Peter Daishin Renner

Following 35 years in the hotel business and adult education, I completed a doctoral degree in educational leadership (EdD, UBC, 2001) and immediately entered monastic Zen training at Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt. Tremper, NY, where I took a life vow 'to be of service.' Looking for a monastery closer to my home on the West Coast, I subsequentially entered residential training at Great Vow Zen Monastery. In 2002 Roshi Chozen Bays, MD, gave me lay ordination (jukai) and the dharma name Daishin ('boundless heart'). Chozen and Hogen Bays, Roshi, continue to be my primary guides at a distance and during silent retreats (sesshin). In preparation to a life and work as a 'monk in the world,' I completed the year-long End of Life Practioner Program (Metta Institute, 2006), took up volunteer work in palliative care, and employment in hospice spiritual care. In 2010 I added the foundational course in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) with Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, to my repertoire. For the last 15 years my service practice has included such tasks as guiding mindfulness-related groups for people living with cancer, teaching a range of courses at a community centre, assisting corporate groups in using mindfulness to live with stress in the worksplace, and presenting conference workshops in community wellness. Certified therapy pet “Waldi” — a Standard Red Dachshund rescued from the streets of Mexico —joins me in spreading metta (loving-kindness) wherever we're welcome. From time to time, I'm honoured to accompany individuals and their loved-ones on the stretch towards death and subsequent memorial services and interment of ashes in water or earth.

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