Zen with Brother Theophane Boyd OSB – A Retrospective

Kirishitan Buddha Cross - Japan Edo period

‘Intense gaze radiating warmth and kindness’

The Roshi would go to Spencer, Mass to St. Joseph’s Abbey to hold sesshin for the Benedictine monks there each year during the mid to late 1970’s. There was also a connection with the Benedictine monks who resided at the Snowmass, Colorado monastery and regularly some of these deeply contemplative monks would come to the Roshi’s mountain monastery or New Mexico center. One of these remarkable contemplatives I encountered was Brother Theophane Boyd.[i] Sesshin is silent without any speaking except with the Roshi during sanzen (koan interview encounter) or giving the daily teisho commentary. Yet with Brother Theophane there was a feeling of ‘meeting’. He appeared like the archetypal medieval monk … uncut beard and long hair, thin and ascetic looking and his age indeterminate, but somewhere between 45 and 70. (we would find out later that he was in his late 40’s at the time) He was a wild looking character, with intense eyes and a somewhat hunched figure. Certainly, the long periods of zazen must have been physically challenging.  However, by the end of the intensive week of silence and zazen, he was always more energetic, walking straighter and looking younger, while those of us from a younger generation often appeared to have aged.  Brother Theophane’s peaceful and graceful intensity was clearly ‘present’. Catching a moment with him at the end of a sesshin at Mount Baldy, I had no idea what to say, so asked him his name … and where he was from ... “Brother Theophane, from Snowmass Monastery of St. Benedict… and you?” and we then chatted for a few sublime minutes sharing nothing in particular, just being in the shared pristine presence that follows a week of silent zazen. Now, many decades later his dedicated spirit of ‘Christian Zen’ and contemplative presence vividly remains.  I feel/see him in front of me, Father Theophane, a spirit aloof yet wildly present, with his intense gaze radiating warmth and kindness. In the kinhin/walking meditation line during the brisk, cold Mt. Baldy night, his hunched ascetic figure moves diligently with the line of black robed Zen monks and students …the pitter patter stepping of ‘zennists’ within the deep mountain silence … quick stepping, silent, engaged, aware …   covered by the star filled dome of the night.

Fr. Theophane Boyd (1930-2003)