Roshi Jeff Albrizze keeps them laughing at Alexandria II bookstore, Pasadena, CA, 2011
California has a light in a recovering Christian preacher named Jeff Albrizze, founder of PasaDharma.org. Raised in an abusive Catholic environment, the Pasadena-area Zen organizer slipped into self-medicating, aggressive tattooing, and other destructive habits only to come out the other end as a guiding light in the Los Angeles Buddhist community.
Finding even contemplative Catholicism lacking, Roshi Jeff went full bore into Protestant fundamentalist evangelical Christianity. It was ultimately unfulfilling, as it did not produce the promised peace and communion (non-duality) with divinity. Quantum entanglement, entrainment, that connection that unites us all in some global Oneness, to experience that is to experience and touch a peace available to us all regardless of tradition... might that be "GOD" or divinity without borders?
The goal of PasaDharma is to meet the needs of spiritual seekers along the Los Angeles foothill communities. "We come at it in different ways," states Roshi Jeff who has seen many of them, "from atheism to Paganism to Zen." Ultimately, it's more about community (sangha) than labels.
PasaDharma meets weekly (Thursdays, 7:00-8:30 pm) at Pasadena's Neighborhood Unitarian Church, free, with Zen sitting sessions, discussion, and walking meditation, embracing everyone in the spirit of Universality Unitarianism and compassionate Zen. Roshi Jeff will also be presenting the second in a series of fun, humorous, and informative talks at Alexandria II bookstore on April 6, 2011:
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