Japan, Zen, and the discipline of attention.

Living and attending high school in Japan gave me a vocabulary of practice long before I had a vocabulary for product design, leadership, or engineering.

High-school chapter: Japan
Zen lineage: Rinzai-ji
Judo · Kyudo · Shodo · Kado · Sado · Budo: Six paths

A formative chapter in Japan

The arts were different. The demand for attention was the same.

While living and attending high school in Japan, I studied judo, kyudo, shodo, kado, sado, and budo. I do not present that list as mastery. It marks an early encounter with forms that make repetition, posture, care, and presence visible.

Rinzai-ji

Zen study continued after I returned to the United States.

My Zen practice began in the Rinzai-ji tradition after I returned from overseas work. Bodhi Manda Zen Center provides public context for that lineage and its history; this page describes my personal chronology rather than claiming a formal title or credential.

Bodhi Manda Zen CenterRinzai practice and retreat centerOpen source ↗ Rinzai-ji lineage historyBMZC historical contextOpen source ↗ Miyamoto Musashi's living lineageHyoho Niten Ichi Ryu historical contextOpen source ↗

Zen in the work

Clarity over noise is not a slogan. It is a constraint.

Attention shapes how I build: prefer the direct path, make hidden state visible, avoid ceremony that does not serve the user, and keep moving without confusing motion for progress. Entrepreneurship becomes a practice of creating useful things, learning in public, and serving people well.