Tucked quietly away amid the overarching trees that shade east South Temple, a small group of students sits in a semi-circle — legs folded beneath them and backs straight — on black cloth cushions in the upper room of the Kanzeon Zen Center.
They face the Zen master, whose own seat on a small, slightly elevated platform is highlighted by a backdrop that features a burning candle, a statue of Buddha and a framed portrait of an old Zen teacher. In the quiet twilight, Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi — known to his students as "Genpo Roshi" — tells his new group of 13 students about the importance of correct posture. While his methods and teaching are decidedly Asian, his Caucasian face, mirrored by those of his students, is not.
In fact, it's not difficult to picture this man, who doesn't look close to his 66 years, standing before a public school classroom full of kids, teaching history or math as he once did. But his students are adults now. Big people with big worries, looking for a place to find the happiness that material wealth and professional success promise but don't deliver. And because they're seeking, he can teach them how to let go of their own ego and focus on the one-ness of life and humanity.
While some outsiders perceive Zen as a narrow form of thinking in itself, Genpo Roshi believes that it adds perspective to life, rather than diminishing it.
"It's not that you stay in one (mental) place (of calmness or meditation) all the time. If you stay in one perspective, you're stuck. You don't want to stay in that 'big mind,' egoless state all the time. We all need our ego. We need to discriminate and make distinctions every day. But when we get stuck there in our understanding and ideas and arguments, we kind of secure ourselves in solid in our position. Zen helps us free ourselves to be able to see the other person's perspective, so we're not so attached to our own view that we can't see anything else."
Genpo Roshi and his Salt Lake-based center reflect the growing trend in the Western world toward an individualized approach to self-discovery employing Eastern meditation techniques. Fueled in part by the fact that Zen Buddhism is not an "exclusive" religious belief system but is focused on a person's state of mind, its growing popularity in Utah during the past few years mirrors U.S. trends.
Within institutional belief systems, "people get stuck that 'my tradition is the right one.' With Zen, the whole thing is there is no one right position, but a freedom to see all the perspectives." Thus, several of his students belong to other faiths, including Catholic nuns and a priest and a Jewish rabbi.
He also counts among his students former Utah Supreme Court Justice Michael Zimmerman and his wife, as well as several local doctors and educators.
Without advertising, the center at 1274 E. South Temple continues to attract an increasing number of Utahns looking for a place to do some self-examination and find peace. A teacher for 25 years, Genpo Roshi has more than 1,000 students both in Utah and Europe, where he taught for a few years before landing in Salt Lake City.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1944, Genpo Roshi grew up in Long Beach, Calif., and earned a bachelor's degree from California State University at Long Beach in 1966 and a master's degree in education from the University of Southern California in 1968. Active in competitive swimming and water polo, he was named All-American in those sports.
He taught school in Los Angeles and Long Beach from 1966 to 1971, and while he enjoyed it, "I found I enjoyed Zen more." After spending a year in the mountains of California in solitary retreat, he began formal Zen training under Maezumi Roshi at the Zen Center of Los Angeles in 1972. He was ordained by Maezumi Roshi in 1973 and given the title Hoshi (Dharma-Holder) after completing koan study in 1979.
After continued study with several Zen masters and teaching in Europe, he formed his own international community of students he named "Kanzeon Sangha." With that description, it's easy to picture him continually dressed in black robes and holding an upright sitting position on the floor. Yet he's as comfortable in a denim shirt and blue jeans as he is in black robes. You'd never pick him out of a crowd at the grocery store, because like his Web site says, "he's too ordinary for that."
Genpo Roshi operates one of the largest Zen centers outside Asia and has affiliate organizations known as the White Plum Asanga in several parts of the United States and Europe.
One concept that seems attractive to most students is that of learning "right livelihood." He uses his own experience as an example.
"When I got involved in all this, I was focused on the same things that most people are. I wanted security and tenure in my teaching job, position, status, etc. But I was under assumption that those things would bring me happiness, and I finally realized that they're not going to. It's not that they're wrong or bad, but if that's what I'm counting on to make me really happy, I will be very disappointed at some point.
"Zen Buddhism gives us guiding principles" like honesty, openness, love and compassion, "and depends on us to find the answers" that are in harmony with the "oneness of the universe. It's finding an appropriate response to any given situation."
The Kanzeon Zen Center holds regular classes each week, and beginners are welcome. This weekend, a two-day seminar is scheduled for both beginning and advanced students beginning today (Saturday, May 27) at 10 a.m. Call 328-8414 for information, or visit the Web site at www.zencenterutah.org