Meet Infinite Circle

The roots of Mitsudo’s spiritual path go back to childhood prayer experiences he had in the woods near his home and in his parish church. Despite his family not being practicing Catholics, by the time he was nine years old, he had decided to be a priest.

After completing the first phase of seminary training in New York, he was chosen to study theology in Rome and, after ordination, remained there to complete a degree in Scripture. A turning point in his spiritual path occurred when he spent the summer before ordination working in India with Mother Teresa’s congregation. From this time on, he began reading about Zen and other Eastern contemplative traditions. For the next nine years of parish work and teaching in New York, his contemplative practices were supported by yearly two-week monastic retreats each year. During this period, a large number of parishioners began seeking him out for spiritual direction and counseling. This led him to earn a masters degree in Pastoral Counseling. More importantly, however, was his awareness that his own spiritual and emotional development and fulfillment were inextricably tied to supporting other people’s growth as a spiritual director and counselor rather than as a Scripture scholar.

In 1983, Mitsudo left the priesthood and subsequently married his wife Donna, earned a Masters in Social Work and completed postgraduate psychoanalytic training. He began a private psychotherapy practice while also working as a clinician, instructor, clinical director and executive director in NYC social service agencies. During this time, he sought to nurtured and develops his spiritual growth through his study and daily yoga and meditation practices. This did not remotely meet his needs. In May of 2012, it became clear he needed a community and a teacher.

Synchronistically, the Zen Garland Order had opened its center blocks away from his home. He began sitting two or three mornings a week before work and began Dokusan with Genki Roshi and then with Genmitsu Roshi. He describes his path in Zen as the bumpy and winding “scenic route” were he very slowly explored each of the core practices offered. This was no small task. He did this with a certain amount of caution to ensure that this leg of his spiritual life, unlike his previous religious training, was based in direct experience rather than an assent to an article of faith. He needed to establish an entirely new relationship to the way he studied and worked with a teacher. He also needed to overcome his conviction that Focusing and embodiment practices would not offer anything more to what he was already doing. Slowly, these and other core practices began, singly and collectively, to open him to what he had been seeking since his childhood: a direct intimacy with his own life and Life Itself. Paradoxically, it was his engagement with the once dismissed embodiment practice under Kisho Roshi that catalyzed this awareness and the power of the core practices.

He now sees the path before him in terms of continually deepening, for himself and others, the embodiment of his Dharma name, Mitsudo (the intimate way).