​Guiding Teacher Ted O'Toole

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Ted O'Toole first became interested in Buddhism in 1973, and began his formal practice in 1992 at the Zen Buddhist Temple in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The following year he moved to Minnesota and became a member of MZMC, where he received the precepts from Shohaku Okamura. He was ordained as a priest by Tim Burkett in 2005, and received dharma transmission (permission to teach independently) from Tim in February of 2012. He frequently leads practice periods and meditation retreats, and has taught various classes, including Basics of Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths, Creative Writing as Buddhist Practice, and Zen and the Art of Public Speaking.

Ted grew up on a farm in North Dakota, and often incorporates his early experiences into his dharma talks. He has done construction, packing plant, and factory work, and currently works in the legal profession. He and his wife Kathy Guthrie live in St. Paul, and enjoy their extended family, as well as gardening, house projects, biking, cross-country skiing, and writing. It is a great joy, Ted says, to teach the dharma and build sangha, and to be supported in turn by a kind, vibrant, and exciting community.

Learn more about Guiding Teacher Ted O'Toole.

​Teachers (Dharma Heirs, Priests-in-Training and Lay Teachers)

Priests at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center make a lifelong commitment to teaching and exemplifying the Dharma. The responsibilities of priests are many and varied, and include much service to the community. They may teach classes, lead practice groups, lead meditation retreats, and give dharma talks. They may conduct rituals, conduct practice meetings, and offer pastoral care. They are expected to hold an office at MZMC, such as ino (practice leader), tenzo (cook), or work leader, and to have a consistent presence within the community. Some of them lead or help to facilitate practice groups in other locations as well. Priests maintain a regular and disciplined zazen practice, which includes both daily practice and retreats. Priests tend to be very busy people, and although they often find it challenging to balance family, work, and training activities, they know that this balancing is the very heart of their practice. They are committed to the Bodhisattva ideal, and feel profound gratitude for the opportunity to serve at MZMC and to be a part of this practice community.

Priest training at MZMC follows the model Guidelines for Training Soto Zen Priests in the West, which was developed by Tim Burkett and others under the auspices of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA). Priests-in-training are expected to become knowledgeable as to the history and teachings of Buddhism through study, classes, and, most importantly, working directly with their teacher. Training focuses on developing priestcraft, exemplary personal conduct, self-understanding, and academic study.

MZMC has designated a group of zen practitioners as lay teachers. These are long-term Zen Center members who have been recognized as qualified to guide others in their practice due to their years of practice, spiritual depth, and devotion to our sangha. The lay teachers will engage in various teaching activities, including giving dharma talks at MZMC, and are available to meet with students in order to guide their practice.

​Dharma Heirs

These individuals have received dharma transmission (certification to teach independently) from Tim Burkett, who was the Guiding Teacher of MZMC from 2002 to 2020.  Click on their names below to learn more about them. To schedule dokusan (a one-to-one meeting) with one of them, please contact info@mnzencenter.org
Tim burkett, Senior Teacher
Tim Burkett began Zen practice in early 1964 with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. At Suzuki Roshi's urging, Tim began a weekly meditation group on the San Francisco peninsula later that year. Suzuki Roshi regularly attended this group, and as it grew in size, it was moved to the converted garage of a sangha member. Suzuki Roshi's talks to that group were later edited and published as Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a now-classic text and a gateway to Zen practice for many westerners.
After completing his BA at Stanford University, Tim attended the maiden practice period at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in 1967. In 1970, Tim and his wife Linda moved to Minnesota. He was an early member of MZMC and was ordained by Dainin Katagiri Roshi in 1978. Tim served as board president of MZMC from 1978 to 1983, received dharma transmission from Sekijun Karen Sunna in the Katagiri lineage in 2000, and succeeded Karen as Guiding Teacher in 2002. Tim and Linda live in Minneapolis and have two grown children and two grandchildren.

Tim is a licensed Ph.D. psychologist, whose doctoral work focused on neo-shamanic practice. He is also the retired CEO of one of Minnesota's largest non-profit agencies, People Incorporated, which provides community-based service to individuals with mental health concerns. Shambhala published his first book, Nothing Holy About It: The Zen of being Just Who You Are, in 2015 and will publish his second book in 2018. A central focus of Tim's first book is his discussion of the impact of Suzuki Roshi's teaching on his life and on his own Zen own teaching and life, while the second book focuses on practicing Zen in our modern, fast-paced world.

