BULLETIN
May 2024
Image by Taylor Plimpton
“Everything changes.” —Suzuki Roshi,
when asked to sum up Buddha’s teaching in a nutshell.
Dear Sangha,
Imagine an existence where nothing changed. An amorphous, undifferentiated blob. Gray, uniform. No movement, no space to move, no space to breathe. No breath. Just this purgatorial between—going nowhere, on and on, forever and ever the same.
Now, perceive this existence we’ve been blessed with: This beautiful, heartbreaking world of constant flux and shift. In the front yard, a weeping cherry tree sheds its blossoms, and they are scattered to the winds. Infants are thrust, screaming, from darkness into blinding light. Beloved dogs grow old and die. One minute, the heart is pierced with great joy; the next, with great sorrow. All around us, there is space—space to breathe, to grow, to move—and everything delights in this opportunity: stirring, shifting, dancing. Atoms vibrate, birds flitter from tree to shimmering tree, the clouds rush across the sky. People come, and people go. And the color, what color!
As you may know (and if not, you can read more about it in the announcement below), Enkyo Roshi is stepping down as the Abbot of the Village Zendo. She has asked Shinryu Roshi to take her place.
Everything changes. What beauty there is in this! What heartbreak, what promise! What a world!
With immense gratitude for Roshi Enkyo, Roshi Shinryu, and all teachers throughout space and time.
Taylor Plimpton
Editor
MAY CALENDAR
Thursday, May 2: Zazen and Dharma Talk by Ryoshin Hoshi
Sunday, May 5: Online: Practice and Inquiry Circle
with Joshin Roshi
In-Person: Body, Breath and Mind, Intro to Zen
Music Improv, 4 pm
VZ Book Group: A Boatbuilder, 5 pm
Thursday, May 9: Zazen and Dharma Talk by Shinryu Roshi, 5:30 pm
Newcomer’s Meeting, 6:40 pm
Saturday, May 11: Zazenkai and Dharma Talk by Gessho
Sunday, May 12: Zazen and Dharma Talk by Enkyo Roshi
Thursday, May 16: Zazen and Dharma Talk by Musho
Saturday, May 18: Daily Gathas Workshop, 2 pm
Sunday, May 19: Zazen and Dharma Talk by Jo An Sensei
Thursday, May 23: Guest Speaker
Sunday, May 26: Zazen and Dharma Talk by Mukei
Thursday, May 30: Fusatsu with Precepts Talk by Bokushu Sensei
_________________________________
Ongoing Groups:
The Bolivian Sitting Group meets online Saturdays: 8 am.
Bolivia Zoom Meeting ID: 297 525 8394; Password: 1234
The People of Color Sitting Group meets online Saturdays: 10:30 am
How to Meditate meets Monday evenings online: 6:30 pm
Sorting Out Your Stuff meets online Tuesdays: 10 am
Liturgy Training: In-Person,
1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month: 6 pm
Grace and Grit meets online, first Thursday of each month at 2 pm

Dear Village Zendo Sangha and Friends,
At the Annual Meeting on April 21, 2024, our beloved teacher, Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, made the following announcement:
It’s a joy to see all of us here together, working to strengthen our practice, for ourselves and one another.
From the time we began the Village Zendo, in 1992 or so, our intention has been simply to offer a place and a community for Zen practice. And we have done that, I think, pretty well.
I am confident that we will continue to offer Zen practice for those who wish to join us. Our community has a fine organizational structure, with executive, financial and spiritual leadership held in our Executive Committee, whom you’ve heard from today.
It’s members are: Howard, our Executive Director, and Joshin, Ryotan, Shinryu, Myoko, Tokuyu, and now Bokushu and Fusho.
I think this is an opportune time to pass on my role of Abbot of the Zendo. The position Abbot in our American Zen tradition, the White Plum, describes the day-to-day oversight of the community and does not dictate specific duties, but rather the overall spirit of the center.
