We are pleased to welcome Jisho Sara Siebert!

Drawing on both a Buddhist home leaving perspective and from her work/ practice, Jisho shares with us her view of right relationships as transformative, and home leaving as a path to dropping the stories and relationships we were raised with, in order to form unlikely ones in the service of justice.

Jisho is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest who was led to Buddhism by the suffering around her and in her work to prevent domestic and sexual violence. Her path to understand suffering and joy led her to Los Angeles – where she first met her teacher, Gengo Akiba Roshi, then to Papua New Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, monasteries in Japan, and Haiti. At present she works for organizations based in Haiti and Uganda committed to preventing violence against girls and women and ending child slavery. She is recognized as an International Zen Teacher (Kokusaifukyoshi) by the Soto Shu and teaches at Zen Fields in Ames, Iowa.

A Dharma Talk by Myozen Joan Amaral

We are pleased to welcome David Loy this evening for zazen and a dharma talk on The New Ecosattva Path.

David R. Loy is a professor of Buddhist and comparative philosophy, a prolific writer, and a teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Buddhism. His books include "Lack and Transcendence, A New Buddhist Path", and most recently "Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis". He is especially concerned about social and ecological issues. In addition to offering workshops and meditation retreats, he is one of the founders of the new Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado.

In June 2014, David received an honorary degree from Carleton College, his alma mater, during its 2014 Commencement, and in April 2016 he returned it, to protest the decision of the Board of Trustees not to divest from fossil fuel investments.

You can find out more about the breadth of his work at davidloy.org.

It is our joy to welcome back Dr. Laura Harrington.

Dr. Laura Harrington is on the faculty of Boston University’s Department of Religion, where she teaches courses on Asian literature and history. Her research interests include Tibetan tantric literature, and the history of Buddhism in the United States with an emphasis on the Cold War period. She also serves as Zen Center North Shore's Board Secretary.

Myozen Joan Amaral gives a Dharma talk on December 20th, 2021

It is our joy to welcome back Dr. Laura Harrington for a Thursday evening lecture.

Dr. Laura Harrington is on the faculty of Boston University’s Department of Religion, where she teaches courses on Asian literature and history. Her research interests include Tibetan tantric literature, and the history of Buddhism in the United States with an emphasis on the Cold War period. She also serves as Zen Center North Shore's Board Secretary.

From December 10th 2020

Myozen Joan Amaral gives a Dharma talk on December 6th 2020

It is our great joy to welcome Rev. Keiryū Liên Shutt!

Rev. Keiryū is a Dharma heir in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Born into a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she began her meditation practice in the Insight tradition. A founding member of the Buddhists of Color in 1998, her Soto Zen training began at Tassajara and continued monastically in Japan and Vietnam. While she has placed her trust and faith in Soto Zen, Liên continues to enjoy the deep silence of Insight practices and has completed retreats in the U.S. and Thailand. Please go to AccessToZen.org for info on her weekly meditation group, individual guidance details, and other events.

December 3rd 2020

Myozen Joan Amaral discuss the question, "What do I do with my mind on the cushion?" with the Sangha on November 22nd 2020

Guest Teacher Rev. Issho Fujita  Zooming in from Japan to join us as he returns to Massachusetts, at least virtually, to lead the Sangha in a discussion of Zazen practice on November 12th 2020

Rev. Issho Fujita was born in Ehime prefecture in Japan in 1954. He studied developmental/clinical psychology at University of Tokyo. Besides academic study, he intensively practiced Aikido and Noguchi Exercise. When he was a PhD. Student at the age of 27, he was recommended by a master of Chinese medicine to attend a week-long Zen sesshin (intensive Zen training session) at Enkaku-ji, traditional Rinzai monastery in Kamakura. Through this experience he was deeply fascinated by zazen practice. Eventually he left the graduate school to study Zen full time at Antai-ji, Soto Zen monastery in Hyogo Prefecture.

In 1987 he became a resident teacher at Pioneer Valley Zendo in Massachusetts, USA. During his stay until 2005, he also taught at various colleges and institutions, such as Smith College, Amherst College, Mt Holyoke College, University of Massachusetts, and Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

In 2010 he was assigned to be a Director of Soto Zen Buddhism International Center in San Francisco. Until resigning from that position in 2018, he visited many Soto Zen centers, temples and groups worldwide to teach Soto Zen teaching and practice.

He lives in Hayama, Japan, with his family, as a free-lance Zen teacher who teaches somatic style Zen in forms of lectures, workshops and books.