Presents
Being in the World
Timeless Wisdom for Contemporary Life from Japan’s Spiritual Traditions
A 2-Month Online Journey
April 2nd – May 28th, 2025
11 Live Workshops
Fully Downloadable
8 Expert Teachers
Toryo Ito
Zen priest
Dairik Amae
Tea teacher & architect
Paula Arai
Author & expert on Zen rituals
Taishi Kato
Shinto priest
Lawrence Koichi Barrish
Shinto priest & Aikido teacher
Shoukei Matsumoto
Pure Land monk & Author
Gregg Krech
Author & Expert on Japanese Psychology
Kikuno Hyodo
Tea teacher & Shinto apprentice
ABOUT THE COURSE
A Journey into Presence, Resilience, and Connection
Somewhere within you – beneath the fullness and noise of daily life – there is a place of stillness, a way of being in the world that is both ancient and entirely your own.
This program invites you into that space.
Drawing from the profound teachings of Zen, Shinto, and Pure Land Buddhism, it offers you the rare opportunity to step away from the noise and immerse yourself in time-honored wisdom that can transform the way you see and experience the world.
Learn from Visionary Teachers Bridging Tradition and Innovation
Guided by a carefully curated group of visionary monks, priests, and teachers who not only embody centuries-old traditions but also actively bridge the wisdom of the past with the demands of modern life, you’ll engage directly with experts who have devoted their lives to these traditions.
Through live workshops, guided practices, and shared reflection, you will explore how these traditions can help you cultivate presence, navigate uncertainty, and reconnect with the beauty of everyday life – while deepening your awareness of your place in the greater whole.
Why Join This Program?
Learn from Those Who Live the Wisdom – Engage in live conversations with Zen monks, Shinto priests, and contemporary experts who have dedicated their lives to these teachings.
Timeless Wisdom, Modern Relevance – Discover how centuries-old practices can help you move through modern life with clarity, resilience and ease.
Live with Purpose, Think Long-Term – This program and its teachings invite you to walk through life with greater awareness – co-creating a world that is more connected, thoughtful, and alive. Now and in the future.
Embody the Learning – Move beyond intellectual understanding with guided meditations, customized rituals, and self-inquiry exercises that allow you to truly integrate the teachings.
Move at Your Pace – Join live to engage in real-time discussions, or move through the program at your own pace with full access to the recorded sessions and all the materials.
Cultivate a Timeless Way of Being
As you weave the insights and practices from these ancient traditions into your daily life, you’ll uncover a steadiness that moves beyond fleeting moments of mindfulness—leading to a deeper sense of harmony, resilience, and connection.
This is not just about learning. It’s about cultivating a way of being that allows you to engage with the world more deeply, fully, and creatively—not just for yourself, but as part of a greater whole, honoring the past and the future.
Join us and discover how Japan’s timeless wisdom can support your journey in today’s world.
What You Will Receive
11 Live Online Sessions
Engage with the faculty in 90-minute sessions, featuring guided practices, Q&A, and interactive discussions.
Fully Downloadable
Access all session recordings, resources, and materials anytime, so you can revisit the teachings at your own pace.
8 Expert Teachers
Learn directly from a carefully selected faculty bridging timeless wisdom with modern life.
Workbooks & Transcripts
Deepen your learning with thoughtfully designed study guides and full transcripts of each session.
Insights & Practices
Explore profound teachings and practical exercises to bring presence, clarity, and resilience into your daily life.
Join Live or Go at Your Own Pace
Participate in the live sessions or follow the program on your schedule with full access to recorded content.
MEET THE FACULTY
We’ve carefully curated a faculty of renowned monks, priests, and contemporary teachers who not only embody the wisdom of Zen, Shinto, and Pure Land Buddhism but also actively bridge these traditions with the realities of modern life.
Toryo Ito
Zen priest, Vice Abbott of Ryosokuin
Toryo Ito is the Vice Abbott of Ryosokuin, a sub-temple of Kennin-ji Temple in Kyoto, Japan’s oldest Zen temple. He is recognized in Japan and globally as a true Zen innovator, seamlessly bridging the realms of contemporary and traditional, with a particular emphasis on the arts. On the program, he will share Zen wisdom and practices that help you cut through the noise of daily life and rediscover a sense of clarity, connection, and freedom.
Dairik Amae
Tea teacher & architect
Dairik is a contemporary tea teacher and architect living in Kyoto. He blends a deep embodied understanding of the way of tea with an open mind and a global outlook. Working with students at his tea house in Kyoto, as well as teaching tea online to his overseas students across the globe. He has a deep grasp of both the spiritual and the aesthetic aspects of tea and has been a student of both Zen and Shinto for many years.
