No Barriers Zen Temple - 無関寺 - Mukanji

04/13/2025

Message for our community, including those who would join us in the future!

01/12/2025

Image Description: a Japanese woodblock print titled Praying Mantis and the Full Moon by Koson, shows the mantis climbing a branch with a full moon behind it.

Each month we come together as a community for the Full Moon Ceremony. This ancient ceremony, enacted for thousands of years, is our opportunity to explore our interconnectedness. You are welcomed to join us, just as you are, for an evening of bowing and chanting followed by a community exploration of the precepts.

“In spite of living in this suffering world I continue to believe that nothing can stain the purity of each existence.” -Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi

Follow this link here, or copy paste the link below:
https://zoom.us/j/778202667?pwd=T0xmSUhIK0h0QmIyUXlIMmJqK1ZmZz0 #
OR check out our website www.nobarrierszen.org for the link.

ASL-English interpretation will be provided. For more information or other accommodations please contact us.

12/18/2024

A deep and still Rohatsu 2024! Happy Bodhi Day to all!
“I and the great earth and beings simultaneously achieve the way.”
Image Description:
1st photo is a group inside the Zendo at Jikoji Zen Center of the sangha members who joined the Rohatsu Sesshin.
2nd photo is of Ino Carlin, Nenzen Sensei, and Ōshin Jennings sitting outside of the Community Building at Jikoji.

12/07/2024

Tomorrow morning!

Saturday Morning Virtual Meditation, Ōshin Sensei Dharma Talk

Saturday, December 7, 2024
10:00 AM 12:30 PM EST

Image Description: A portrait of Ōshin Sensei smiling, wearing koromo and brown Okesa standing in front of a wooden clapboard background, behind him a welcome sign can be seen.

Join us online for Zen meditation and a Dharma talk by our Guiding Teacher, Ōshin Jennings.
We will have 2 periods of Zen meditation (30 minutes each), followed by a Dharma talk.
Join us on Zoom by following this link here, or copy paste the link below: https://zoom.us/j/778202667?pwd=T0xmSUhIK0h0QmIyUXlIMmJqK1ZmZz09
Beginning instruction in Zen meditation is available by request, please contact us in advance to set up a meeting before the event.
All are welcome! This Dharma talk will be in ASL and ASL-English interpreters are provided for this event. For additional accommodations or for more information please contact us.
Check back here before the event in case there are any updates.

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12/03/2024

Hello everyone!

It’s Giving Tuesday, the annual fundraising day, and we are inviting people to consider donating to No Barriers Zen to support our mission to make the teachings of the Buddha accessible to all bodies and minds!

To donate you can visit the website at:

We have several options for those who wish to donate to our work. We are grateful for any generosity! What can we grow together?

11/06/2024

We’re sure you’ve enjoyed following along with Keika’s pilgrimage! Here’s the conclusion today!

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Day 37: The light thud of 4 stamps, the sound of sticky ink on paper, the delicate whisper of the brush gliding over paper. As with every temple before it, so was the entry made at the final temple today. No fanfare, no fireworks, no special words. It wasn’t until later in the day when I got off the train a few stops earlier to revisit temples 3, 2 and 1 and close the loop that it all started to sink in. Walking again down streets taken on the first days of the pilgrimage, many things were different, yet now familiar and the same. Instead of sweating under a burning sun, the cold wind brought by dark grey clouds chilled me. Many of the small maple leaves were now various shades of red. I was the same person yet different. And then the small white dog at the rundown house on the corner barked at me in exactly the same way as on the first day of the pilgrimage. Though tears appeared upon hearing the dog’s raspy bark, as I continued to walk, everything was clear and peaceful. The sun was preparing to set so it may rise again. The leaves and flowers were slowly dying so they may continue to live. The line meets itself and thus beginning and end fall away. At Temple 1, the old man sitting in the office, his body bent and deformed by time and age, thanked and congratulated me as he checked my stamp book, picked up his brush and proceeded to make the last entries and record today’s date. I took my time at Temple 1. Taking advantage of rows of benches inside the main hall, I sat with a young monk dressed in yellow robes, seated before me and in front of the alter, whose face I never saw, in silence. A deep silence that was both everything and nothing. Passing through the gate with no barriers, turning to bow one last time on this pilgrimage, the dark clouds broke and began to rain big and heavy drops so that tears and rain drops were quickly no longer distinguishable.

I would like to thank each and every one of you with the utmost sincerity for making this pilgrimage possible and supporting me along the way. Both your words of encouragement and silence kept me going. I hope my words and pictures enabled you to connect to the beauty, joy and peace inside each of us, available to us at any time.

