JOSH BARTOK, the practice leader of “Waldo” (as the Boston Sangha is nicknamed), 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 tradition. 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 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 began 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, now called 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 Shonen, and interpreted by Tai and Mark Unno. Josh is a staff editor at Wisdom Publications, where he has served as in-house editor for dozens of books on Buddhism and Zen including Hardcore Zen, Mindfulness Yoga, and The Dharma of Star Wars. Recreationally, he is an amateur photographer who shows locally. His photos can be seen HERE.
Josh is the compiler of two books: Daily Wisdom and More Daily Wisdom; and, with Ezra Bayda, is the author of Saying Yes To Life (Even the Hard Parts).
* In the Boundless Way Zen school, the title of Senior Dharma Teacher does not connote Dharma transmission. It is a title conferred by Boundless Way Zen’s guiding teachers and authorizes one to give private interviews (dokusan/sanzen) and do work with students beginning koan introspection.
REVEREND JAMES ISHMAEL FORD ROSHI is head teacher of the Boundless Way Zen network. 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 Society in Newton. 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
Other Boundless Way Zen teachers who occasionally teach at Waldo:
MELISSA MYOZEN BLACKER SENSEI is a Soto priest and Dharma successor to James Myoun Ford Roshi. She is also currently Co-Director of Professional Training at the Center for Mindfulness in the UMass Medical School.
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.