This month we are covering
Chapters 28-30, pages 107-116

Shodo has practiced Zen for over 40 years. Her practice has always been both rooted in the natural world and engaged with human society. She has joined two pilgrimages, led the 2013 Compassionate Earth Walk through the Great Plains, and came home to Minnesota to found the Mountains and Waters Alliance. Before writing Open Reality, she wrote Take Up Your Life, several essays for Buddhist anthologies, and edited Okumura Roshi’s The Mountains and Waters Sutra. She received Dharma transmission from Shohaku Okumura in 2012.

Shodo lives on a small farm envisioned as home for a spiritual, earth-loving, activist community. 

She has two children and four grandchildren.

This month we are covering
Chapters 31-33 pages. 117-127

Taishin started practicing Zen with the Santa Barbara Zen Group in 2012. He received the Bodhisattva precepts during a Jukai ceremony in 2015 at the Santa Barbara Zen Center, and again during a Shukke Tokudo ceremony in 2023 at
O-An Zendo. He is a student of Ōshin Jennings, Sensei.

Taishin studies Nyoho-e style sewing in the tradition of Tomoe Katagiri; organizes and leads a Recovery Dharma meeting to support those in recovery from addictions of all kinds (including himself); and writes about the Dharma, recovery, and the intersection of the two for his Substack, “A Phoenix’s Hut.” He is currently learning American Sign Language.

He lives in Milwaukee, WI, with his partner and their two cats.