Boundless Way Zen appears to be the first Zen community in North America to bring teachers of different Zen lineages together with the intention of creating a distinctively Western and American vision of Zen. Currently, Boundless Way has four teachers, Melissa Blacker, James Ford, David Rynick, and Josh Bartok. They are working together collaboratively to foster a practice community that is firmly rooted in the ancient traditions while open to new possibilities for the Zen way as it takes its new shape in the West.
David Dae An Rynick Roshi
David Rynick was born in 1952, in Houston, Texas. He grew up in upstate New York, where his father was a Presbyterian minister with a great faith in a God who is present in our every day lives. He spent his senior year in high school as an exchange student in Nagasaki, Japan. David earned his BA cum laude in Sociology in 1974 from Wesleyan University. For the next decade David studied and taught pottery, aikido and dance improvisation. In 1984 he earned an MA degree in studio art at Wesleyan.
In 1977 he met Melissa Blacker and they married in 1982. Their daughter, Rachel Blacker Rynick, was born in 1986.
Starting in 1984 David began teaching art at a private high school and in 1990 became headmaster, a job he continued until he became a full-time life and leadership coach and consultant in 2003. He currently works with religious leaders and churches as well as other individuals who want to more fully align their lives and their values.
In 1981 he and Melissa began studying Zen with the independent teacher Richard Clarke. Since 1991 David has been studying with George Bowman, the first Dharma successor to the Korean Zen master Seung Sahn. Zen Master Bowman has also studied extensively with the Japanese Rinzai master Joshu Sasaki, and his Single Flower Sangha shows the marks of both traditions.
In 1992 David and Melissa were joined by several friends in beginning a Zen meditation group at their Worcester home. A year later they also began a sitting group at the First Unitarian Church in Worcester, where both David and Melissa had been and continue to be active members. David served as president of the church's Board from 1998 through 2001.
David received Inga, formal recognition as a Zen teacher and Dharma heir from George Bowman in October, 2005. In 2006 he was elected a teacher of the Boundless Way Zen sangha. In 2011 David received final transmission from George Bowman and became Abbot of Mugendo-ji.
David is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association
David's website is found here.
Melissa Myozen Blacker Roshi
Melissa Myozen Blacker, Roshi, is the Abbot of Boundless Way Zen, and is one of the resident teachers at Boundless Way Temple (Mugendo-ji) in Worcester, MA. In addition to her Zen teaching, she has a private practice in spiritual direction.
Melissa was born in 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were secular Jews, who taught her from an early age to have a deep appreciation of art, theater, music (especially jazz) and leftist politics. In order to understand a spontaneous spiritual experience she had when she was nine years old, Melissa began a life-long exploration of religion and psychology.
She is a 1976 graduate of Wesleyan University, with a BA magna cum laude in Anthropology and Music. She went on to earn an MA in Counseling Psychology from Vermont College of Norwich University in 1991, specializing in grief counseling. In 1993, after careers as a vocalist, pianist, music teacher and psychotherapist, she joined the staff of the Center for Mindfulness, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Until 2012 she was a member of the teaching staff, the Associate Director of the Stress Reduction Clinic, and a Director of professional training programs at the Center. She met her husband David Dae An Rynick, Roshi in 1977, and they married in 1982. Their daughter, Rachel Blacker Rynick, was born in 1986.
In 1981 she began studying Zen with the independent teacher Richard Clarke, a former student of Philip Kapleau, Roshi. After twenty years of study with Dr. Clarke she became the student of James Myoun Ford, Roshi. She was ordained a Soto Zen priest (unsui) in 2004 and completed shuso training in 2005. Advancing through the Harada-Yasutani koan curriculum she received Dharma transmission from James Ford in April of 2006, and was elected a guiding teacher of Boundless Way Zen. After hosting a Zen meditation group in their home for 20 years, Melissa and David founded Boundless Way Temple in 2009.
Melissa is co-editor of THE BOOK OF MU, published by Wisdom Publications in April of 2011, and her writing appears in BEST BUDDHIST WRITING, 2012, published by Shambhala Publications.
She is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.
Her website is found here.
James Myoun Ford Roshi
James Ford was born in 1948, in Oakland, California. His father had an itchy foot and the family moved around the country, although always returning to California and mostly Oakland. A high school dropout, James acknowledges that his first education came through twenty years of working in used and antiquarian bookstores up and down the California coast. Eventually he returned to school and earned a BA in Psychology at Sonoma State University, in Rohnert Park, California as well as an MDiv and an MA in the Philosophy of Religion at the Pacific School of Religion, in Berkeley.
At eighteen he began studying Zen with Mel Sojun Weitsman, then leader and later abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. When Roshi Jiyu Kennett arrived from Japan he became her student, was ordained unsui in 1969, completed shuso training in 1970 and received Dharma transmission from her in 1971. Dissatisfied with the quality of his understanding, James continued studying various spiritual disciplines. These included among other traditions Gnostic Christianity and the "new age" Sufism of Hazrat Inayat Khan.
James married Jan Seymour-Ford in 1982. In the mid-nineteen eighties they decided to return to school. While James pursued his degrees Jan earned her master's in Library Science, and now works as research librarian at Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts.
