Martha deBarros

Martha deBarros (dharma name Gen Kyo Jo Do, Deep Mirror,Quiet Way), received lay ordination in 1986 and lay entrustment in 2005. A feisty 75 year old, she is grandmother to seven grandsons, married to Lee deBarros, a priest ordained at S. F. Zen Center; the two of them lived at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center for ten years and after that training period, returned to their home in Muir Beach,Ca.
She was co-founder of the Zen Hospice Project with Frank Ostaseski and since retiring from that work has been offering meditation in two prison settings (San Quentin and S.F. County Jail #5). She also established a sitting group in a nearby retirement home. She continues to informally work with the dying and to teach in that area as well. Her active practice is with Norman Fischer and Everyday Zen. She is also part of a dharma group made up of priests and lay practitioners that has been meeting monthly for 18 years. As a lay entrusted member of Everyday Zen she is given teaching opportunities, can stand in for the Ino occasionally and can conduct practice discussions.
Her role is quite simple: to offer the teaching to those who,for the most part, do not have access to them--the aging,the dying, the incarcerated. Through participation in the Everyday Zen sangha she has found dharma friends committed to an unadorned, compassionate and wise practice. She feels blessed and grateful.