Psychedelic Sangha welcomes,
Rev. Konrad Ryushin Marchaj
to its Seminar Series with host Tomas Sander

Talk: "Stillness Amidst Wildness"
September 5, 2023, 7-9 pm
online

Summary: This talk, and exchange to follow, will focus on the traditional practice of calm abiding, the foundational basis for all the meditation practices within Buddhism. We will look at the challenges and dynamics of rigorous concentration practice, and how that practice prepares us for the encounter with the full range of subjective experiences we may encounter in our ordinary and non-ordinary states of consciousness. With special attention given to appreciating the value of effortless, meditative absorption—its genesis and cultivation—we will explore the importance of embodiment and intimacy with ourselves as an expression of radical impermanence.

Speaker bio: Rev. Konrad Ryushin Marchaj, is a Zen priest in the tradition of Zen Buddhism, and a dharma heir of the late John Daido Loori, Roshi. Ryushin Sensei was the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Born in Warsaw, Poland, he immigrated to the United States in 1967. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Yale University in 1976, and his medical degree from Albany Medical College in 1980. He worked first as a pediatrician in Portland, Maine, later serving in the US Navy as a physician for three years. He then returned to Albany for postgraduate training in psychiatry. After completing his residency, he served as medical director for a community psychiatric outreach program, the Mobile Crisis Team, which served Albany County’s disenfranchised and homeless population. He entered full-time residential training at the Monastery in 1992. In addition to his roles as the Monastery’s abbot and director of operations, he explored contemplative practices in higher education, collaborating with several liberal arts educators and administrators in the Northeast to look at ways for college students to engage religious practice as part of their education. He has been practicing Buddhism since 1983. Since 2014, he has been rigorously exploring and training in ayahuasca ceremonies in various traditions, guided by several teachers. Drawing on his background as a physician and psychiatrist, Ryushin’s infectious interest and thorough training in the workings of the mind and compassionate expression of unconditional love, combined with his skill at translating complex concepts into the accessible, everyday language, characterize his unique teaching style.

Host bio: Tomas Sander is a Buddhist practitioner and author based in New York. He has been practicing mostly in the Tibetan tradition. His teachers include Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and Greg Goode. He co-authored the book "Emptiness and Joyful Freedom" which explores Buddhist insights into the nature of reality using tools from Western philosophy.
Tomas is an early member of Psychedelic Sangha. He has a strong curiosity for the boundless possibilities at the nexus of psychedelic medicines, personal healing and spiritual awakening.
Tomas has a Ph.D. in Mathematics and works on data privacy in the tech industry.