
Practice Support
It can be challenging to anchor a new practice that comes with unfamiliar rituals, unusual foreign terms and an overwhelming volume of teachings. The following formal students are available as resources to new members to help you get oriented to Zen and our community. It's useful to connect with someone who has traveled down the path a ways and navigated some common obstacles. Please feel free to reach out to them to arrange an informal meeting and explore what’s coming up for you.
Nancy Seiryu Rosenberger (she, her)
Seiryu became a formal student in 2014. She is a retired OSU Anthropology Professor who was introduced to Zen when she was teaching English in Japan. Seiryu serves as the sangha's Yoga Sensei, integrating movement during retreats, and teaching Buddhist informed yoga online. She enjoys hikes in the Oregon forest and beaches. Seiryu is also a poet and mother of three grown children and several grandchildren.
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I was smitten with Zen in Japan as a young adult. I liked the sense of not being told what to believe but discovering the experience of it myself. It has helped work with some messy karma: such things as anger, guilt, anxiety, self-judgment, criticism. I appreciate Zen’s rootedness in earth, body, and the universe—the great unknowing that lets me be free to allow the world to open me. Just sitting zazen has softened my heart towards myself and those around me as the door to a bigger self creaks open. ~ Seiryu
Hope Komyo Birrell (we/they/them)
Komyo became a formal student in 2018. They identify as someone who is AuDHD, plural (DID), and non-binary. They have previously served as Shuso, (lead student and sangha coordinator) and been instrumental in developing the technology used at our center. Komyo has been active in the non-profit world serving our local community.
We first attended Zen West on a Thursday evening in 2017 with our mom, who was interested in exploring a sitting practice. At the time, we didn’t know much about Buddhism or meditation, but we were curious. We immediately felt at home with Seido and the sangha. We appreciate the open invitation of Zen to fully embody each moment, just as we are, nothing excluded. ~ Komyo
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Pam Jukan Birrell (she, her)
Jukan became a formal student with her daughter Komyo in 2018. She is a retired U of O psychology professor and psychotherapist. Jukan integrates Zen with her Christian roots.
All during my life as a psychology instructor, therapist, and Christian, I have searched for what connects us all to each other and to a broader and wider life enriched with meaning and love. In Zen, I found the silence from which that meaning and love emerges, and a language that can begin to express its subtleties and profundity. I have found not only the comfort that comes from a deeper and more intentional life, but also a tremendous challenge to recognize this deeper and wider life in myself, in those around me, and in each and every moment. ~ Jukan
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Bryan Myoshin Reed (he, him)
Myoshin became a formal student in 2024. He was born in Chicago and attended schools in Boulder, Olympia, and Tacoma. He and his wife have lived in Eugene with their kids since 2001. Myoshin is an elementary school teacher teaching English as a second language in Springfield Public Schools. He is a bicycle commuter and a singer/songwriter in the band Twisted River, playing country, blues, and rock. Myoshin finds the Empty Field/Zen West sangha to be a truly special organization. Here there is a mature, sincere, supportive, devoted, and intimate community of practice led by a remarkably skillful teacher. The sangha is small enough and close enough to really know and care about one another.
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Frederick Yusan Pool (he, him)
Yusan started practicing Zen in 2008 with the Zen Community of Oregon in Portland. In 2022 he moved to Eugene and joined Zen West Empty Field. He is grateful to be a member of both Zen Community of Oregon and Zen West Empty Field. Yusan is retired, but works part time at the University of Oregon Knight Campus Graduate Internship Program as Senior Industry Advisor. Yusan is drawn to the outdoors, hiking, backpacking, snow shoeing and cross-country skiing. He writes poetry and has other assorted literary endeavors.
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I was initially exposed to Japanese culture through martial arts karate practice in Los Angeles
with Tsutomu Ohshima, Shihan of Shotokan Karate of America. I began Zen meditation as part of karate practice, but the astonishing depth of Zen meditation led me to an ever deepening commitment to this practice. Zen Buddhist meditation has opened an inclusiveness, beauty and clarity that has reverberated throughout my life and relationships. ~ Yusan
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