I have done that for over thirty years, and am ready now to step down and simply serve as a practitioner with our community.
I’ve asked Shinryu Roshi to take on that role of Abbot, and he has agreed. The Abbot can be seen as the liturgical head of the community, and as a primary leader, along with the Executive Committee.
I plan to continue my practice here with you all, but I want to allow for changes and new directions to come.
At 82 years old, it’s time for me to see what’s next here!
Thank you all, for your practice, and your work for the Village Zendo.

Sunday, May 5, 4 – 6 pm
In-Person
Music Improv

How do you translate Beginner’s Mind into sound?
Easy. By listening. Harmonizing. Allowing space.
We are all musicians whether we practice an instrument or not. This is a musical improvisation that welcomes all, from beginners to professionals.
Based on Music for People techniques and led by Todd Rogers, a generous and trained facilitator, this open kind of improvisation is inspiring and fun for performers, singers, teachers, dancers, and amateur musicians. No experience needed!
4:00 – 4:30 pm: Instructional session
Learn simple, fun techniques for freeing up your sound
4:30 – 6:00pm: Music improv
“A highpoint of the month for me,” says Joshin Roshi.
“A superb practice in not knowing.”
Donation: $10
This is an in-person event.
Sunday, May 5 , 5 – 6 pm
For The Time Being:
A Boatbuilder
On the heels of our wonderful Winter Ango, join the Village Zendo Book Club on May 5th at 5 pm to discuss Douglas Whynott’s poignant book A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time.

Andy Bonton of Abe Books wrote: “Joel White was a man of few words who tended to downplay his accomplishments, but they shine through in A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time. One Brooklin boat builder, describing the ‘soul’ of boats, could have been describing White: ‘Boats are live. They talk. The more poorly made boats talk more. The best-made boats don’t talk as much. They’re quiet–quiet soldiers, they call them.’”
According to Publisher’s Weekly: “Even readers with no special interest in boats are likely to be caught up in this elegant homage to Maine boatbuilder Joel White (son of E.B. White, and the “test pilot” for his father’s character Stuart Little), who pursued his obsession with the time-honored craft of designing wooden boats while battling cancer. Author Douglas Whynott made 17 trips to the Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine, where the meticulous Joel, his son Steve and a yard crew spent two years designing and building the W-76, a grand and graceful racing yacht. While Steve runs the yard, Joel–with a section of his lung removed and walking on crutches after a bone graft–undergoes chemotherapy and learns to walk again, enduring metastatic lung cancer with stoic fortitude.”
The VZ Book Club will meet online via the regular Village Zendo online link on Sunday, May 5 at 5 pm.
All are welcome to attend.
For questions contact Doshin: chad.dechant@columbia.edu
or ChoGaku: marjoriesmccoy@gmail.com.
The book is available in print and E-book. 320 pages
JOIN ONLINE
Saturday, May 18, Online, 2 pm – 3:45 pm
Daily Gathas
Workshop on the Gatha of Atonement
Photo by A. Jesse Jiryu Davis
All evil karma ever committed by me since of old,
On account of my beginningless greed, anger and ignorance,
Born of my body, mouth, and thought,
Now I atone for it all.
In this workshop, we will examine the Gatha of Atonement, which we chant each morning at Village Zendo retreats and at our monthly Fusatsu ceremony.
Atonement or repentance is an ancient Buddhist practice. On a concrete level, we atone for the consequences of our actions, recognizing that we cannot know the harm that they may have caused. On a fundamental level, being at-one with our karma and the karma of the world prepares us to enter the practice of the precepts with our whole body and mind.
This is the first of a series of workshops on Daily Gathas: verses we chant daily at the Village Zendo and on retreats. It will be led by Ryoshin Hoshi. The next workshop, on June 15, takes up the Verse of the Kesa.
Please register for the workshop. A suggested donation of $25 for members, and $40 for non-members helps the Village Zendo sustain our operations. Thank you for your practice and your support!
