The Sunnyvale Sun

Cover Story

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Summon: The Venerable Jien Zong demonstrates the Ôbig gong,Õ an instrument used to announce precepts, meal times and other events at the Chung Tai Zen Center of Sunnyvale.

Cultural Avenue

Ancient traditions intersect on Sunnyvale block

By Stephaen Baxter

A stretch of Arques Avenue in Sunnyvale intended for warehouses has become a place of salvation and spiritual enlightenment.

Next to the Iranian Christian Church and the India Cultural Center, the Chung Tai Zen Center opened April 29 in a former industrial building at 750 E. Arques Ave. Cheaper property prices and the street's proximity to Highway 101 helped draw the three organizations to the block, and some cultural traditions are beginning to mix.

The cultural blend, however, is expected to lose an ingredient Aug. 13, when leaders from the India Cultural Center plan to shut the building because of new environmental rules. A city law requires a permit to protect against potential hazardous material use, and the center could not get it.

"We are now sandwiched between the law, the landlord and the city," said Pradeep Joshi, program director for the India Cultural Center.

Joshi said members of the center had attended some meditation sessions at the Zen Center, and he enjoyed the crossover while it lasted.

"We wanted to share their culture and we wanted to go there for meditation and all that ...there are some good things happening," Joshi said.

Leaders from the India center and Iranian church also attended the Zen Center's opening in April.

"This little area is getting pretty eclectic," said Abbot Jian Hu of the Zen Center.

The $2 million, 20,000-square-foot Zen Center quadrupled the size of its old location on N. Fair Oaks Avenue in Sunnyvale. It has a library, classrooms, a Buddha hall and a 117-seat Zen hall for meditation. Its white marble floors, woodwork and statues are spotless, and patrons' shoes must be removed to enter rooms such as the Zen hall. The hall has firm yellow cushions for seated meditation, and leaders strike a large gong called a daqing to calm the group.

Ten ox-herding drawings hang on the walls, symbolizing a journey of the mind. The abbot compared it to Catholicism's Stations of the Cross.

The center has no paid staff, but dozens of volunteers organize events and keep it tidy.

Some rooms in the Zen Center are soundproof to cut noise from the block's fourth neighbor across Arques, Sunnyvale Fire Station No. 2.

Sirens blare from departing fire trucks, but so far, few alarms have come during meditation.

"The siren is only for a few seconds...we want to train the (students) not to be disturbed with any noise," Hu said.

At the Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Taiwan, where the center's tradition of Buddhism began 20 years ago, much louder bells ring at dawn to bring monks to prayer, Hu said. That might not go over well with their Sunnyvale neighbors, he said.

Bridging cultures

If it weren't for two worshippers at the Iranian Christian Church, the new Zen Center never may have been built.

Former Iranian church patrons Kathleen and Kambiz Ansari of Santa Clara-based Petra Homes Corp. planned and constructed the Zen Center, drawing on their experience expanding the Iranian church in 2005.

The Iranian church gutted a warehouse and added a second story, TV studio, classrooms and seating for 500.

The Ansaris are devoted churchgoers, and Petra Homes gets its name from St. Peter, the "rock" upon which Jesus said he would build his church.

The company has built homes, commercial buildings and dental clinics, but Kambiz Ansari said he prefers to build religious centers.

Having built the new Zen Center and the Iranian Church, he said, "I imagine that block would be nothing but peaceful."

The Rev. Hormoz Shariat founded the Iranian Christian Church in a South Bay home with three members in 1987. It now has more than 300 local worshippers and broadcasts its services by satellite to millions in Europe and Iran.

"Even though we are 300, I'm sure it has impacted the lives of 300,000. Every time we go on TV, our switchboard is lit," Shariat said.

As the church's following grew, its leaders saw the property on Arques as a way to expand. It paid $2.4 million for the land and $3 million to expand it, Shariat said.

On Sundays there are services in Farsi with live English translations with headphones. The church is also part of a 24-hour Christian TV channel, and it broadcasts two live hours and six taped hours of programming daily.

Part of the church's mission is to convert Iranian Muslims to Christianity.

"Christianity is growing fast in Iran," Shariat said. "They're hungry spiritually--we share the gospel and many lives are changed," he said.

A translation room and TV control room are included in the purple-carpeted church. Shariat said its relationship with the Zen Center has been friendly, and at least two church representatives attended the Zen Center's opening.

"We just went to show support and friendship," he said.

Corner of India

Pradeep Joshi describes the India Cultural Center, which has been on Arques for about three years, as similar to a YMCA. There are no religious or political activities, but there are programs for children and seniors, health services, music classes and Hindi language immersion courses, among other things.

Three hundred to 400 families use the Sunnyvale center, which is a wing of its main center for about 800 families in Milpitas.

"Sunnyvale is kind of a central place. There are people from Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Santa Clara, Saratoga ... they all come here,'' Joshi said.

Most members take the bus to the center, and many seniors will now have to change buses to Milpitas. In May, several India Cultural Center members tried to initiate a new meditation class at the Zen Center beyond the Wednesday night beginners' class.

Joshi said one of the India Center's most successful programs had been a music and dance class for children that incorporated Indian Bollywood cinema.

"There is a lot of demand for it, and we need to promote music so (youths) don't get into bad habits," Joshi said.

India center leaders said many families who use the center will miss the center in Sunnyvale.

"We are searching for new places," Joshi said.