Author Description

"I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Milwaukee Zen Center. The MZC and the practice of its sangha is a real treasure of the Dharma in the Midwest."--Shohaku Okumura, Abbot, Sanshin Zen CommunityFor 30 years, the Milwaukee Zen Center Newsletter has disseminated articles by its resident teachers to both a national and international audience. Now at last those articles are available together in one volume. The wisdom and Dharma teachings of Tozen Akiyama, Tonen O'Connor and Hoko Karnegis cover a wide range of Dharma topics from shikantaza to interdependence to giving up ego. The teachings of a wide spectrum of Zen teachers, from Dogen to Joshu, are examined as the springboard for the contemporary practice of Soto Zen.The reader may sample and enjoy these Dharma voices as they sound clearly down the years from 1985 to 2015. The book derives its title, "30 Years of Reflections", from a play on words on the Japanese name for the Milwaukee Zen Center, Kokyo-an, Lake Mirror Hermitage, honoring its site beside great Lake Michigan. This is a book to be picked up again and again, to savor the pithy articles that reflect not only their authors' understandings, but as well the times in which they were written. They reflect the vision of teachers living and working in the US, but who each have roots of practice in Japan. These three teachers share an affinity for the teachings of Kodo Sawaki Roshi and Kosho Uchiyama Roshi and reflect the influence of these great advocates of shikantaza or "just sitting."