Josh Bartok, the resident teacher at Waldo, is a Senior Dharma Teacher* with Boundless Way Zen, and was ordained in July of 2006 by James Ishmael Ford as a Soto Zen priest in the Boundless Way Zen school. He served as the Shuso for Boundless Way in Spring of 2010, leading a three-month practice period. In 2001, he became James Ford Roshi’s first formal student in the Boston area, and in 2005, James asked him to start the Boston sangha. Josh first encountered Zen practice in 1991 while studying Cognitive Science at Vassar College. In 1992, he became a student of Roshi John Daido Loori at Zen Mountain Monastery. After college he was a monastic practitioner at Zen Mountain Monastery for a year and a half. In 2000, he left Loori’s Mountains and Rivers Order, and spent some time studying with Jan Chozen Bays Roshi in Oregon. Together with Rod Meade Sperry he founded Spring Hill Zen in Somerville/Medford, and shortly after met James Ishmael Ford, with whom he and several others help found the Zen Community of Boston, which later became Boundless Way Zen (BoWZ). Additionally, his Dharma is influenced by the Zen teaching of Ezra Bayda and Shin (Pure Land) Buddhism as taught by Shinran Shonin, and interpreted by Tai and Mark Unno. Josh is the co-author, with Ezra Bayda, of Saying Yes To Life (Even the Hard Parts). authoring editor of Daily Wisdom, More Daily Wisdom, and Lama Zopa RInpoche’s How to Be Happy; As senior editor at Wisdom Publications, Josh he has served as in-house editor for over a hundred and fifty other books. Recreationally, he is an amateur photographer who shows locally. His photos can be seen HERE. An interview with Josh by Adam Tebbe of Sweeping Zen can be found HERE.
Kate Hartland is the Practice Leader for Waldo, and a Dharma Teacher for Boundless Way Zen. Before coming to Boundless Way she had studied with both Philip Kapleau (Rochester Zen Center) and Toni Packer (Springwater Center) and has been practicing for a total of about 12 years. During the week Kate works at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, screening hundreds of thousands of compounds to look for new therapeutic drug candidates. On weekends she hurls herself down slopes on skis, or paddles one of her four kayaks, while documenting the evidence here www.cathyhartland.com. She leads the beginner’s oreintations (which take place by appointment only.)
THE GUIDING TEACHERS OF BOUNDLESS WAY ZEN
Reverend James Ishmael Ford Roshi is head teacher of the Boundless Way Zen school. James has been a student of Zen for nearly forty years. He was ordained unsui and received Dharma transmission from the late Houn Jiyu Kennett Roshi, completed koan study within the Harada/Yasutani tradition and received Inka shomei from John Tarrant Roshi. In 2004 he participated in the first Dharma Heritage ceremony of the forming Soto Zen Buddhist Association in North America. This event, designed to be the equivalent of the Japanese Soto Zuisse ceremony, was a public acknowledgment of James as a senior member of the North American Zen community. James is also a Unitarian Universalist minister, currently serving as senior minister of the First Unitarian Church of Providence, RI. His undergraduate degree is in Psychology. He has also earned an MDiv and an MA in the Philosophy of Religion. James is an adjunct teacher with the Pacific Zen Institute, and a member of the American Zen Teachers Association. James is the author of two books: In This Very Moment: A Simple Guide to Zen Buddhism and Zen Master WHO? A Guide to People and Stories of Zen. His the resident teacher at the Benevolent Street Sangha in Providence.
Melissa Myozen Blacker Sensei is a Boundless Way Zen priest and Dharma successor to James Ford Roshi. She is also currently Co-Director of Professional Training at the Center for Mindfulness in the UMass Medical School, and one of the resident teachers at the Boundless Way Zen Temple in Worcester.
David Dayan Rynick Sensei is a lay Zen teacher, a Dharma heir to George Bomun Bowman who was sanctioned as a teacher by Zen Master Seung Sahn. Zen Master Bowman has also continued his training for many years with the Rinzai priest Joshu Sasaki Roshi. David is currently a life and leadership coach, and one of the resident teachers at the Boundless Way Zen Temple in Worcester.
* In the Boundless Way Zen school, the title of Senior Dharma Teacher does not connote having yet received Dharma transmission. It is a title conferred by Boundless Way Zen’s guiding teachers and authorizes one to give private interviews (dokusan) and do work with students beginning koan introspection.