The workshop involves small group discussion. It will not be recorded.
REGISTER HERE
Thursday, May 23
In-Person and Online
Special Guest Speaker
In-Person and Online
Ejo Patrick McMullen
Assistant Director of the Sokanbu
(North American Office of the Japanese Sotoshu)

5:30 pm Zazen 6:05 Dharma Talk
Ejo Patrick McMullen is the current Abbot of Buddha Eye Zen Community Temple. Ejo was ordained as a Soto Zen priest in 1995 and completed his monastic training at Daijoji Monastery in Kanazawa prefecture, Japan. In 1998, he received Denpo (Dharma Transmission) from Joshin Kiera Roshi, the founder of Buddha Eye Temple and the previous Abbot of Shurinji temple in Sendai, Japan. Joshin Kiera Roshi passed away in May of 2023.
Committed to the flourishing of Soto Zen in North America, Ejo is currently the Assistant Director of the Soto Zen North American Office, a Full Member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, at which he served as Board Member from 2007 – 2013, and is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association. His teachings and writing have appeared in Lion’s Roar Magazine and Buddhadharma, leading periodicals of Buddhist news, thought, and research.
Ejo also holds a BA in Japanese and Social Science and completed the Graduate Teaching Education program at Portland State University. He has taught extensively in public schools and Japanese immersion programs in the Pacific Northwest.
He currently lives in Eugene, Oregon with his wife Azusa.
On Work and Practice:
An interview with Charles Ryoshin Kalmanek Hoshi
On being a manager, an assistant teacher at the Village Zendo,
and a volunteer supporting Buddhist prison practice.
by Iris Ryūshō Höger
We continue our series of interviews with Sangha members and friends whose work intersects with their practice.
Charles Ryoshin Kalmanek began his Zen practice in 2001 after a trip to Japan. He received Jukai in 2002, was Shuso in 2013, and was given the role of Dharma Holder (Hōshi) from Ryotan Roshi in August 2023. Ryoshin has supported the Village Zendo’s prison program since 2010. He has worked in software technology for over 40 years. Ryoshin lives in New Jersey with his wife, Sarah, two dogs, and two cats.
Thank you so much, Ryoshin, for making time for this interview today. Would you tell us a bit about yourself and your work?
Yes, sure. I started working professionally in 1980 and retired from full-time work in October of last year. I worked for 43 years in technology, originally for Bell Labs, which was an icon of technology in the United States for many, many years. And then in the latter part of my career, I was a software engineering manager, most recently for MongoDB, which is a database company. (A billion-dollar company which started as a New York startup, actually.) I was there for five and a half years. It’s interesting how I ended up in the tech and engineering field, because as a high school student I always had this interest in primarily theater and film and the arts, and I was on the debate team and a competitor in extemporaneous speaking. But in my family, you either became a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. Those were the three options that were available to me. Even though I was very drawn to the arts, I did not have the feeling that choosing the arts was allowed or was a safe thing to do. My mother was the youngest of five, my father grew up during the Great Depression. Even though he was employed for most of his life, there was always this anxiety about putting food on the table. You had to have a job. I grew up in that environment and I became an engineer because all of my older male cousins were engineers, and I was smart enough to study it and learn to do it.
What did you learn from working in a field that wasn’t your first love?
I learned that anything can be interesting, if you apply yourself to it and just allow yourself to discover what is interesting about it. Even if it’s not your first love. Then, fairly early on, I think within ten years after having started work, I was promoted to being a manager. I think to the extent that you could say being a manager is a calling, I really did lean into it, because when you’re a manager, you’re supporting other people’s careers and their career development, and you’re mentoring people. Of course you also have a responsibility to the company that’s paying your salary. But the thing that I liked very much about it was the opportunity over the years to develop other young engineers and help them realize their full potential. And in the context of my Zen practice, to learn to operate with integrity, even if the environment is not one which necessarily encourages operating with integrity. To hold fast to my own true self and my own values, and to ignore my self-projections. When I say ignore my self-projections, I think this is something that we learn in Zen. It’s so easy for us to view the world through the eyes of the self and “what’s in it for me?” It was a practice for me to not allow my self-projections to dominate the way in which I was interacting with my job and with other people. So that threads in a little bit of how the role of a manager became my calling and became a thing that gave me joy. And also how my life and my practice work together. I mean, work is as much a field of practice as anything else. In fact, for many professionals, the majority of their waking hours are working. If it’s not a field of practice, there’s got to be something wrong. Some separation going on there.
