Xianyang Carl Jerome currently teaches meditation and the dharma in Highland Park, IL at the North Shore Meditation & Dharma Center, as well as at the Recreation Center of Highland Park,  and in Northbrook the Cancer Wellness Center. He also teaches in Chicago’s Chinatown at the Chicago Body & Mind Center and
at Enlightenment Temple. He leads retreats and workshops in Saint Louis and at the Mid-America Buddhist Association
(MABA), his home monastery.

Carl has practiced meditation for much of his adult life and Buddhism formally for the past twelve years. His practice began in San Francisco under beat poet and Zen Master Zenshin Philip Whalen Roshi at the Hartford Street Zen Center. Eight years ago he moved to Saint Louis and became a student of Master Ji Ru, abbot of the Mid-America Buddhist Association (MABA), from whom he received lay teaching endorsement in 2006.

Carl is editor of RightviewQ, an online periodical, and he publishes a blog with teaching notes and exercises from his classes. He is the founder and resident teacher of the North Shore Meditation & Dharma Center in Highland Park, IL. Before becoming a lay renunciate at MABA and dedicating his life to the dharma, Carl was a writer and teacher.

Xianyang Carl Jerome’s Teaching Statement
I teach from a pragmatic, skillful means, application-of-method perspective: applying the dharma to the dharma, applying the dharma to my teaching, applying the dharma to everything in our lives.

I believe we need to align our learning with the perspective the Buddha offered when he said, “I teach dukkha and the ending of dukkha.” I assume that it is my responsibility as a teacher to shine a light on the Path in ways that allow students to see clearly how to reduce their everyday stress and anxiety (dukkha). I believe every student is capable of seeing clearly.

My sectarian orientation is Mahayana: Chan, very Madhyamika, here-and-now focused. I believe the Buddhadharma arises from meditation, and that without meditation, everything is just words. Words alone, as my teacher Master Ji Ru says, don’t lead to liberation. When used properly, however, words can be an invaluable asset in our practice. They can not only point to the Path but can actually show us where the Path is and how to walk the Path. For those who find meditation profoundly challenging, words can open up the Path.  I teach from that perspective.

In my teaching I discourage and distrust purely devotional practices and practices that are other-worldly in their orientation or that postpone liberation, and I exhibit a deep concern about the secularization of  Buddhism.

I see the Middle Path as inherently non-coercive. I believe that the perceived injustices of our self are an everyday call to practice, not a cry for the battlefields of activism. Nonetheless, I see every moment as a moment of social engagement; the question is how are we choosing to engage. For me, the engagement is through practice, preserving the dharma and teaching.

Mayalsian-born Master Ji Ru received higher ordination as a Bhikkhu in both the Theravada and Chan traditions, and is an internationally renowned monk and dharma author. He currently resides atf the Mid-America Buddhist Association (MABA) in Augusta, Missouri, where he is the abbot.

MABA, the Center’s parent monastery, is a Chan monastery located on 60 secluded acres in the rolling hills west
of St Louis. MABA (the Mid America Buddhist Association) is available for weekend, week-long, and longer retreats.