In 1991 James was ordained a Unitarian Universalist minister. He served congregations in Wisconsin and Arizona and currently serves as senior minister of the First Unitarian Society in Newton, Massachusetts.
In 1985 James became a student of the Harada-Yasutani Zen teacher Dr John Tarrant, the first Dharma successor of Robert Aitken Roshi. James was authorized to teach by Tarrant Roshi in 1998. In 2005 Dr Tarrant gave James Inka Shomei, acknowledging him as a Dharma heir in the Harada-Yasutani Zen lineage. He is the author of In This Very Moment: A Simple Guide to Zen Buddhism (Skinner House Publications, Boston, 1996 & 2002) and Zen Master Who? A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen (Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2006). He is currently working on an anthology of Dharma talks by different Zen teachers on the koan "Mu."
In 2000 Jan and James founded the Henry Thoreau Zen Sangha at the First Unitarian Society in Newton, which quickly merged with Spring Hill Zen, then meeting in Somerville. (Spring Hill now meets at the UU Church of Medford) The combined organization was named the Boston Zen Community. Since then a third group, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Zen Sangha, meeting at First Church (Unitarian Universalist) in Boston was formed. The expanded sangha renamed itself Boundless Way Zen. James was elected its first teacher. In 2006 Boundless Way Zen and the Worcester Zen Community began a process of consolidation by bringing members of the WZC onto the BoWZ Board, and electing David, Melissa and James as its three guiding teachers.
James is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association
His website is found here.
Josh Bartok Sensei
Josh is the resident teacher at Waldo, is a Dharma Holder in Boundless Way Zen, and a transmitted Soto Zen priest, having received Denkai from James Ishmael Ford in July of 2011. He received Dharma transmission from James Ford on July 20, 2012.
Josh was ordained in July of 2006 by James Ishmael Ford and 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 Ford, with whom he and several others helped 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.
He is the co-author, with Ezra Bayda, of Saying Yes To Life (Even the Hard Parts). authoring editor of Daily Wisdom, More Daily Wisdom, Lama Zopa RInpoche’s How to Be Happy, and Lama Yeshe’sWhen the Chocolate Runs Out. As senior editor at Wisdom Publications, Josh has served as in-house staff editor for over a hundred and fifty other books in all traditions of Buddhism. Recreationally, he is an amateur photographer who shows locally and regionally, including shows at the Arylaloka Buddhist Retreat Center Contemplative Art program and the Garrison Institute. His photos can be seen HERE. An interview with Josh by Adam Tebbe of Sweeping Zen can be foundHERE. In 2011, Josh was on the planning and leadership committee for the Maha Sangha Gathering of young Dharma teachers and Dharma pioneers that took place in Garrison, New York. Josh is a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA).
David Dae An Rynick Roshi
David Rynick was born in 1952, in Houston, Texas. He grew up in upstate New York, where his father was a Presbyterian minister with a great faith in a God who is present in our every day lives. He spent his senior year in high school as an exchange student in Nagasaki, Japan. David earned his BA cum laude in Sociology in 1974 from Wesleyan University. For the next decade David studied and taught pottery, aikido and dance improvisation. In 1984 he earned an MA degree in studio art at Wesleyan.
In 1977 he met Melissa Blacker and they married in 1982. Their daughter, Rachel Blacker Rynick, was born in 1986.
Starting in 1984 David began teaching art at a private high school and in 1990 became headmaster, a job he continued until he became a full-time life and leadership coach and consultant in 2003. He currently works with religious leaders and churches as well as other individuals who want to more fully align their lives and their values.
In 1981 he and Melissa began studying Zen with the independent teacher Richard Clarke. Since 1991 David has been studying with George Bowman, the first Dharma successor to the Korean Zen master Seung Sahn. Zen Master Bowman has also studied extensively with the Japanese Rinzai master Joshu Sasaki, and his Single Flower Sangha shows the marks of both traditions.
In 1992 David and Melissa were joined by several friends in beginning a Zen meditation group at their Worcester home. A year later they also began a sitting group at the First Unitarian Church in Worcester, where both David and Melissa had been and continue to be active members. David served as president of the church's Board from 1998 through 2001.
David received Inga, formal recognition as a Zen teacher and Dharma heir from George Bowman in October, 2005. In 2006 he was elected a teacher of the Boundless Way Zen sangha. In 2011 David received final transmission from George Bowman and became Abbot of Mugendo-ji.
David is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association
David's website is found here.
Melissa Myozen Blacker Roshi
Melissa Myozen Blacker, Roshi, is the Abbot of Boundless Way Zen, and is one of the resident teachers at Boundless Way Temple (Mugendo-ji) in Worcester, MA. In addition to her Zen teaching, she has a private practice in spiritual direction.
Melissa was born in 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were secular Jews, who taught her from an early age to have a deep appreciation of art, theater, music (especially jazz) and leftist politics. In order to understand a spontaneous spiritual experience she had when she was nine years old, Melissa began a life-long exploration of religion and psychology.