Tim Burkett was the Guiding Teacher of MZMC from 2002-2019. He offers teaches, leads retreats, and enjoys meeting with MZMC members one-to-one. You can schedule a meeting with him by contacting the office info@mnzencenter.org
BEN CONNELLY, SENIOR TEACHER
Ben began Zen practice at MZMC in 2001, was ordained in 2009, and received dharma transmission in 2015. He is currently serving as Program Administrator. He started teaching Introduction to Meditation in 2005, and since then has taught regularly at MZMC and more recently, at Zen centers across the US. He teaches secular mindfulness in a variety of contexts such as police training, addiction recovery groups, and wellness groups. Ben is also a musician by profession: a singer and songwriter, guitar teacher, film composer and multi-instrumentalist. His first book, Inside the Grass Hut, Living Shitou's Classic Zen Poem (Wisdom Publications) was published in 2014, and his second Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara: A Practitioner's Guide, was published by Wisdom in 2016. His latest book, Mindfulness and Intimacy, came out in February 2019 (Wisdom Publications).
BUSSHŌ LAHN, SENIOR TEACHER
Busshō Lahn first came to Zen Buddhism and MZMC in 1993, was ordained by Tim Burkett in 2009, and received dharma transmission in 2015.
He is a teacher, speaker, retreat leader, and spiritual director serving as the guiding teacher for the Flying Cloud Zen Community, as well as teaching at MZMC, Aslan Institute, and the Episcopal House of Prayer. With students and clients, he explores the connection between spirituality, psychology, and 12-Step work, as well as encouraging and supporting continued contemplative practice. Busshō’s special interests include Zen ritual and ceremony, poetry, interfaith dialogue, and the works of the great mystics. He lives in Eden Prairie with his wonderful wife Karen.
Click here to visit his website, www.FlyingCloudZen.org
Susan nelson, senior teacher
Ekyo Susan Nelson is a senior teacher at Ganshoji (MN Zen Meditation Center), where she serves on the Leadership Group and in various other teaching and organizational positions within the community. She started practice in 1978 with Katagiri-roshi as a lay student and was ordained and later received dharma transmission from Guiding Teacher Tim Burkett.

She and her husband divide their time between Minneapolis and southeastern Minnesota where they have a residence and serve, along with a committed crew of practitioners, staff and volunteers, the Hokyoji Zen Practice Community.

​Susan teaches mindfulness and meditation in community settings and also works as a healthcare chaplain on a part time basis. She and her husband enjoy their large family and circle of friendships immensely. She loves to sing and participates in a choir that performs in hospitals, care centers, and homes. She particularly enjoys mentoring people in their Zen practice and study and in facilitating experiences of practice and community for non-traditional and potential sangha members.
ROSEMARY TAYLOR, SENIOR TEACHER
Rosemary was ordained by Tim Burkett in 2003 and received dharma transmission in September 2010. Meanwhile, after studying Nyoho-e (the Way of Sewing) with Tomoe Katagiri for 16 years, Rosemary became one of three people authorized to teach by Tomoe-san upon her retirement in 2013. Rosemary now helps people sew their rakusu in preparation for Zen Initiation, and okesa for ordination and dharma transmission. She describes teaching sewing as "helping people see what zazen has to do with your everyday life." She lives in Minneapolis with her husband Dave; they have an adult daughter and son, along with three grandsons. To schedule dokusan (a one-to-one meeting) with her contact info@mnzencenter.org

Priests-in-training

Ann Bauleke
​Contemplation and mysticism attracted Ann as a child, when her mother told stories of the French idealist philosopher, Teilhard de Chardin. She began to meditate on her own in graduate school, where she majored in educational psychology. She taught deaf children for two decades, and became a writer. Covering major league baseball led her to the literary form in which she continues to write, the personal essay. She had developed an on-off meditation practice, always starting but always stopping for lack of "results."

