As a beginner to meditation, I felt very comfortable and received thoughtful and complete…read moreorientation before starting. Have been to both the temple and a meditation series in the Osaka garden and completely enjoyed both. Definitely a community to look into if you find yourself addicted to distraction or constantly unsatisfied and looking for the next thing to feel fulfilled!!

Welcoming and friendly! Our mediation at the temple was lovely and the environment inviting…read more Wonderful experience.

Temple offers a weekly Qigong class on Tuesday mornings. If you're "not getting any younger,"…read moreQigong exercises are good for maintaining flexibility and balance. Dennis the instructor is a long time tai chi practitioner. No fee but donations are appreciated. Very low key - everyone goes at the speed and extent they are able (most of us are senior citizens). Temple's communications fall short of 5-star so you may not get accurate information from the website

I have been here years ago for the Japanese classes. The folks were really friendly and I liked the…read moreteacher a lot. They use Japanese for Busy People as their text, though, and having taken Japanese in high school and college, JfBP isn't a book I like for language learning. Classes were affordable, and they were laid back too. I enjoyed my time learning here.

Although I was born in Chicago as half Swedish (father's side), half Sicilian (mother's side), and…read moreBaptized as Roman Catholic - I was raised as a Zen Buddhist. And the Midwest Buddhist Temple in Old Town was the place of meditation and Japanese culture where I and my family went most often. Because we lived in Lincoln Park less than a mile away. I was privileged to have this place be so prominent throughout my young life. It is a wonderful part of my heart. Annually the Midwest Buddhist Temple puts on it's traditional "Ginza Festival", at which there are food stalls, shopping tents, artisan demonstrations, and live music & dance performances on the temple's large outdoor stage.. Occasionally the Midwest Buddhist Temple offers classes in Japanese dance & music, as well as scheduled live performances. The temple is also the home of Chicago's famous "Ho Etsu Taiko".

It was their Ginza Holiday annual event! They had lots of food vendors and crafts! Performances on…read morethe main stage by Minyo dancers, Taiko drumming, Martial arts demonstrations and other groups. It was very entertaining!

I am a long time student and supporter of Taigen (Roshi). We first me in San Francisco around 2001…read morewhen I began sitting with his Sangtha. It is difficult to describe in words how important Taigen and his Sangha were to me then. My beloved father died in 2004 and I recall how supportive the Sangha was at that time. I guess you might say that Taigen was just the right teacher at the right time. I recall how impressed I was with Taigen's sincerity and passion for Soto Zen. Taigen helped to firmly shift my mind in the direction of the Dharma. It should also be noted that Taigen is considered one of the great contributors to the academic study of Dogen in the West. Deep Bows, Phil T

It feels a little funny giving a Buddhist temple a yelp review.... but here goes…read more I practiced here for more than 7 or so years and I would consider myself a former student. I very dearly miss the company of the people I practiced with at ADZG and I remember my time with them fondly. I came to ADZG a confused young man and I left a confused older man. If you're looking for a place that will fix you you're looking in the wrong place. Over the course of my attendance the guiding teacher spent countless hours with me answering my questions and at times showed greater concern for my well being than I had shown for myself. He is not perfect, he has things to work on and it's important to note that we all do. I'm not trying to minimize or maximize his benevolence and every person who enters ADZG will have a different experience of him. My ask, if I can make a request, is that you enter this space with your eyes open and your ears ready. This place may not be for you. You may run away after your first visit. But, please do not take any review of this place as the definition. Our age is poisoned by politics and partisanship. I've heard the guiding teacher make political statements during talks and I believe he should stop that immediately. But he's not a bad person and the people who go to ADZG are not in a cult. Zen isn't a leftist movement and if you're a more conservative person this practice is for you too.