Paula Arai
Author & Expert on Zen rituals
Dr. Paula Arai is an acclaimed author, speaker and professor of Buddhist studies. She specializes in Zen rituals and healing practices. She is the author of three books including Bringing Zen Home and The Little Book of Zen Healing. Her work explores the transformative power of weaving Zen rituals and wisdom into the fabric of our daily life. On the program, she will introduce you to these practices and principles, offering practical applications for personal growth.
Taishi Kato
Shinto priest, Ten-jingu
Taishi Kato is the 22nd generation Shinto priest in his family. He serves at the Hattori Ten-jingu shrine in the bustling city of Osaka, trying to hit a balance between preserving tradition while also innovating and looking beyond it. Having studied in London and lectured on Shinto to an international audience, Taishi is on a mission to spread the wisdom of Shinto to the world, believing that underneath its uniquely Japanese form it is abundant with universal insights that we would all benefit from remembering.
Kikuno Hyodo
Tea teacher & Shinto apprentice
Kikuno Hyodo is a tea teacher and Shinto apprentice living in Kyoto prefecture. She is passionate about sharing the cultural aspects of Japanese culture – both tea and Shinto – with the world through storytelling and practice. For her simply preserving techniques isn’t enough, they need to remain relevant to our daily lives in modern times. She believes both tea and Shinto invite us to cherish the present moment, while being connected to the past and the future.
Lawrence Koichi Barrish
Shinto priest & Aikido teacher
Lawrence Koichi Barrish is one of the first and only non-Japanese Shinto priests in the world. He is also a highly acclaimed aikido teacher with more than 50 years of practice. After studying Shinto and its esoteric practices and meditations in Japan since the 1980s, he established and ran the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America for several decades before retiring in 2023. He now runs a small Shinto salon, as well as his aikido dojo, in Florida. For him, Shinto is a pathway to experience true aliveness, following the way of nature with reverence.
Shoukei Matsumoto
Pure Land monk & Author
Shoukei Matsumoto is a Buddhist monk, international speaker and a best-selling author living in Kyoto. His two books, A Quiet Mind and A Buddhist’s Guide to a Clean Home and Mind, focus on making insights and practices from Buddhism accessible and relevant to how we live today. He is also the translator into Japanese of The Good Ancestor by Roman Krznaric. Shoukei is a passionate advocate for learning to listen more deeply to the voice of the world, and asking ourselves what it means to be a Good Ancestor.
Gregg Krech
Author & Expert on Japanese Psychologies
Gregg Krech is a leading authority on Japanese psychology and the co-founder of the ToDo Institute in Vermont, USA. He is the author of several books including Naikan: Gratitude, Grace and the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection. Naikan is a reflection practice and method with its roots in Pure Land Buddhism. On the program, Gregg will introduce you to the practice and its different applications. As well as the ways it opens you up to live life with a deeper sense of gratitude and grace.
HOW IT WORKS
Join Live or Move at Your Own Pace
This journey is both immersive and gentle, designed to meet you where you are. Whether you crave live connection or prefer quiet reflection, Being in the World allows you to engage in a way that feels natural to you.
Live Weekly Workshops – 11 interactive sessions hosted on Zoom, where you can engage directly with expert teachers and like-minded members.
Flexible Access – All sessions are recorded and available to revisit anytime, ensuring you can follow the program at your own pace.
Guided Practices & Reflections – Simple, but profound exercises to weave the wisdom into your daily routine.
A Progressive Learning Journey – The program unfolds in three carefully structured modules, each exploring a different tradition and its relevance to modern life.
The sessions blend storytelling, guided experiences, and dialogue, allowing you to move beyond concepts into direct experience. Whether through Zen’s deep questioning, Shinto’s reverence for life, or Pure Land’s practice of mindful listening, you’ll find practical tools to navigate daily life with clarity and grace.
“Zen is about discovering the truth again and again.”
Toryo Ito
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Sessions (when possible) take place from 4:00-5:30 pm Japan time / 9:00-10:30 am European time. Exceptions for sessions with US based teachers, indicated below.
MODULE 1
Zen
Discovering the True Potential of Your Life
Zen invites you to cut through the noise, soften boundaries, and meet each moment with fresh eyes. Through deep questioning, meditative awareness, and simple daily rituals, you’ll discover a renewed sense of freedom, connection, and inner stillness.
