Boundless Heart Sangha is led by Jissan Michelle Nicolle
Jissan Michelle Nicolle
Jissan Michelle Nicolle is a novice priest at the Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community with Sensei Joshin Brian Byrnes. Although Bread Loaf Mountain Zen is located in Middlebury, Vermont, Jissan resides in Winston Salem, and works professionally as a board-certified chaplain at a large medical center. Please contact Jissan with questions at michellejissannicolle@gmail.com
Henry Lafferty
Henry is a practicing architect in Winston-Salem. He earned a B.A. degree in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte before earning a Master of Architecture degree from The University of Texas at Austin. Believing that words get in the way, Henry began practicing meditation regularly 10 years ago. His practice has centered on Soto Zen for the past 2 years. You can contact Henry with questions at hhlafferty@icloud.com
“Everything in Zen is present perfect [verb] tense. There is no future, no past—it’s all now. There is nowhere to go, nowhere to reach, it’s all here, all One Body, one thing. Since we are already here, we are already at the end of the path and we are also at the beginning. We don’t practice to become enlightened, we don’t practice to realize something; we practice because we are enlightened.”