Domyo leads a jukai ceremony, during which someone takes formal precepts.

Portland-based Soto Zen sangha Bright Way Zen, is looking for a new home.

To that end, Zen Priest  Rev. Domyo Burk and the Bright Way Zen Board have started a “New Home Committee,” to start the search for a new place to call home.  Our current search area includes Beaverton, parts of West Portland and Tigard, and locations in Hillsboro.

Our primary requirements include ample space for our physical zendo, adequate parking, a strong internet presence for our cloud zendo, a full-service kitchen with a separate dining area, and common areas for informal gatherings and socializing.  Our wish list also includes space we can convert to sleeping quarters for visiting members and for  retreats, grounds where we can cultivate a sustainable garden, and potentially some sort of residence for Burk and her husband.

We’re currently in the “brainstorming” phase – trying to determine what our needs will be, assessing our financing options, meeting with realtors, and identifying potential properties.  We’ve met with leaders from other Zen communities who have recently acquired new properties, gathering information on their processes and how they have transformed their spaces to fit the needs of their sangha.  We’re also reaching out to our own sangha, emphasizing the funds needed for this project, putting the wheels in motion for an eventual capital campaign, and encouraging members to be “eyes on the ground” to help us scout for potential properties.

Unfortunately our current location, on Barnes Road in northwest Portland,  limits what we can offer: We have no kitchen, no sleeping quarters, and only a few small common spaces.  The internet service doesn’t provide the high bandwidth required to offer our programs via Zoom to our many remote members.  We’re also facing the possibility that the building’s owners may want to sell the property at some point in the near future, given the rapid development that has taken place in the surrounding neighborhoods in recent years.

Under Domyo Burk’s guidance Bright Way Zen offers practice opportunities to more than 100 members, divided evenly between those who come to what we call our “Dirt Zendo” -our physical meditation hall-and those who participate via our “Cloud Zendo” – offered via Zoom – from around the globe. Many of our online sangha members found Bright Way Zen through Domyo’s popular “Zen Studies Podcast,” and have become integral and participative members of our sangha.

This fully hybrid structure makes us rather unique among sanghas, and it reflects the dharmic principle that none of us are really separate!

Over the years, Bright Way Zen has expanded its regular offerings to Sunday mornings and Tuesday evenings, which include chanting service, sutra recitation, sitting and walking meditation, and dharma talks.  We also offer traditional Zen ceremonies such as Sejiki (Festival of the Hungry Ghosts), Wesak (celebrating the Buddha’s birth), and Nehan (honoring the Buddha’s passing). 

Most of our members have received the 16 bodhisattva precepts in a ceremony called Jukai, and a small cohort of senior students have taken a form of lay ordination called Zaike Tokudo.  We also offer regular one-day retreats, a four-day non-residential retreat (sesshin), and a full five-day residential retreat (sesshin) at Oral Hull Lodge outside of Sandy, Oregon.  Finally, many of our members participate in a variety of groups and dharma study classes.

Domyo Burk started her monastic career as a staff member at Dharma Rain Zen Center, Portland’s largest Soto Zen sangha, located on the east side of town.  Domyo started Brightway because she recognized the lack of Buddhist centers on the west side of the Portland metro area.  To meet this need she started the Westside Zen practice group in 2008, renting space in the Christ United Methodist Church on Cedar Mill Boulevard. 

As the sangha grew, Domyo Burk resigned her longtime staff position at Dharma Rain Zen Center, and in 2013 moved into our current building. The building, situated between a busy shopping plaza and a protected marshland, has doubled as the main office of an arborist company.  With ample parking and a public bus stop nearby, the location has served as a convenient refuge. 

During the 12 years we have occupied this space, we have seen a large increase in membership, and added a wide variety of program offerings such as non-residential sesshin, Zen ceremonies, and practice groups, in addition to our regular weekly Sunday morning and Tuesday evening services  The property has served us well for many years, and we are thankful for a place to call home.

As our sangha grows, so does our commitment to deepening our shared practice and offering more opportunities for our sangha to practice together.  While a project of this nature can be daunting and stressful, we are glad to have our shared Buddhist practice and our tightly-bonded community as supports, as we move forward into inevitable change. We remain certain that our vows and commitment to the dharma, will help us tackle the challenges ahead with wisdom and compassion.