A beginning.

It all began with a small Zen sitting group in North Carolina. I practiced with folks who became life-long friends on the path. Together we sat Zazen on Sunday evenings in the attic classroom of a massage school in Charlotte. Through these friends I met my root teacher Rev. Teijo Munnich who also led small groups in Asheville and Knoxville. These groups gave me my first experience of sangha.

Temple life.

Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple opened its doors in 2006 in Alexander, NC. I’d served on Great Tree’s board since the organization’s incorporation in 2002 and was a founding member. In 2007 after over a decade of lay practice with my teacher, Rev. Teijo Munnich, who ordained me at Great Tree. Three years later I found myself on a plane to Japan to participate in the first of two Sotoshu International ango (monastic practice periods). In 2012 I was privileged to receive training at Ango at the Aichi Senmon Nisodo under Shundo Aoyama Roshi. My training continued at Great Tree where I received Dharma Transmission from Rev. Munnich in 2015 and served as head of practice until 2020.

Sharing the Dharma.

Life is continuously beginning again and again. Letting go again and again.

Dharma transmission doesn’t mean you know anything. Even so, having taken those vows I am obligated to share and preserve the Dharma as best I can. To call myself a “teacher” means that I must study the sutras and commentaries of the ancestors and seriously apply those teachings in my own life. As a teacher I can’t give answers, only an honest recounting of my own experience in the practice. In sharing I hope to be a good friend on the path for anyone sincerely seeking.