What we’re about
The Forest City Zen Group is a Soto Zen Buddhist group practising in London, Ontario. Soto Zen practice is the practice of living our everyday activity as enlightened activity –whether driving to work, washing the dishes, or sweeping the floor. We welcome anyone who would like to practice Zen meditation, and study and practice Buddhist teachings. We offer weekly meditation practice, accompanied by occasional Dharma talks. The group is led by Zen priest, Kuden Paul Boyle.
Dogen-zenji, the founder of Soto Zen in Japan wrote, To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly. Eihei Dogen, from Genjokoan
About Rev. Kuden Paul Boyle
Kuden began practising Zen in the early 1990s. His Zen training took place primarily at the Chapel Hill Zen Center in North Carolina. He has participated in traditional residential practice periods at the San Francisco Zen Center's Green Gulch Farm and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center practice centres in California. He received priest ordination in 2003 and Shuso ordination in 2009 from Josho Pat Phelan, Abbess of the Chapel Hill Zen Center. As a member of the Chapel Hill Zen Center he served in several temple positions, including ino, the head of the meditation hall, and supported Buddhist meditation groups in the North Carolina State Prison system for many years He moved to London in 2012.
