Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and Dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage. He also teaches mindfulness in a wide variety of secular contexts including police training and addiction recovery groups. Ben is based at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, travels to teach across the United States, writes for Tricycle magazine, and is author for Wisdom Publications of Inside the Grass Hut, Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara, and Mindfulness and Intimacy.
Ben will be our guest speaker on Sunday Feb 21. His talk is titled "Non-violence: Facing In All Directions". In the Avatamaska Sutra the girl Maitrayani teaches a realization she calls "facing in all directions". This talk will explore the implications of her wisdom for our day to day lives, our zazen, and our inherent engagement with the entire web of life.