Who are we?

Wild Source Zen is an online practice group started by Kogen Jamie Howell, a Lay Entrusted teacher in Suzuki-roshi's lineage at San Francisco Zen Center. The group started meeting together regularly in 2012 and, following the COVID-19 pandemic, evolved online as Zoom opened new windows of practice and possibility. We now connect from our homes in California, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Washington D.C., Quebec, and beyond. We hope you will join us.

Our practice is rooted in the Soto School of Dogen-zenji (1200 - 1253), as transmitted to Shunryu Suzuki-roshi (1904 - 1961), but it is also deeply informed by Rinzai Zen teachings and practices.   

In our classes and sitting groups, we attempt to engage each other with a non-hierarchical mindset, manifesting horizontal relationships everywhere we turn. Everyone enjoys realization and everyone suffers from delusion. Put another way: we are all equals; we are all different; each of us have things to teach; each of us have things to learn.

How can I participate?

We practice shikantaza (just sitting), talk about books, embody koans, and support each other with joy. 

We have a variety of different online groups that meet regularly to sit together or to study a zen text such as Dogen's Genjokoan, Tozan's Five Ranks of Zen, or a koan collection. We also offer zazen instruction, one-on-one practice discussions (dokusan), and occasional formal zen ceremonies.

What do you mean by non-hierarchical mindset?

There is reality, and then there is socially-constructed reality. Study the following koan, and loosen your grip on the idea of status:

Huangbo’s Dreg-Swilling Bozos (from The Blue Cliff Record, Case 11)

Huangbo taught the assembly, “You people are a bunch of dreg-swilling bozos. Traveling around on pilgrimage, where are you today? Don’t you know there isn’t a single teacher in the Tang realm?”

A monk came forward and asked, “Then what about the people in various places who help disciples and guide assemblies?”

Huangbo said, “I didn’t say there is no Zen. I said there are no teachers.”

The Garden of Flowers and Weeds: A New Translation and Commentary on the Blue Cliff Record, by Matthew Juksan Sullivan; Monkfish Book Publishing Company; Rhinebeck, NY; 2021

Wild Source Zen Code of Ethics (click here to access)