Ann first came to MZMC in 2005 and returned in 2012, seeking community and support. Today she sees more than a little Zen in Teilhard de Chardin: "We are one, after all, you and I," he wrote, "together we suffer, together exist, and forever will recreate each other." In October 2016, Tim Burkett ordained Ann. She currently serves MZMC as tenzo, in gratitude for the steadfast encouragement and guidance she receives.
Matt cisler
Jiryu Matt Cisler has been an active presence at MZMC since 2011. He learned meditation in the 1970’s and has been a meditation practitioner ever since. His spiritual journey has been long and complex including studies and practices as varied as lucid dreaming, Western Hermeticism, and Asian internal style martial arts. This path lead him finally to Zen Buddhism and MZMC where he was ordained as a priest in training in November of 2017 by his teacher Ted O’Toole.
Matt has been among other things, a visual artist, a punk noise guitarist, and an experimental soundscape artist. He lives and works in Minneapolis with his wife Julie, and is the caretaker of a variety of small creatures, both vertebrate and invertebrate. His sincere wish is to share the teaching of the Dharma and the practice of meditation to help others as it has helped him.
Mark Turbak
Mark began exploring Zen Buddhist practice while a college student at the University of Minnesota. He came to MZMC in 2011 and received the precepts in 2013. Mark was ordained by Ted O'Toole in 2015. Mark is drawn towards the practicality of everyday Zen. Mark is particularly interested in exploring engaged mindfulness, non-violent communication, and the interplay between the 12-steps and Zen practice. He draws great inspiration from people who give their entire hearts to the most simple of activities, be it sitting zazen, eating oryoki, or ringing a meditation bell. Mark began his career in the nonprofit sector in 2002 with the American Red Cross. Since then, he has worked in a variety of capacities including emergency response, environmental education, and grassroots advocacy. Mark currently works as a fundraising officer for a national health organization. In his free time, Mark enjoys creating music, writing creative fiction, and exploring the outdoors.
Bill Woywod
Bill's interest in Zen Buddhism began when he was a teenager, drawn by the promise of experience deeper than the mundane, and the idea that one could influence his or her own mind. He started reading books on Buddhism, including Zen Mind Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and visited a variety of practice communities in the Minneapolis and Madison, WI areas. Bill found his way to MZMC in 2011 and began a daily meditation practice shortly thereafter. In 2013 he took the lay precepts, and in 2016 he was ordained as a priest-in-training by Tim Burkett. Bill has become a wholehearted meditation enthusiast, and in particular appreciates intensive meditation retreats, or sesshin. Other interests of Bill's include Japanese language and culture, contemplative Christianity, and workplace mindfulness. Bill works as a management consultant in the healthcare and life science sectors.
Evan Britzius
At a young age Evan felt a casual and natural spiritual resonance within his loose Christian upbringing. During the summer following his high school graduation he started meditating with his Thai step-grandmother, a practicing Buddhist. This led to a deepening yearning and further exploration of Buddhist teachings. In college he eventually embraced a haphazard universalist approach to spiritual practice. Propelled by the teachings of Ram Dass and an unexpected mentor, Evan began practicing yoga regularly and was eventually initiated into the Himalayan Yogic Tradition in 2013. Following a move from Duluth to Minneapolis, Evan began attending Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. The center and its teachers struck Evan as refreshing contemporary examples of embodied spiritual practice. Evan also found MZMC’s emphasis on transforming suffering through compassionate awareness, combined with the student teacher relationship, to be both immensely healing and grounding. Giving himself to practice and his aspiration, he received Lay Initiation in 2017 with Ben Connelly and was Ordained as a Priest in Training with Ted O’Toole in the backyard of MZMC in November of 2020.
Jeromy Thotland
Jeromy has been practicing at MZMC for 7 years and was ordained by Ted O'Toole in 2019. His focus is on experiential practice, "living Zen off the cushion," and living a service-oriented life. He finds Zen practice fulfilling and difficult - and totally worth it. He’s happy to share his experience with others. He grew up and currently lives in Minneapolis, though he served 6 years in the Navy elsewhere. He is now serving MZMC as Ino, or Practice Coordinator.

Lay Teachers

Wayne Moskowitz
Wayne began his Zen study and practice at MZMC in 1993. His understanding and practice of Buddhism have been informed by the many teachers he encountered at MZMC, including Shohaku Okumura, Steve Hagen, Norm Randolph, and Tim Burkett. Wayne lives in Minneapolis with his wife, is a retired lawyer, and is the parent of two adult daughters. He is grateful for the Minnesota Zen he gets to practice with his dharma brothers and sisters.
deb Mielke
Deb has been a member of MZMC since 2012 and received the precepts from Guy Gibbon in 2013. She became interested in Zen Buddhism in the 1970s when taking an after-school class on meditation and Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind in Duluth from Tim Burkett. After many years of exploring various traditions, casual meditation, and reading Buddhist literature, she joined the Sangha with her partner Benton Jackson. She enjoys the many class opportunities, practice periods, and retreats, which support her practice and daily life. She has served on the board and continues to participate on the membership committee, as a tea-cook, and on the flower crew. Her interests are health care for underserved populations, nature, walking, quilting, reading, and meditation.Deb finds MZMC the place where she is able to continue working on her understanding the Bodhisattva Vows and taking refuge in Buddha, Sangha, and Darmha — and just be around a lot of really amazing people.