
Guiding Teacher
If you want to sidle up to the realization, find the joy in your practice right in this very moment. Whether subtle or mirthful or bittersweet, it's joy that loosens the fearful grip of clinging to things we can not and never could control. Often mistaken as mere condiment on main course of life by our serious inner managers, joy is actually a required ingredient - it lights up the path and suffuses the heart with vitality and wholeness. In its trickster form, joy sees through the boast of our demons and tells the truth koan style. Joy never forces itself, it invites, it teases. If we lose touch with this joy, no worries, just sit. It doesn't come when called, but curls up on your lap like a cat when the self forgets itself. A hefty dose of sangha never hurts. ~ Seido

Debra Seido Martin is a Soto Zen Teacher, psychotherapist, and long time organic farmer with over 25 years of experience in Zen. She received dharma transmission in 2009 from her late teacher, Houn Kyogen Carlson, founder of Dharma Rain Zen Center and the Dharma Cloud Lineage. Seido also draws upon the mentorship she received in her early training through Hogan and Chozen Bays of Great Vow, Reb Tenshin Anderson of San Francisco Zen Center, and Ejo McMullen of Buddha Eye. She lives with her husband on Horton Road Organic Farm which serves as a the Empty Field retreat for the sangha, hosting the Twining Vines organic market garden program integrating contemplative practice.
Seido’s teaching is informed by her intimate connection and concern for the earth and awareness of the need for relational and emotional healing on the spiritual path both individually and collectively. She helps students trust the practice, have faith in their inherent wisdom, and meet whatever obstacle arises in everyday life with compassion and insight. She is dedicated to a holistic program that respects the long tradition of Zen informed by contemporary insights into what it means to become a mature awake responsive human being in the face of unprecedented environmental and social challenges that characterize our times.