Misha Merrill graduated from college in 1976 with a degree in painting (watercolor/collages) and continued to show her work in small galleries for many years while earning a living as a graphic designer.
After ordaining as a Zen priest in 1988 with her teacher, Les Kaye Roshi, Misha spent a practice period at Tassajara Monastery. Upon her return, she searched for a community setting like the one she'd experienced in the monastery; quite by chance she ended up at Peninsula School in Menlo Park where she became the librarian, a position she has now held for 27 years.
At the same time, Misha continued her committed Zen practice with her teacher at Kannon Do Zen Center in Mountain View, California, finally receiving Dharma Transmission from him in 1998. In 1993, she became the primary teacher for Zen Heart Sangha in Menlo Park/ Woodside, a group that has been meeting continuously since that time.
In addition to her formal Zen practice, Misha began studying cha-no-yu (tea ceremony) in the Musha-no-koji-senke school in 1984 with Peg Anderson, Sensei. When this teacher died in 2000, she began studying with Richard Mellott, Sensei, and continues to do so to this day. She has also been teaching tea to others (including children) for over 15 years. ,
Art, gardening, teaching, tea, and her husband and animals are the crucial pieces of her 'pie'--meditation is her 'pie plate'!
To listen to her Dharma Talk, click on Principles of Zen, and Tea