Did your company support you for who you were and your way to mentor others and work with integrity, as you say, or did you have to fight for what felt right in your heart?
Yeah, that’s a really good question. I think to a large extent I was supported. There were points in time in my career where I was working in an environment which was pretty toxic, and it was very, very, very difficult, and I was not supported. But those were honestly specific points in time and specific managers that I just couldn’t work with. And it really hurt. But I honestly feel that most of the time that I was employed, my managers understood me and appreciated who I was and what I was bringing to the role.
What helped you to get out of those toxic situations? What could you tell a student who might ask you, “I’m in a toxic work environment, how can I bring my Zen practice to it? How can I be mindful with my resources? What is possible in this situation? Or when do I need to leave?”
Yeah, that’s a really, really powerful question. I would say, the job that was the most toxic environment or the most toxic context for me, I probably should have left. I was, in essence, fighting a losing battle. I know very much what I was doing at the time, and I’ve seen this in other people. When you have people who work for you and whose livelihoods you are to some extent responsible for, there is a deep sense of duty that I was living out, and I was trying to promote what I thought was the right vision and the right way of managing the team, but it was a losing battle. I was eventually let go in that job. I’m not going to mention employers just for the sake of anonymity, I’m not trying to denigrate any particular person or company. But for at least a year, I was in a deeply bad place and was eventually let go with a severance. I think they respected me, but they also didn’t think what I was doing was right. For my own health, I probably would have been better off had I left on my own volition a year earlier because I was in a deeply bad place where I felt I was all alone, and I was fighting a battle that I didn’t know at the time I wasn’t going to win. And then they fired me and let half the people in the organization go, and the rest is history. It’s a much different place now. But that was very, very difficult.
Did your Zen practice help you at the time?
I think it helped me in the sense that I didn’t turn away. I was fully aware and fully conscious of what I was feeling and was present to the pain and the difficulty of it. The thing that I wasn’t present to was that the power dynamic was such that I wasn’t going to be successful. And that I was not actually doing anything other than forestalling what the company leadership wanted to do. So maybe in that sense, I was a little bit deluded by my own ideas about what was right and what was wrong. But people live in these situations all the time. I did what I thought was right at the time, and I accepted and lived with the pain that it caused me. To this day, I know people who worked for me at that time that have a lot of respect for the way that I interacted with them and the honesty that I used in speaking to them about what was going on. It’s one of those things where I don’t regret anything that happened, but when I have dreams of those times, they’re bad dreams. They’re still in my subconscious. And that’s just an interesting thing because that trauma is to some extent still with me. I was deeply grateful to have Enkyo Roshi and the other Village Zendo teachers at the time that I could talk with about what was going on. Although the teachers weren’t necessarily able to help with the specifics of the situation, they could support me as a human being in a situation which was difficult for me at the time. In that sense, not only did my practice help me, but also the teachers at the Village Zendo helped me.
Now you yourself are an assistant teacher at the Village Zendo. Do you feel your experience in management helping others realize their potential in a work environment also informs your teaching practice now? Do you see any connection between these two fields of guiding and supporting people in their personal growth?