I’d like to leave you with a few lines of the Sandokai: Harmony of Difference and Sameness from the Chinese master Sh*tou Xiqian (700-790), which I chanted many times on this trip. “If you don’t understand the Way right before you, how will you know the path as you walk? Progress is not a matter of far or near, but if you are confused, mountains and rivers block your way. I respectfully urge you who study the mystery, do not pass your days and nights in vain.”

11/05/2024

And here our brother Keika’s pilgrimage comes close to an end!

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Day 36: so, it’s finally come to this point. With three temples visited today, only 2 remain. Assuming no earthquake flattens the city of Takamatsu or stray North Korean missiles hit in the middle of the night, it’ll all be over tomorrow. Trying to get my head around that as I prepare my things and get ready for bed. Just as I’ve done every evening on this trip. As it was today, so will it be tomorrow: there will be mountains to climb up, descend and go around. With gratitude in my heart I welcome sleep so I may awake again.

11/04/2024

Update from our pilgrim!

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Day 35: Up in the mountains again today. Most of the steep parts up were with steps, which made things easier; the mountain trail between the two temples was a pleasant hike although often muddy and messy when crossing small streams. It was another day of perfect weather for hiking, and it was so enjoyable to be outside. What a relief after the heat of the first weeks on the path. Despite the excitement of the end in sight, I just feel reality tired. I thought it would get easier the further I went, getting used to walking so much and up and down mountains, but no! I’m definitely feeling the cumulative effect of day after day of pushing forward. Today’s three temples all had beautiful bells, and at Temple 82 I found a pair of straw slippers that might just fit me. Tomorrow will be more hiking up and down two mountains.

11/03/2024

The latest from our brother Keika!

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Day 34: never has the saying “tomorrow is a new day” ever been truer. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with a perfect temperature of 22C/72F, a warm sun and cool and refreshing breeze off the sea. As if yesterday’s typhoon remnants had never occurred. Everyone was in a good mood, one was met with many a cheerful smile by people on the streets. For those who think I’ve been telling stories, we read this morning that Temple 58, visited just a few days ago, is now closed due to a landslide cutting it off from the main road. Today was another day of milestones: the 1000km/620mile mark has been passed and finished off the day by visiting Temple 80. Yes, just 8 temples left! Equally unbelievable is that I’m able to release what might become the official pilgrimage photo. Flights are rebooked. I depart Japan this Thursday already.

11/02/2024

What a day for Keika!

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Day 33: yesterday’s polite rain was just the warmup for today’s full typhoon performance. Since looking at beautiful things all day can become quite tedious, Pia and I decided to shake things up a bit and reproduce Hiroshige’s famous woodblock print entitled “Driving Rain at Shono”by climbing up and down mountains and walking between temples today. Fun times! With the rain pouring in all directions and me struggling in the strong wind to keep control of the umbrella and avoid an embarrassing Mary Poppins moment, a vision from a parallel world came to my mind, one of my daughter telling my spoiled grandson, “well, your grandfather walked to temple 71 in a typhoon so you’re going to school in this light rain.” Clearly, my homosexuality was an act of divine intervention…Pia summed up the general mood well when she remarked that the gods seem to be really testing our determination today. Although most of the action was happening above ground, today was actually all about caves. In the corner of Temple 71, Iyadaniji, on Mount Iyadani, one of Japan’s three sacred mountains, worshipped since ancient times, there’s a cave that was a sutra library and where Kūkai studied as a boy. The original temple was built over 1300 years ago and has over 1500 status of buddhas in the rock walls. Temple 75, Zentsūji, is where Kūkai was born, so it’s quite the ta-do-da. There we descended into a completely pitch black tunnel in which you use your left hand to follow the wall through to the other side. It is said you can find your true self in the complete darkness. And lastly, about finding yourself, some of you have requested more pictures of me and in my pilgrim drag. I hope you enjoy today’s photo, inspired by recent statues. With all my things hung up to dry, it’s time to sleep.

11/01/2024

Latest update from our dear Keika on his pilgrimage!

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Day 32: rain, rain and then again more rain. Backtracked today to visit Temple 65, Sankakuji. Perhaps it was the rain or being thankful we didn’t slip down the mountain while climbing up in the rain, but this temple seemed particularly picturesque. I’m very grateful to be warm and dry this evening after a good, hot shower tonight. And in honor of the rain, I devote today’s pictures to water, in the many forms I encountered it today.