to barge into the building without a specific invite. The teacher for the class, Pat, I think, was warmer and friendly and pleasant about showing us the ropes. But the ropes! Weird ropes. Part of the class was showing us the temple mandated way of holding your hands during meditation. Yes, they have a single specific way, and by God you'd better get it right. It involves jamming your thumbs together tip to tip, which I couldn't do because it wasn't in the FAQ that I'd need to cut my nails down to the quick before class and I tend to have 1/3 to 1/2 cm long natural nails because I just do. They grow quickly and don't break off. I'd have to cut my nails every day to keep them short enough to be able to stick my thumbs together flat finger-trap style. The other girl in the class also got a snip that her form wasn't good, and I suspect it was due to a similar issue. I really hadn't expected extremely precise physical forms to be part of the day one instruction and I've never seen a meditation class where everyone in the class was required to hold the exact same hand position. I particularly didn't follow the logic when we're all doing the meditating facing the wall, so it's not as though my thumbs creating an imperfect circle could be distracting anyone near me. I completely understand trying to avoid meditation postures like a ghost girl crawling out of a TV for the sake of others in the room, but to pick like that over something so minor and to have a specific temple rule that everyone regardless of arm length, hand shape, and nail length, would adopt identical arm and hand posture did not feel very Zen. I had anticipated instruction more on how to avoid distraction, demos of breathing and sitting techniques (Pat did nicely here), and connect better with myself and the energy in the room but found myself instead incredibly self-conscious that the Thumb Police might be back after me. There was also unnecessary fussing about knee placement and the assurance that body parts falling asleep at times painfully would be a normal part of the process. Disagree, but okay. Here's where they finished losing me. At the end of the class, the regular member meditation group began to assemble in the outer lobby. Imagine the journey my eyebrows took when I saw a guy walk in wearing skinny jeans cut off well above the knee, followed by a woman wearing strappy tank athleisure with a bright neon bra underneath, and another guy wearing an AZC-branded big logo tee. After everything my thumbs and other peoples' knees had been through, now this??? And a good 2/3 of them had Active Btch Face same as the guy from the porch. I'm no stranger to performative piety because I was raised Southern Baptist, but I hadn't expected to run into such a strong blast of it here. I definitely won't be back because I'm not sure what's going on with this place to make people act this way but it's decidedly both dualistic and hypocritical and not a vibe that lends itself well to the pursuit of a clear mind. I'm sure some people there are nice and normal but that was a hell of an intro class that could be actively harmful to peoples' perception of Zen and Buddhism if they're less experienced with religious sects choosing to act funky when the behavior is not required in the texts.

Awesome! - Ever since I visited Thailand last year, I've missed the sticky rice you could buy at…read morepretty much any market you came across. They make it in bamboo and you have to crack the shell and peel it back to eat it. It's essentially a cheap energy bar for the rice farmers there. - Very tasty! Anyway, I thought I'd have to go back to Thailand to ever get one of these again but I recently came across a little piece of Thailand in Austin. If you ever want to get a feel for what a Thai market feels like and/or just check out a fairly genuine Buddhist temple without having to fly 17+ hours check this place out. Calendar here: http://www.my.calendars.net/watthaiaustin I've only been to one Mahachat Festival so far but I'm definitely planning to check out songkran ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songkran ) in April along with some other cool events. We are lucky to have this in Austin. It's a long drive and a little hard to find but so worth it!

I came here for the Loi Krantang festival yesterday and can't contain my excitement. Having…read morerecently moved to Austin (from NYC and LA prior), I figured that I'd have to give up finding superb Asian cuisine (except Vietnamese). Arriving at this Thai temple to find two dozen or so food vendors for this fe(a)st was like coming upon cases of ice cold Topo Chico in the middle of a desert. Sure, one vendor served pad thai and some curries, but many of the offerings represented the cuisine of Northeast Thailand (Issan) and Laos. This has to be some of the best Thai food in the Austin area, and it is incredibly authentic to boot. Sticky rice galore. Sour sausage. Yen tau fu with cubes of congealed blood, squid, shrimp and fish balls. Bags of kaffir lime leaves and incendiary Thai chilis for a good price. Skewers of grilled meats, including chicken hearts. Deep-fried and grilled whole fish. Fantastic deep-fried bananas. Mystery surprises wrapped in bamboo leaves. Freshly prepared papaya salad. Fantastic little stacks of coconut and rice pancakes reminiscent of kanom krok (but alas, no actual kanom krok). And dozens more iterations of desserts based on those ingredients, sometimes laced with palm sugar. Then, I ate an entire one of those chilies and lost track of the rest. Pinch me, I must still be dreaming! And anxiously awaiting the feast for the Thai new year in April.