Lay Zen Teachers Association

Many of you know that Flint and I just returned from the Lay Zen Teachers Association second annual meeting. Participants included many well known Zen teachers, authors, and leaders, including Barry Magid, a dharma heir of Joko's and the author most recently of Ending the Pursuit of Happiness, Leslie James, who received Lay Dharma Transmission from Reb Anderson, Wendy Johnson, an environmental activist with a long-running column in Tricycle, Peter Levitt, the author of 14 books and editor of the recent monumental translation of Dogen's Shobogenzo edited by Kaz Tanahashi. Flint and Debra Seido Martin co-facilitated the meeting.

We enjoyed meeting so many wonderful teachers of the dharma and exploring how we might work together in the service of lay Zen practice and teaching in contemporary America. Our conversations were wide-ranging and lively. We also introduced the new Appamada book imprint, which will publish books about lay Zen teaching and practice. This news was met with a lot of interest and enthusiasm. We were delighted with the vibrant, energized meetings and discussions, and very happy to share with other Zen teachers some of what we are doing here at Appamada. There is quite a bit of interest in bringing next year's meeting to Austin.

We are looking forward to the evolution of this association and the warm connections we formed with so many accomplished Zen teachers.