Teachers

Alan Sanhyō Richardson – Sensei

Alan Sanhyō Richardson, Sensei, began his practice of Zen Buddhism in 1973 when he spent a year sitting at the San Francisco Zen Center. In 2007, he joined Boundless Way Zen and has since held a number of service and leadership positions, including serving both as Tenzo and Tanto at sesshin, as Practice Leader of the Henry David Thoreau sangha, and (twice) as President of the Boundless Way Zen Leadership Council. In 2021 he received Dharma Entrustment (the lay equivalent to Denkai) from his primary teacher, David Rynick, Roshi, and in 2025 he received Denbo transmission, becoming a fully transmitted teacher in the Boundless Way Zen tradition. Alan taught English literature for many years at Boston College, with a specialty in poetry. He is the author of numerous academic studies and, most recently, Breakfast with Salamanders: Seasons on the Appalachian Trail, a book that treats of walking, nature, Zen, and section-hiking the “AT.”

 

Pierce Butler – Practice Leader

Pierce Butler is an emeritus professor of English at Bentley University where he taught English literature and writing for 32 years, including a signature course entitled Literature of the Spiritual Journey. A member of the Spiritual Life Committee at Bentley, he also facilitated a Zen group for students and faculty. He’s been a student of Zen for more than 25 years, and is a Practice Leader and Senior Assistant Teacher in the Boundless Way community. He studied the work of G. I. Gurdjieff for many years in a 4th Way community in Massachusetts, and he is the author of A Child of the Sun, a historical novel about Katherine Mansfield’s sojourn at the Gurdjieff Institute. He also leads prison sanghas at Northeast Correctional Center and MCI Concord.

 

 

Boundless Way Zen Temple Guiding Teachers

Melissa Myozen Blacker, Roshi is Abbot of Boundless Way Zen, a Soto Zen priest, and a Dharma heir to James Myoun Ford, Roshi in two lineages: an ordained Soto transmission through Jiyu Kennett, Roshi and a lay koan-teaching lineage through John Tarrant, Roshi. Melissa is a resident teacher at Boundless Way Temple in Worcester, MA.  She holds degrees in anthropology, music and counseling psychology and has a private practice in contemplative counseling.  From 1992 to 2012 she was a teacher and director of programs at the Center for Mindfulness, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn. With her husband, David Dae An Rynick, Roshi, she teaches silent mindfulness retreats throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and Central America.  Her writing appears in a number of collections including Best Buddhist Writing, 2012, and The Hidden Lamp, and she is co-editor of The Book of Mu:  Essential Writings on Zen’s Most Important Koan. Her writing also appears in various Buddhist magazines, including Shambhala Sun, Lion’s Roar and Buddhadharma.