I came here for their monthly free concert for the first time and was impressed with the beauty and…read morecraftsmenship that filled this space! The Concert: Every second Saturday of the month there is a free concert located here in St. James Chapel which is on the second floor of the Archbishop Quigley Center. The concerts ususally commence at 2:00 pm and are open to the public and they are FREE! The concert yesterday was Kaia a quartet of women playing string instruments. Apparently they performed here last year as well. The music was perfect for the setting as it was classically based including a rendition of "The Four Seasons" and some Argentinean influenced music. After the hour long concert individuals could purchase Kaia's music on a CD or as I did on CD Baby online... I love Kaia's classic Tango Music especially their redition of "La Cumparsita!" Listen to their clip of this by scrolling down their website below. See: http://www.kaiastringquartet.com Concert Schedule and Tour Information: https://www.windows.org The Space: St. James Chapel is truly an amazing space with its "40-foot-high stained glass windows, created by Robert Giles of the John Kinsella Company, (the windows) have been called 'the crown jewels' of Chicago's architectural treasures. Each window contains 20,000 to 45,000 pieces of antique English stained glass that together illustrate the Old Testament, the New Testament and church history." Source: https://openhousechicago.org/sites/site/st-james-chapel-at-archbishop-quigley-center/ There are also free tours with a docent on Saturdays from 9:00-11:00 am -I want to return to hear more about the history and art. FYI-The concert was packed...which was nice that so many people enjoyed this offering!

The seminary that was here when the Cardinal was a boy is gone. But this lovely Gothic style stone…read morechapel remains and it's beautiful stained glass windows are now restored. Lots of folks have had their weddings here and special events of the Chicago Archdiocese are often held here. It is also a favorite venue for concerts of classical music, most recently those organized by Ars Antigua, a local period instrument ensemble. While it is a lovely and meditative place to visit or to attend an event or concert at, there are numerous acoustical challenges in this reverberant space. Words spoken from the altar area are not easily heard distinctly. If you are not seated towards the front, music performed here can be riddled by its own echos. Also, due to its location so close to the hub-bub of Michigan Avenue and the Water Tower, there can sometimes be intrusive noise from the traffic below. But if you have the chance to be there, don't miss it!

Great downtown location. Parking can be an issue near by but 12 bucks to park downtown isn't…read moreterrible. Rabbi Greene is great.

I've never been here for services (perhaps one of these days), but my daughter is currently…read moreenrolled in the mom/tot program and I'm a big fan. The downtown location is great. I was worried about the parking situation when I first enrolled, but I've never had trouble finding a spot nearby. The building itself is beautiful and very clean. The mom/tot class itself is only an hour long, which is as you can expect to hold the attention of these little ones. It's setup with the first 45 minutes being open play stations (ex: sand table, water table, coloring, play-doh). There's also typically a painting station or 2, but so far I'm happy that my little one hasn't shown any interest & and leaves the class with her clothes/face paint free. After clean-up time (yep, we sing the song) the tots sit around a table for snack time, which is pretty darn cute. We wrap up the class with some circle time (songs and bubbles). By then hopefully the kids are tired enough to take a nap! I'm sure ready for one myself! I really like the teacher, Miss Jenny, and was bummed to hear she'll be leaving next year to take care of her own little one. However, we've had some fabulous subs throughout the year so I"m confident they'll find a good replacement. My one complaint is that the time of the class is absolutely awful. As of now it's from 12pm-1pm and my daughter (like most kids her age) typically goes down for a nap at 12pm. She's not tired enough to take a nap earlier and if we wait until after 1pm she turns into a scary monster. They did move the class to 11:30am-12:30pm for next year, which will be slightly better, but even earlier would make Chicago Sinai a 5 star business.

What a lovely little church! Beautiful liturgy, thought provoking sermons, and a wonderful,…read morefriendly community. I'm so glad we found St. Peter's!!!

Newly renovated, this church has recently resumed Sunday services. The renovation was thoughtfully…read moredone and maintained the integrity of the historic 130 year old church. Services have seen several dozen participants, with enthusiastic organ music. Open House scheduled for November 7 - come and see!

