The monks and lay parishioners are very welcoming. Meditation, dharma talks, chanting, and…read morefellowship are all great. There is an English service available, too. Attend a festival!! Great food and celebration. It's a must!

I went last night to the autumn festival. This time around the food vendors were a little less but…read moreI was told usually Lunar New Year is when there is more food and more activities. I enjoyed my time with my group of friends. Got the pho and the pandan waffles. Both were great! The highlight of the evening was seeing the tea room open we decided to go in. The monk came out and welcomed us to have a seat... he brought tea out and a LOT of snacks! We had a great evening chit chatting and sharing travel experiences. I truly love this temple! I will go back for meditation on a Wednesday or Sunday

I don't have experience visiting other temples but this one is very welcoming. You are encouraged…read moreto stay and eat after the monks are done. Also the monk breaks into English for awhile to thank you for coming and making the Buddhist temple successful. Every single time I go I learn a little more about this wonderful religion and Thai culture. This place may not be extravagant but it is the perfect place to feel welcome and accepted. More people should know about this place and come here for prayer and meditation.

Loving kindness was my experience. The congregation was inviting and extremely friendly. Beautiful…read morecommunity, I am grateful for allowing me to sit in on the service. Very interesting how the Monks and the community support each other. Thank you!

What a lovely place to visit! This is a very short detour if you're going between Austin and…read moreDripping Springs/other hill country destinations. The main temple building is gorgeous: golden on the outside, peaceful on the inside, with statues and an altar. There's another prayer room with lovely paintings on the walls, and a whole complex with a library, housing, and trees. I recommend you check out the website; there's a lot of good information about the temple and how to visit. You definitely don't have to be a Buddhist to visit; they're welcoming of everyone. Just be respectful (and remember to remove your shoes when you go indoors) http://sitagu.org/austin/newbies/newbies.html If you go during lunch, you're invited to join for a free meal, which we did: one of the monks saw us leaving and invited us to join the meal, which was starting to wrap up around 12:45 PM. The monks eat separately from lay people; we were at a table with a couple of Burmese people and a couple of Americans (who were staying on a retreat). Be warned, though: the food isn't all vegetarian, as I assumed it would be! So if you're vegetarian or vegan, make sure to clarify what's veg and what isn't. Check out this lovely oasis, especially if you like meditation or want to learn more about Buddhism.

I have been meaning to check out Buddhist temples in/around Austin for quite some time and I…read morefinally had a chance to this past weekend with my daughter who is in town from college. This was our second stop of two that day. Nice location and beautiful setting! We enjoyed it but it was very hot and muggy outside so we couldn't walk around outside for very long. I walked inside the temple expecting a quiet place to reflect but there were 3 people inside chatting and their phones next to them, so we just walked around in our socks as they require removal of shoes before going into the buildings, which is a nice thing to do. We saw one Buddhist monk/nun from afar walking around. The old buddha bronze statues surrounding the inside were nice. I assumed it would not be right to take photos inside so we didn't. I walked into the food area and saw they were prepping for an event. Shoes were not permitted in the dining area. The food they had left smelled nice and it was nice to see who was donating the food each day. I look forward to going back some day when it's not so hot and when the inside temple space has chanting or silence. :-)

This is an amazing place to visit. It's a beautiful Tibetan architectural Buddhist temple,…read moreVajrayana style Temple, from Nyingma Lineage! I was really well treated by resident lama and by the leaders. I really appreciate de visit!

It's a miracle that a Tibetan Buddhist temple connected to an authentic lineage can be found in…read moreAmerica. This is a place where those who want to commit to a serious practice of Buddhism can learn and grow.

A peaceful gem of knowledge and meditation guidance! Rev. Choi does an excellent job leading…read moremeditations with a comprehensive instructional handout and a gentle and kind presence. I felt very much at home as I entered and even more so during the practice. So thankful to find this tranquil refuge so close by! Highly recommended to anyone interested in cultivating a meditation practice.

From the owner: Meditation, Meditation Center, Buddhism, Mindfulness, Won…read moreBuddhism , Spiritual Books Library

I'm a slacker Buddhist…read more You know those Christians that are called CEOs? Show up for "Christmas and Easter Only"? Yeah, I'm the Asian that only shows up for Lunar New Year Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. I've previously taken my parents and my husband to this temple where we sit and pray and do light meditation and chanting activities as well as fun singing activities in Mandarin Chinese. This temple is very different from the many that I frequented in Houston as a child. Everyone here has both English and Mandarin spoken and the services are conducted in both. Further more, one thing that I think is awesome is the Lunch and food provided here is donation based where as the temples in Houston I grew up with were payment only. I'm really excited to be 2 lights down from them, it's a 6 minute drive from the Arboretum area to this place and they have a parking lot as well as side 360 parking when it gets packed. I went last night to the Mid-Autumn Festival where they had many fun family friendly activities, everything vegetarian based food and many vegetarian asian type desserts which my parents taught me all about. So fun to see the non-asian folk also around here as the Buddhist temples I went to were predominately 90% Asian visiting. Here in Austin, I would say it's 60% Asian, with 40% everyone else. They have very cool meditation, yoga, etc events on Saturday and Sunday mornings, donation based as well as a kitchen that serves Vegetarian based meals. Also, what I love is they are not the type to "shame on you if you don't donate money to a religious cause". They truly are a friendly family type vibe and you donate because you truly believe in doing good and you want to. Totally low pressure. Also, they gave me a mooncake for the Mid-Autumn Festival that was handmade by all their volunteers and in the Lunar New Year, they give you red envelopes in Chocolate coin money, but still money none-the-less. (Houston temples actually give you $1 in a beautiful red envelope!) Celebrating Asian traditions here in Austin are very apparent here and it's beautifully decorated and I will do my best to be back more frequently.

If you've driven up 360 you will inevitably notice a big gold shiny buddha sitting happily in front…read moreof a temple and perhaps wondered what it was all about. Well I sure did and I decided to check it out. I'm not Buddhist but do enjoy meditation and yoga. I looked them up online and saw that they offered meditation classes on Saturdays (in English). Before committing, I wanted to scope this place out. I arrived at around 4:30, thirty minutes before they close. Aside from a few construction workers (apparently they are doing some major renovations), I was the only one there. I snooped into the tea room and felt like I was transported to another time. Beautiful wooden tables, one of which topped with a delicate tea set and a small vase with flowers. I saw that they offered (assumingly) vegetarian Chinese foods and noted to myself that I must try this! I walked deeper into the dining area into another room and found flyers for classes on the Introduction to Buddhism in English, as well as Chinese language classes for adults. I left the tea room and walked across the pavilion into the beautifully ornate main room to find two monks chanting in sync. I couldn't understand what they were saying but I enjoyed how serene and focused they were. At first I thought perhaps I was intruding but then I saw a welcome note on a table, sign in sheet, some information on Buddhism, and some sweets which I happily helped myself to. I will absolutely be returning to check out the meditation session sometime as well as try the food. And I will report back. :)

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.