Get to Know Your Teacher

 

Justin Pollard is the founder and guiding teacher of Just This Zen. He has been a practicing Zen Buddhist since the late 90's. Like many others, he came to practice at a very dark time in his life. Growing up in an abusive home environment caused him to develop an emotional dependency on food for comfort, which resulted in him ballooning to over 230kgs by the age of 15. At this time he also quit school due to bullying and depression. It was at this time that he also realized that he was gay. This ‘coalescence of traumas’ caused him to attempt suicide in the spring of 1997. During a very brief hospitalization, he realized that his mind had created the ‘prison of hopelessness’ that surrounded him, and by learning to discipline his mind, he could set himself free. 

This was the time in the late 90’s when he discovered Buddhism and Zen practice, and the seed of the Dharma began to take root in his mind. In the years that soon followed he lost 100 kgs, studied to pass the GED while working full-time, and was accepted to Indiana University, where he studied East Asian Studies, Psychology and Ceramic Art.

 

 While living in South Korea for 10 years, he worked in many areas of the EFL industry, from teaching and teacher training to management and curriculum design. He also founded his own EFL business for adults in Seoul, Whole Life English. 

 

His desire to help people paired with his love of gardening, cooking and nature when he founded the ‘Seoul City Farmers’ urban sustainability group. He led more than 50 public workshops for the group, and its membership grew to more than 700 members. SCF also worked with the Seoul City Government to hold the first Urban Agriculture Conference in South Korea.

 

 While living and working in Seoul, he practiced with the International Zen Group at Hwagyesa Temple, where he would later lead the IZG from 2015 to 2017. He was also very grateful to experience 5 months of full-time residential monastic practice at Musangsa Temple in Gyeryong, South Korea in the Spring of 2018. 

 

During his transition to live in Taiwan, he realized that he wanted to serve people by offering a style of traditional practice that was focused on addressing the needs of regular people struggling in the modern working world. This is the intention that led to the creation of Just This Zen. As you can see, Zen practice has helped him overcome many challenges and change his life for the better. That’s why he is always happy to share the gifts of Zen practice so it may help others as much as it has helped him.

 

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