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Ezra Shinkoku Bayda (1944-)

Ezra Bayda is a member of the White Plum Asanga and has been practicing meditation since 1970. He originally trained in the Gurdjieff tradition, living in a community led by Robert De Ropp. He began formal Zen practice in 1978, studying first with Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi, and then later with Jakusho Kwong Roshi. In 1992 he began working with Charlotte Joko Beck, and began teaching in 1995, receiving dharma transmission in 1998.

Ezra Bayda’s teachings are a blend of the Zen and Gurdjieff traditions, and are also influenced by Stephen Levine and Pema Chodron, with their emphasis on the need for loving kindness as an essential part of practice. Ezra has been a hospice volunteer for over ten years, and has authored five books, including Being Zen and Zen Heart.

Bayda now lives and teaches at Zen Center San Diego (www.zencentersandiego.org) with his wife and fellow Zen teacher, Elizabeth Hamilton. They also lead meditation retreats in the U.S. and abroad. Ezra also established a sitting group in Santa Rosa, Ca., which he visits once a month (www.santarosazengroup.org).

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Ezra Bayda is a Zen teacher and the author of volumes that include Being Zen: Bringing Meditation to Life, in which he applies Zen Buddhist principles to everyday life. Bayda, who meditated for three decades while writing his book, studied under Charlotte Joko Beck, who authored the book's foreword. He explains that all experiences, both positive and negative, enables one to follow the path to wisdom and an open heart. Bayda uses incidents in his own life to make his points, including the immune system disorder he and his wife suffered as the result of eating food they had grown in soil contaminated by DDT. Beginning their farming in the 1970s, they gardened organically for eleven years in northern California before the result of local insecticide and other chemical applications became apparent. As Bayda writes, "try as we will, there's no way we can strategize and control our world so that difficulties won't befall us. The real issue is whether we will learn from the helplessness that arises when our strategies fail."

A Publishers Weekly contributor felt that the exercises and techniques included in the book are among its best features, and said that "Bayda's grounding in life as it's lived makes his teaching and writing unpretentious and inviting, as if ready to apply."

The title of At Home in the Muddy Water: A Guide to Finding Peace within Everyday Chaos is taken from a verse recited at Zen retreats: "May we exist like a lotus, / at home in the muddy water. / Thus we bow to life as it is." Bayda explains that the title reflects the spiritual life, in which one must be willing to open oneself to whatever life brings. Bayda's subjects include relationships, trust, and money. In one chapter, he notes his own expression of anger upon being informed that the decision to drop the atom bomb during World War II was not made to save American lives, but was rather a demonstration of power aimed at Russia. He writes that "genuine spiritual practice is never about fixing ourselves, because we are not broken. It's about becoming awake to who we really are, to the vastness of our True Nature, which includes even the parts of ourselves we label as 'bad.'"

Bayda told CA: "Saying Yes to Life (Including the Hard Parts) follows similar themes from my first two books, but in the form of pithy aphorisms and very short essays. I place particular emphasis on the need to stop playing it safe."

https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/bayda-ezra
https://tricycle.org/article/ezra-bayda-lawsuit/

Ezra Bayda has been meditating since 1970, and has been teaching since 1995. He is the author of seven critically acclaimed books, including Being Zen and Aging for Beginners. He currently lives and teaches in La Jolla, California.

Books

Being Zen: Bringing Meditation to Life. Shambhala Publications, 2002.
At Home in the Muddy Water. Shambhala Publications, 2003.
Saying Yes to Life (Even the Hard Parts). Wisdom Publications, 2005.
Zen Heart: Simple Advice for Living with Mindfulness and Compassion. Shambhala Publications, 2008.
Beyond Happiness: The Zen Way to True Contentment. Shambhala Publications, 2010.
The Authentic Life: Zen Wisdom for Living Free from Complacency and Fear. Shambhala Publications, 2014.
Aging for Beginners. Wisdom Publications, 2018.

Skating on Thin Ice: A Zen Path of Self-Realization, Konstellation Press, Kindle, 2023.

As we skate on the thin ice of life - feeling the vulnerability and uncertainty that we all share as human beings - how do we overcome the anxiety and confusion of this state of uncertainty? Award winning author Ezra Bayda encourages us, in clear practical language, to learn how to transform our difficult experiences into life-affirming ones - living increasingly from gratitude, kindness and love.

What you can learn from this book:
Inner Stillness: how to move from an anxious state to feeling calm and at home in our body.
Clear seeing: techniques to clarify our hidden beliefs and conditioned strategies - freeing us from our harmful emotional reactivity.
Willingness: how to acknowledge and embrace whatever life presents - including anger, fear, shame and confusion.
Presence: through meditation, learn how to be present as often as possible; and stay present for as long as possible.
Loving kindness: cultivating loving kindness and compassion, helping to undercut our self-judgmental mind - the mind that tells us we are unworthy.
Gratitude: through increasing awareness that we don't have endless time, learning to be grateful for what we have.
Perseverance: learn how to stay with and learn from all the inevitable ups and downs of our lives.

 
Elizabeth Hamilton (1942-)

Elizabeth Hamilton teaches and lives at the Zen Center of San Diego with her husband and practice partner, Ezra Bayda. She leads retreats and Zen programs throughout the United States and Hawaii, Australia, and Canada, including leading a retreat with Pema Chödrön and Ezra Bayda at Gampo Abbey in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She has published numerous articles and dharma teachings under the pen name M. T. Head.

PDF: Untrain your parrot: and other no-nonsense instructions on the path of Zen
Boston: Shambhala, 2007