That’s a great question. Yes, I think there’s a direct connection. Many of the things that I learned about supporting and nurturing people in my role as a manager do carry over. It is interesting because in the same way that being a manager in a company is a role, being a teacher is a role, and there are expectations of that role. But teachers are human beings just like everybody else. It feels very familiar to me to be in a teaching role because I’m used to wearing whatever authority I have pretty lightly. I think that’s in keeping with Zen, or at least the way the Village Zendo practices Zen. I suppose in some Zen communities, there’s a much more visible hierarchy. In fact, in some Zen communities, there might even be a somewhat toxic aspect to the hierarchy. But the Village Zendo community that Enkyo Roshi and the other teachers have created is one where the authority is worn lightly. Of course, it may not feel this way to students at times because there is an apparent hierarchy. There are teachers, and there are senior students, and there are new students and students who have been practicing for a long time, but it’s really all a field of practice for each of us. Being a senior student and being a teacher means accepting some responsibility for nurturing that community. But all of the volunteers are accepting responsibility for nurturing that community, whether they’re teachers or not. You and Taylor are accepting responsibility for nurturing that community by doing the interviews and publishing the bulletin. In that sense, I feel that it’s a healthy dynamic—at least I hope it’s a healthy dynamic—with the roles that we all play in supporting the Village Zendo sangha.
I would like to also talk a bit about your volunteer work for the prison sangha. Could you give us a bit of a background on that?
The prison sangha existed before the Village Zendo was involved. Ryotan Roshi received a request from the teacher that was leading that sangha ten-plus years ago, asking him if he would take it over. Ryotan Roshi personally supported the prison sangha a lot, and he assembled a group of volunteers to be part of the program. I started volunteering in 2010. We basically host a service and two periods of sitting most Sunday afternoons. We take the train or drive there, and enter the prison, which has a bit of security procedures associated with it. Then we sit for two periods with the members of the community there and give a talk. If a teacher’s present, they’ll offer interview. We may do an abbreviated service. Basically, we support every aspect of Zen practice to individuals incarcerated in a maximum-security penitentiary. It’s a very small sangha. We’ve had people come and go over the years, but it’s always been relatively intimate. I think the dominant religion in the prison is Islam. Most of the incarcerated individuals are Black or Hispanic, and so there’s a large Islamic population. But there are Catholic groups, there are Jewish groups, there are many religions that are represented. We’re there to support the Zen Buddhist group. At the moment, there are two regular members who attend. And we’re trying to grow that membership, but it’s difficult as we can’t really promote what we do. So we’ll support whoever shows up, and if more people show up, we’ll support them too. The two guys that are participating with us now are very sincere practitioners. If you watch them sit, they sit like a rock. And they’re also seekers and searchers, just like the rest of us, looking to find meaning in their life, which is a life in a prison. And as you can imagine, in any penitentiary it can’t be an easy life, but it is a life. They’re very fortunate in a way that the prison we are serving has a fair number of programs. Ours is just one of the many programs that the facility has to support prisoners. They can even get a college degree there. There’s also arts, music and theater and the visual arts. So the men are in some ways in a very difficult place, but have resources to help them develop and grow. I would say that in my 14 years of going there, I’ve seen these young men really develop and mature as individuals, and it’s a wonderful thing to be a part of.
Have you been able to stay in touch with prison sangha members once they have been released, and does the VZ offer continuous support for them in some way? Or do most people in the prison serve long-time sentences?
Yeah, most of them are there for a pretty long time. I don’t ask why they’re in unless they volunteer to tell me, but it’s most likely that they’ve committed a violent crime. At some point, they were in a situation where they did something stupid, and society is requiring them to pay a price for that. But I do believe that change is possible. And, yes, I’ve seen many, many of our prison sangha members “graduate” from prison and be released and live quite upstanding and responsible lives as citizens in our society. And that’s a great thing. I haven’t seen anyone actively continue their Zen practice in a way that is visible to me. But I have some awareness just through a LinkedIn or a Facebook connection or something like that with people who have left, so I know they’re out living happy lives with their families. In at least one case, someone’s involved in a role at Columbia University, helping incarcerated individuals get into software engineering. These are people who are doing something good with their lives. Again, if they don’t need our support through the formal services or offerings that the Village Zendo has, that’s fine. We helped them when they needed it. Whatever they got out of what we offered is still with them. And now they’ve got support through family and other means.
