Just the Right Place.

Brad, Shari, Rev. Rinsen, John and Mae.

Since I can remember, I have often felt the pull of living as a Monk and in my youth I visited many monasteries in the Catholic tradition I was born into.  It was eventually a Zen monastery that would catalyze my entry into the Dharma.

Today, I am so happy that I live in the world - that I did not choose to become a single monastic living in the cloister, but rather have followed the bodhisattvha path through the market place (kicking and screaming at some points to be sure) with a wife and kid and job and mortgage, directly working with the culture in ways that make sense to me and that I largely enjoy.

Of course, I am at the same time an ordained Zen Buddhist Priest - the same ordination that some would refer to as a monastic one, though for me the title priest fits much more the vocation I live.

And also I'm teaching Jazz at a western university, and universities are the direct heir to the western monastic tradition of learning, and Jazz is the heir to the harmonies of Europe with the rhythms and sensibilities of African tradition.

And so now, at least at this particular nook of the University of Toledo there is is born a formal Zen Buddhist Fellowship on campus.

So in some kind of odd way its all in the room - the world and the cloister, the east and the west, black and white.

Being a part of this sends rather a chill up the spine.

Guess I'm in the right place...

But then, everywhere is just the right place.