A Message

My name is Venerable Jitei Bochi White. Jitei means Compassionate Gardener. Bochi means Cemetery. I am a Zen monk and the founder of Antei-ji.

I have been practising this Way for more than four decades. I have been fortunate to study and practise under teachers who taught me the value of simplicity, the importance of practice, and sometimes the courage to stand alone when necessary. Over those years, something gradually became clear to me. The heart of practice is remarkably simple.

Keep it simple.
Keep it real.
Keep it true.

That became a living vow for me, and Antei-ji was born from that vow.

Over and over again I return for inspiration to the spirit and life of one of the great masters of Tang dynasty Chinese Zen, the Venerable Zhao Zhou Congshen, otherwise known as Joshu. His Zen is direct, ordinary and uncompromising. He taught that there is no need to make life more complicated than it is. There is simply this life.

I have watched a great deal change in Zen over the four decades I have been practising, both here in the West and in the East. I have seen something precious become increasingly easy to turn into a wellbeing therapy. I don’t believe Zen needs to be made more attractive to the modern world. I believe it needs to remain alive.

For me, that means returning again and again to the marrow of practice. To zazen. To the daily grind of attention. To the humility of mopping the toilet floor. To the raw honesty of meeting one another without masks. To walking the cemetery grounds day after day. To serving where we can. To discovering that the Buddha Way is not something we practise for a few hours and then leave behind.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. After forty years, I am probably more aware of how much I don’t know than when I began. But I do know this: I believe that something extraordinary is possible through this simple practice. I believe that awakening is possible for ordinary people. I believe that religious life can still have a place in Britain.

That is why Antei-ji exists.