My brain feels like it got a bath. No, that's a good thing! I feel shiny and new and serene and…read moreblissful. And quiet. And still. And this is hours after leaving the Zen Buddhist Temple in Evanston. I attended their Sunday afternoon Zazen sitting. For those of you unfamiliar with Zazen, it's a meditation, or just sitting without thinking for a good long while. There's some guided chanting in English and Japanese with walking meditation thrown in for good measure. And that's a hell of a lot harder than it sounds. I fidgeted, I wiggled, my thoughts kept sneaking in reminding me of my undone laundry, unpaid bills, my misplaced shorts, unread novels. My knees ached, my nose itched, my hands were hot and sweaty. I prayed for the sitting to end. I kept sneaking looks around the temple. And yet I walked out in bliss, high on cloud nine. Yep, I'm a fan of Zazen meditation after the fact, even though I hated it 5 minutes earlier. While the congregation seems small, they're friendly and very willing to explain different parts of the service that seems alien to a Westerner like me, which is something that I haven't found in other temples I've attended. In my experience, Buddhists are a rare breed - they're the happiest campers on earth, but they really couldn't give a rat's ass about being friendly to newcomers. But not here. I'm not sure if I'll be back though - the service was well over 2 hours. Yes, that probably why I feel so sparkling clean and refreshed at the moment, but 2 hours of sitting and trying to clear the mind is an hour too long for this Westerner born and raised in our ADHD culture where we prefer everything at a million miles an hour. Which means I should be 2 million miles away from here.

[I feel weird rating this, because I feel like this is the last kind of place I should be judging,…read morebecause part of the point is not to judge...but here goes] One of my favorite quotes is by Gandhi: "Be the change you want to see in the world". Well, there has been a lot of conflict in my life lately, both from without and probably even moreso within, so I understand if I want to be a part of that change, it has to start with myself. I am the first one to admit how fallible and flawed I am, and hopefully as long as I am of this earth (well, beyond that too), I will not cease trying to remedy that. I have read many texts on Buddhism and been interested for years in the philosophy, and had tried meditation on my own, but had never been to a formal practice. I decided today was the perfect time to start (or I guess, in a way, continue). The Buddhist temple near me did not have a service today, so I decided to try this one. I drove by it at first, because it was not a temple like I was expecting, but was a storefront in Evanston. Lesson one, don't judge by first impressions or by outward appearances. As we walked in, this very kind grey bearded man greeted us and briefly explained how the afternoon would work. We began with a chant that at first I was taken aback because his voice was so deep and this was all so different for me, but as it went on I appreciated the words (part of it was in English) and the beat was comforting, like a heartbeat. Then we took our spots on the mats and began the first sitting. He gently came around and corrected our postures, and briefly explained proper breathing, etc. At first it was hard to shut out my thoughts, but it came much easier after a while, and I was surprised when he announced the end of the first sitting. Then we did a walking meditation around the room, which pointed out a lesson I well need to learn--that I need to slow down and be more patient with those around me, and that I don't always need to focus on getting to the end point... After that, we did a seated session again (which after walking, was hard to focus and settle into). During this, he briefly gave us what I guess would be the equivalent of a sermon, though in a very calm and soothing voice and not preachy at all, but thoughtful. I appreciated it. Then we finished our sitting, and we made an offering to the altar (totally voluntary, and it is not to any god) and bowed in thanks. I was shocked and amazed to find out the sittings had been 40 minutes--he said he does not tell people that, and I agree if I had known I probably would have been much more antsy. He also took the time to answer any questions, ask us how we felt about it, etc. They also have 10 hour sessions once a month, but I personally don't know if I will ever be that Zen! It left me feeling very peaceful and very hopeful...I then went to the lake with a friend to just sit, read, and be with our thoughts, and I am sure the session helped put us in that frame of mind. I want to check out other temples, but I may go back. And I would not hesitate to recommend this place to anyone interested in finding out more about Zen meditation. Namaste.