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40 EASTERN HORIZON | FACE TO FACE
Zen and Skillful Means to
Benefit All beings
By Reverend Domyo Burk
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Rev. Domyo Burk is a Sōtō Zen priest and teacher. She is the founder and guiding
teacher of Bright Way Zen in Portland, Oregon, on the west coast of the United
States. She also produces the Zen Studies Podcast and is the author of several
books, including Idiot’s Guides: Zen Living. After practicing for five years as a lay
person, Domyo was ordained by Rev. Gyokuko Carlson in 2001, She spent seven
years in full-time residential Zen training at Dharma Rain Zen Center, received
Dharma Transmission (empowerment to teach) in 2010. In addition to serving
her Zen community, Domyo spends a significant amount of her time organizing
for Extinction Rebellion, a movement dedicated to mobilizing people for mass,
nonviolent civil resistance to avert total climate collapse.
Benny Liow decided to interview Rev Domyo after listening to her Zen Studies
Podcast which was very inspirational, where she also adopted a very non-
sectarian approach in her discussions of the Buddha Dharma. She has kindly
responded to Benny’s many questions about Zen.
Eastern Horizon: You’re ordained as a Gautama, who become the Buddha, I
Zen priest after many years practicing lived in very fortunate circumstances
Zen as a lay person. What brought you but I was existentially miserable anyway.
to Buddhism and specifically to Zen? No other religion or spiritual tradition I
encountered addressed or explain this
Domyo: I become a Buddhist when I was situation.
25 years old. I had been raised mostly
without religion, although I attended Not only did Buddhism identify my
Catholic school. When I realized as a experience of suffering, it promised a way
teenager that I didn’t believe in God, I to become free of that suffering, as well
figured religion wasn’t for me. as concrete path of action for achieving
that liberation. And every teaching or
However, in preparation for a tourist trip practice I tried out as a consequence led
to India, I learned about the Buddhist to positive results in my life. I knew very
Four Noble Truths in a guidebook early on that I would spend my whole life
which discussed some Indian history. walking the Buddhist path.
The fact the Buddhism started from
the premise that life was marked by I also quickly became attracted to Zen.
dukkha – dissatisfactoriness, stress, or Though I was able to explore quite a
suffering – resonated deeply with my number of different Buddhist schools,
personal experience. Like Siddhartha I chose Zen because I found I loved
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