Toryo Ito
Dairik Amae
Paula Arai
April 2
Toryo Ito
Discovering the True Potential of Life
- Discover how Zen helps you cut through the noise and rediscover the true potential of life. Offering a renewed sense of freedom and being at choice.
- Experience zazen under Ito san’s guidance and how it allows you to meet the world with openness, connection and presence. Seeing the deeper value of each moment.
- Learn about the power of Daigi (deep questioning) and how it allows you to let go of fixed beliefs and experience the truth of this moment again and again.
April 9
Toryo Ito
Blurring Boundaries
- Discover how softening the boundaries between self and other, spirituality and everyday life, can bring a sense of true belonging and genuine innovation.
- Experiment with bringing meditative awareness to everyday activities, allowing it to infuse your life with a fresh perspective and a deeper sense of aliveness.
- Understand how being of service to the world doesn’t mean sacrificing yourself, but actually requires you to realize your full potential and creativity.
April 16
Dairik Amae
Emptying Our Cup: Lessons from Tea & Zen for Contemporary Life
- Learn about the deep connection between Zen and The Way of Tea, and how each invites us to appreciate this moment just as it is.
- Experience letting go of the different labels attached to your identity and to savor the freedom of being who you are without comparison or rank.
- Discover the power of bringing care, curiosity and grace to each encounter to foster genuine connection.
- Understand the impact of space and atmosphere on how you feel, and how thoughtfully curating your space naturally evokes a different quality of presence.
April 20
Paula Arai
Bringing Zen Home: The Power of Ritual in Everyday Life
- Discover how everyday life is abundant with possibilities to turn ordinary activities into potent rituals that reduce anxiety, and cultivate resilience and connection.
- Learn how Paula and the women she studied bring the wisdom of Zen home, to find grounding and healing in everyday life amidst its inevitable turmoil.
- Explore some of the key activities that Paula discovered as being transformative: experiencing interrelatedness, accepting reality as it is, expressing gratitude, and creating beauty.
- Create a personalized ritual of your own to experience less overwhelm and more connection and joy.
7:00-8:30 pm Central European / 10:00-11:30am US Pacific
MODULE 2
Shinto
The Path of Aliveness
Shinto reveals a world where everything is alive, interconnected, and sacred. In this module, you’ll explore how to attune to nature’s rhythms, embrace renewal practices, and bring a sense of wonder into your everyday life, fostering a deep sense of harmony and belonging.
Taishi
Kato
Lawrence Koichi
Barrish
Kikuno Hyodo
April 23
Taishi Kato
Everything is Connected, Everything is Alive
- Explore how Shinto, more than a religion, is a way of life based on the realization that we are part of nature, and that life in all its countless expressions is sacred.
- Discover how everyday life is filled with ‘Shinto moments’, opportunities to experience a deeper sense of wonder and reverence for life.
- Uncover the ways in which Shinto has shaped the very foundation of Japanese culture and its unique sensibilities that are valued across the world.
- Examine Shinto’s universal message and value for today’s turbulent world.
April 30
Taishi Kato
Nakaima: Living in the Long Now
- Learn about the Shinto concept of Nakaima, the Long Now, and how it invites you to be fully present in this moment, but with a deep awareness that the past is also present, and that how you inhabit this moment determines the future.
- Discover the value of consciously removing the inevitable mental and emotional ‘dust’ we all gather each day, so you can meet this moment with a fresh sense of aliveness.
- Explore how Shinto emphasizes the power of doing and feeling over thinking and explaining. Valuing a deep embodied sensibility over rational understanding.
May 4
Kikuno Hyodo
Q & A with Tea Teacher and Shinto Apprentice Kikuno Hyodo
- Join tea teacher and Shinto apprentice Kikuno Hyodo for a short presentation followed by a curated interview and Q & A.
- Explore how for Kikuno practicing Shinto, like practicing the way of tea, is about cherishing the present moment and each encounter.
- Note that this session is shorter than the others, running for 60 instead of 90 minutes. This is because the session has a slightly different format and will partially rely on interpretation.
May 7
Lawrence Koichi Barrish
The Path of Aliveness
- Learn a daily renewal practice that allows you to experience a deep sense of aliveness, while also aligning you with your unique mission in the world.
- Discover how this can become a doorway to moving forward fully engaged, in tune with a life force that is both yours and universal at the same time.
- Understand how aikido is an embodied expression of the Shinto worldview and is another way to harmonize the self with its environment.
- Explore how Shinto’s universal message of living in harmony with Nature is part of the paradigm shift needed across the world, and the potent concepts and practices to support us individually and collectively on that journey.