She is a 1976 graduate of Wesleyan University, with a BA magna cum laude in Anthropology and Music. She went on to earn an MA in Counseling Psychology from Vermont College of Norwich University in 1991, specializing in grief counseling. In 1993, after careers as a vocalist, pianist, music teacher and psychotherapist, she joined the staff of the Center for Mindfulness, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Until 2012 she was a member of the teaching staff, the Associate Director of the Stress Reduction Clinic, and a Director of professional training programs at the Center. She met her husband David Dae An Rynick, Roshi in 1977, and they married in 1982. Their daughter, Rachel Blacker Rynick, was born in 1986.
In 1981 she began studying Zen with the independent teacher Richard Clarke, a former student of Philip Kapleau, Roshi. After twenty years of study with Dr. Clarke she became the student of James Myoun Ford, Roshi. She was ordained a Soto Zen priest (unsui) in 2004 and completed shuso training in 2005. Advancing through the Harada-Yasutani koan curriculum she received Dharma transmission from James Ford in April of 2006, and was elected a guiding teacher of Boundless Way Zen. After hosting a Zen meditation group in their home for 20 years, Melissa and David founded Boundless Way Temple in 2009.
Melissa is co-editor of THE BOOK OF MU, published by Wisdom Publications in April of 2011, and her writing appears in BEST BUDDHIST WRITING, 2012, published by Shambhala Publications.
She is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.
Her website is found here.
James Myoun Ford Roshi
James Ford was born in 1948, in Oakland, California. His father had an itchy foot and the family moved around the country, although always returning to California and mostly Oakland. A high school dropout, James acknowledges that his first education came through twenty years of working in used and antiquarian bookstores up and down the California coast. Eventually he returned to school and earned a BA in Psychology at Sonoma State University, in Rohnert Park, California as well as an MDiv and an MA in the Philosophy of Religion at the Pacific School of Religion, in Berkeley.
At eighteen he began studying Zen with Mel Sojun Weitsman, then leader and later abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. When Roshi Jiyu Kennett arrived from Japan he became her student, was ordained unsui in 1969, completed shuso training in 1970 and received Dharma transmission from her in 1971. Dissatisfied with the quality of his understanding, James continued studying various spiritual disciplines. These included among other traditions Gnostic Christianity and the "new age" Sufism of Hazrat Inayat Khan.
James married Jan Seymour-Ford in 1982. In the mid-nineteen eighties they decided to return to school. While James pursued his degrees Jan earned her master's in Library Science, and now works as research librarian at Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts.
In 1991 James was ordained a Unitarian Universalist minister. He served congregations in Wisconsin and Arizona and currently serves as senior minister of the First Unitarian Society in Newton, Massachusetts.
In 1985 James became a student of the Harada-Yasutani Zen teacher Dr John Tarrant, the first Dharma successor of Robert Aitken Roshi. James was authorized to teach by Tarrant Roshi in 1998. In 2005 Dr Tarrant gave James Inka Shomei, acknowledging him as a Dharma heir in the Harada-Yasutani Zen lineage. He is the author of In This Very Moment: A Simple Guide to Zen Buddhism (Skinner House Publications, Boston, 1996 & 2002) and Zen Master Who? A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen (Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2006). He is currently working on an anthology of Dharma talks by different Zen teachers on the koan "Mu."
In 2000 Jan and James founded the Henry Thoreau Zen Sangha at the First Unitarian Society in Newton, which quickly merged with Spring Hill Zen, then meeting in Somerville. (Spring Hill now meets at the UU Church of Medford) The combined organization was named the Boston Zen Community. Since then a third group, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Zen Sangha, meeting at First Church (Unitarian Universalist) in Boston was formed. The expanded sangha renamed itself Boundless Way Zen. James was elected its first teacher. In 2006 Boundless Way Zen and the Worcester Zen Community began a process of consolidation by bringing members of the WZC onto the BoWZ Board, and electing David, Melissa and James as its three guiding teachers.
James is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association
His website is found here.
Josh Bartok Sensei
Josh is the resident teacher at Waldo, is a Dharma Holder in Boundless Way Zen, and a transmitted Soto Zen priest, having received Denkai from James Ishmael Ford in July of 2011. He received Dharma transmission from James Ford on July 20, 2012.
Josh was ordained in July of 2006 by James Ishmael Ford and 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 Ford, with whom he and several others helped 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.
He is the co-author, with Ezra Bayda, of Saying Yes To Life (Even the Hard Parts). authoring editor of Daily Wisdom, More Daily Wisdom, Lama Zopa RInpoche’s How to Be Happy, and Lama Yeshe’sWhen the Chocolate Runs Out. As senior editor at Wisdom Publications, Josh has served as in-house staff editor for over a hundred and fifty other books in all traditions of Buddhism. Recreationally, he is an amateur photographer who shows locally and regionally, including shows at the Arylaloka Buddhist Retreat Center Contemplative Art program and the Garrison Institute. His photos can be seen HERE. An interview with Josh by Adam Tebbe of Sweeping Zen can be foundHERE. In 2011, Josh was on the planning and leadership committee for the Maha Sangha Gathering of young Dharma teachers and Dharma pioneers that took place in Garrison, New York. Josh is a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA).
