What is ZBC?

Zen Buddhist Psychotherapy

“Let go, or be dragged.” Zen Proverb

I am lay-ordained in the Myōshinji lineage of Rinzai Zen Buddhism, rooted in the work of Kyōzan Jōshū Sasaki, who came to the United States in 1962. My teacher is Chigan-kutsu Kyō-On Dokurō Rōshi, abbot and lineage holder of Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji in upstate New York and Charles River Zen in Boston. I am authorized to teach zazen at Clear Flow Hermitage in Walden, Vermont.

My engagement with Buddhist meditation began at seventeen and has continued for nearly three decades. My orientation is shaped primarily by existential humanist and Zen philosophy. There are endless books and quotations about Zen, many loosely attached to the tradition. That does not interest me. After thirty years of practice, I have no desire to add to conceptual excess. Zen is ordinary. It is what is experienced right now — without ornament, without spiritual theater. Zen Buddhist counseling, as I understand it, is simple: cultivating openness and ease within the conditions of one’s actual life. Nothing more. If we learn to accept the ordinary — including its suffering — we are already closer to steadiness.

Rather than “hang in there,” I would say: let go. Stop wishing for a different life, partner, body, house, or health. Work with what is here.

For those interested, please refer to the suggested reading page for further influences.