2:00-3:30 pm Central European / 9:00-10:30 pm Japan
MODULE 3
Pure Land
Listening to the Voice of the World
What if the wisdom you seek is already speaking to you? Through deep listening, self-reflection, and the practice of gratitude, Pure Land Buddhism helps you see reality more clearly and shift into a quiet trust in both your own effort and the unseen grace that carries you. You’ll explore what it means to be a good ancestor—one who leaves the world more beautiful for those who come after.
Shoukei Matsumoto
Gregg Krech
May 14
Shoukei Matsumoto
Being a Good Ancestor: Listening to the Voice of the World
- Experience the value of mindful listening, Pure Land’s central practice. Allowing you to become deeply attuned to yourself and your environment, hearing the voice of the world as it speaks to and through you.
- Discover how this leads to the experience of Interbeing: the embodied realization that you are deeply connected with all of existence.
- Explore what it means to be a Good Ancestor, and how this invites you to take the long view, while being deeply rooted in this moment.
May 21
Gregg Krech
Self Power, Other Power & The Practice of Naikan
- Learn about the transformative Japanese art of self-reflection, called Naikan, its roots in Pure Land Buddhism, and its capacity to help you see reality more clearly as it is.
- Experience how shifting your focus in life from self-effort to a recognition of the countless ways life is taking care of you in each moment is deeply liberating and humbling.
- Use the simple but powerful Naikan self-reflection method to examine your relationship with others and the world at large.
2:00-3:30 pm Central European / 9:00-10:30 pm Japan
May 28
Gregg Krech
Opening to Grace & Gratitude through Self-Reflection
- Report back on your experiences with taking on the Naikan practice to examine your relationship with others and the world and receive feedback and guidance from Gregg.
- Learn how you can apply the Naikan method to different domains of your life to gain deeper insight, and experience grace and gratitude.
- Identify the Four Obstacles to Gratitude and how to work more skillfully with each of them.
2:00-3:30 pm Central European / 9:00-10:30 pm Japan
What We Hope This Journey Will Offer You
A Deeper Presence in Everyday Life – Learn how to slow down, see the world with fresh eyes, and bring meditative awareness into daily activities.
A Sense of Belonging —To Yourself, to Others, to the World – Feel the rigid separation between you and the world soften, as these practices open the door to belonging.
Inner Steadiness & Clarity – Shift from overwhelm to steadiness by integrating timeless wisdom that helps you navigate life’s uncertainties with grace.
A Tapestry of Transformative Practices – Through guided meditations, self-inquiry exercises, and customized rituals, these teachings become a part of your life – moving wisdom from theory into lived reality.
A Rare Opportunity to Learn from Those Bridging Tradition & Innovation – Interact with a handpicked faculty of monks, priests, tea teachers and contemporary experts dedicated to making ancient teachings accessible and relevant today.
Being in the World
Timeless Wisdom from Japan’s Spiritual Traditions for Contemporary Life
Step into a rare opportunity to learn from visionary teachers and bring timeless wisdom into your daily life. Whether you long for more clarity, resilience, or a deeper sense of connection, Being in the World offers a space to explore, reflect, and transform.
Join us and discover how Japan’s timeless wisdom can support your journey in today’s world.
11 Live Online Sessions
Fully Downloadable
8 Expert Teachers
Workbooks & Transcripts
Insights & Practices
Join Live or Go at Your Own Pace
Book your place
Early bird ends in
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The 11 sessions that form the core of the program are live and take place via ZOOM video conference. Recordings of those sessions become available a day later so you can also move at your own pace if you prefer, or revisit the sessions.
Yes, English is the main language for all sessions. For a few of the sessions a skilled interpreter will be there in case the faculty members need support in expressing a more complicated or nuanced idea in English.
You’ll have guaranteed access for twelve months following the completion of the program. To retain them longer than this we advise that you download them onto your own computer.
We offer a 12-day money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied with the program for any reason, simply contact us at info@musubi.academy within 12 days of the start of the program and we’ll offer a full refund.
This is listed in the program schedule section above. Most sessions with Japanese faculty members take place from 4:00-5:30 pm Japanese time. The sessions with US based teachers depart from this and their times are listed above.
Yes, you can receive a certificate of completion for the course. If it’s for business usage it’s good to check if your company approves the program as continued learning. We can offer a certificate for the 16 hours that make up the total duration of the sessions on the program. Just send us an email if you would like to receive a certificate once the program is completed.
If you have any questions about the program, you can email us at info@musubi.academy.
