ABOUT JOGEN
Welcome. A little about me:
My passion in life is opening up spiritually and emotionally, to be alive and awake in the world and helping others to do that, too.
I love fresh discoveries about who I am and who others are. And I love not-knowing who I am or who others are— I thrive on the openness that thrives on me having no conclusions.
For me the ways of awareness are compelling and empowering as an ally in playfulness and empathy. Spaciousness excites me not as an end in itself but as a welcoming field for life’s colors to shimmer through.
My heart aches with the lovelessness, anxiety and alienation that is experienced by so many of us. And as cultural crises seem to accelerate and as wounds are opened and scars are brought to light, my conviction in the value and contribution of each of our work in emotional and spiritual maturity has only deepened.
In my late teens, health issues, family crises, despairing about society and personal losses all converged into an immersion in lifes deeper questions and a call to understand myself. So I started to meditate, inquire about the heart and mind and use a meditation machine I inherited from my grandfather. One day all my despair and the conviction that I was broken fell away and for a time the abundant generosity and sacredness of my life and the universe was clearly apparent.
This sparked a hunger for expanding self-understanding. This hunger has led me through twenty five years of full time spiritual practice, voice dialogue parts work, dream exploration, music and theatre practice, psychedelic explorations and more.
There has been a shift from being a serious, often sad, person with little ability to love myself to being someone who laughs a lot and is pretty comfortable in their own skin. I see the paradox of perfection shining through all the things that need improvement. I feel / know I belong here and everything and everyone belongs here, too.
I'm a Zen Buddhist teacher with full teaching authorization, in the Soto Zen lineage from Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi. I've practiced meditation for 27 years including 15 years of full time residential practice and study in a Zen Buddhist monastery.
This training included practice and study with teachers from various traditions so I have an appreciation and facility with a wide range of methods. Over four years of my time in the monastery was spent in intensive silent meditation retreat. Additionally, I've done extensive practice and study in the non-dual meditation tradition of Dzogchen, as well as Voice Dialogue, Process Work and Realization Process with Judith Blackstone.