Everything Is the Way: Ordinary Mind Zen

These days, when Zen has become a kind of shorthand for anything  that’s enigmatic or aesthetically spare, it’s refreshing be reminded that Zen is at heart a practice for waking up from the dream we inhabit—in order to free ourselves from the suffering the dream imposes on us. Elihu Genmyo Smith’s eminently practical Zen teaching never loses sight of that central concern: Whether it takes the form of zazen (meditation), koan work, or just eating your breakfast, the aim of Zen practice is always nothing other than intimacy with ourselves and everything around us.

Elihu Genmyo Smith is the resident teacher of the Prairie Zen Center in Champaign, Illinois, and one of the co-founders, with Charlotte Joko Beck, of the Ordinary Mind Zen School, whose teachers include such well-known Zen authors as Diane Rizzetto, Ezra Bayda, and Elizabeth Hamilton, as well as Barry Magid. Genmyo has practiced Zen for around thirty-five years, beginning as a student of Soen Nakagawa and Eido Tai Shimano, then he trained with Maezumi Roshi, who ordained him, and then with Charlotte Joko Beck. He was her first dharma heir, and remains close to her. He teaches extensively around the Midwest/Chicago area, though he ventures beyond that as well. He's also associated with Bernie Glassman and the Zen Peacemakers. He blogs on "current events, books, and random themes" on his blog Clouds (clouds-genmyo.blogspot.com).