On Saturday July 31 The San Miguel Meditation Center will host a public Dharma talk by Robert Shi-Zan Do-An Thomas at 11 am. All are welcome.
Please observe Covid-19 protocols (Masks, hand sanitizing) as the delta variant is active in San Miguel.
Robert trained as a multi-media artist in the 1970’s, and in the ’80’s and early ’90’s he was a San Francisco-based video artist, filmmaker, magazine creative director, and entrepreneur. In 1993, Robert began his spiritual journey, traveling to Asia and becoming a novice monk at Wat Pa Nanachat, a Thai forest monastery. A year later he found himself at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, a Zen Buddhist monastery in California, where he would practice meditation for the next six years.
“Shi-Zan, Do-An” is Robert’s “dharma” name given to him by his Zen Buddhist teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. The Chinese characters are translated as, “Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness.”
Robert was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest in 2000, and in 2009 he was given “Dharma Transmission,” the highest level of ordination in the Soto Zen lineage. From 2005 to 2018, Robert was Executive Director of the San Francisco Zen Center and the groundbreaking education nonprofit, Mindful Schools. He has led retreats in the U.S. and internationally, and was a guiding teacher at the Upaya Zen Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Austin Zen Center, in Austin, Texas.
Robert is now living in San Miguel de Allende and spends his time drawing, meditating, writing, doing yoga, coaching, and consulting, while guiding the launch of a startup for online meditation practice.
