Burt Quinn’s lay practice life spans 55 years. He has been practicing here at Stone Creek Zen Center for the last 13 years and received Dharma Transmission as a lay teacher from Jisho Warner in 2024.

The Wayseeker Sitting group started in 2017 in Santa Rosa. The name was inspired by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi and his last dharma talk before retirement in 1975 in Japan. There, Uchiyama lined out the seven points of practice he felt were important to follow in practicing buddhism:

1. Study and practice the buddha dharma only for the sake of the buddha dharma, not for the sake of human emotion or worldly ideas.

2. Zazen is the most venerable and only true teacher.

3. Zazen must work concretely in our daily lives as the two practices (vow and repentance), the three minds (magnanimous mind, parental mind, and joyful mind), and as the realization of the saying “gaining is delusion, losing is enlightenment”.

4. Live by vow and root it deeply

5. Realizing that development and backsliding are your responsibility alone, endeavor to practice and develop.

6. Sit silently for ten years, then for ten more years, and then for another ten years.

7. Cooperate with one another and aim to create a place where sincere practitioners can practice without trouble.

We welcome all sincere practitioners. the only requirement is your “beginners mind.” We meet every Monday in Cotati from 5:30-7:00pm. We start with 30 minutes of zazen followed by informal discussion. Looking forward to sitting with you!

For information: burtquinn8@gmail.com