Celebration for Meeting This Moment

Celebration for Meeting This Moment is a spiritual gathering in New York City marking the publication of Meeting This Moment: Conversations with 21 Elders on Navigating an Age of Upheaval, a book by Jo Confino and Paz Perlman from Parallax Press. It is held together with the Thich Nhat Hanh community and is for readers, meditators and anyone drawn to the question of how to live wisely in uncertain times.

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, an ordained Zen priest and teacher in the San Francisco Zen Center tradition, has been invited as one of the book's elders. A public celebration of the book in New York is planned alongside the gathering with the Thich Nhat Hanh community.

What to Expect

The book gathers conversations with twenty-one elders about navigating an age of upheaval, and the celebration takes that spirit as its center. It brings together people who care about contemplative practice and about meeting hard times with steadiness rather than withdrawal. Because the Thich Nhat Hanh community is celebrating with the authors, the gathering sits within the Buddhist mindfulness tradition that his students carry forward.

About Zenju Earthlyn Manuel

Osho Zenju Earthlyn Manuel is a poet, author, ordained Zen priest and medicine woman of the drum. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, the middle daughter of parents who both migrated from rural Louisiana. Zenju is a dharma name, and Osho is a title meaning Zen teacher.

She is the dharma heir of Buddha and the late Zenkei Blanche Hartman in the Shunryu Suzuki Roshi lineage through the San Francisco Zen Center. She served as Shuso, or head student, with Kiku Christina Lehnherr Roshi, and her Dharma Transmission was completed by Osho Shosan Victoria Austin. Before entering Zen in 2001, she practiced for fifteen years in the Nichiren and Soka Gakkai tradition, and she began again as a beginner on the Zen path.

Her practice is influenced by Native American and African indigenous traditions. She has taken part in ceremony with Ifá diviners from Dahomey, Africa, and briefly studied Yoruba.

Zenju's own book, Sanctuary: Home, Homeless, and Belonging, is the basis of a separate series of teachings through the San Francisco Zen Center. Her wider teaching schedule includes online classes and in-person retreats, and she leads practice periods and sesshin at Zen centers in California.

Before You Go

The New York celebration is a book gathering rather than a retreat, so no prior meditation experience is needed to take part. Readers of the book, members of the Thich Nhat Hanh community and newcomers to Zen are all natural companions for the conversation. Further details about the public celebration in New York are still to come, so check this page again as the event approaches.