Is there something you have learned from your volunteer work in prison, maybe something that has informed your practice or your life in some way, or something you have learned about yourself?
I don’t know if this is something I’ve learned about myself, but it is interesting because we can have ideas about what it must be like to be in a place like this, but when I go up and meet with the guys, they’re living their lives. They’re telling jokes, asking questions about what’s going on in the world, etc. They’re living their lives just like the rest of us. It’s just very gratifying in a way to see that in what might seem like the darkest of possible places to be. And I don’t know all the things that go on in their lives, or the thoughts that go through their minds. I only know what they share with me, that they are able to make a life for themselves. And I believe in most cases for the guys that come to our program, the context of being in prison is a field of practice for them. Maybe in the way that my trauma from my work was a field of practice for me, this is a field of practice for them, and they go on to live very full and responsible lives, both in prison and when they return to civil society.
If someone at the Village Zendo is interested in getting involved in the prison program at the Village Zendo, what do you suggest?
Supporting the prison sangha is a shared responsibility, and it would be great to have a few more volunteers. Since all of the incarcerated individuals are men, it can be a difficult experience for women, so we’re limiting new participants to male volunteers. If you are interested, I suggest that you talk first with Jiryu Davis, who is our volunteer coordinator, to learn what is involved. If you are still interested, please talk with one of the Village Zendo teachers, so that they can help you decide if it’s the right step for your practice at this time.
Thank you very much for this interview, Ryoshin Hoshi.
Thank you for talking with me, Ryusho.
Coming in June: Lifelines to Solitary
VZ’s “Lifelines to Solitary” letter-writing group will meet on June 1st at 1:30 pm to discuss experiences, concerns, and questions arising from our correspondence with incarcerated persons (not all are in solitary, physically). This meeting, accessed through VZ’s Zoom room, is open to all. Please join us! For questions, contact ChoGaku at marjoriesmccoy@gmail.com.
REFLECTIONS
A selection from Most Intimate: A Zen Approach to Life’s Challenges, by Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara

A student asks, “What is it like when the tree withers and the leaves fall?” The teacher replies, “The body exposed in the golden wind.”
In one way, we can see this story as about autumn, the time when the mature leaves of summer fall and reveal the starkness of a winter’s landscape. When there are no leaves, we see things that have been hidden; we see with clarity, with a sharpness that is camouflaged when there are leaves and blossoms. That is similar to what happens when someone or something is lost to us; we drop the extra parts and see ourselves more clearly.
On another level, we can see that the questioner is actually asking about loss. When the tree withers (when what we think we are dies off), what is left? When we lose a person, a job, a home (something that defines us), what is left? The teacher says it’s “the body exposed”—our true nature, right now, the one that is always synergistically transforming in accord with the arising and falling of reality, this true self is exposed—which is recognized as our own body, just as we are right now. The “golden wind” is the priceless movement of air and light that bathes our bare being, that offers us healing through wisdom and acceptance. It is the golden flow of life itself. This bare being, this body exposed, arises out of all that is alive in this moment. Recognizing this reality of our stripped-down self, the self that naturally aches for the old connections that are gone, is the beginning of the healing of the injury of loss through acceptance. The ongoing golden flow of life warms our exposed body and allows new growth, new leaves, and new branches to once again come forth.
We communicate in three places online:
our email list, a Facebook page, and a Groups.io list
where we share events and information among the whole
Sangha. Explore these various ways of staying connected and
up to date here: https://villagezendo.org/connect-with-us/
Editor: Taylor Plimpton
Editor Emeritus: Nina Shuka Klippel
Managing Editor/ Design & Production: Howard Thoresen

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If you are able, please make a donation.
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