about aloha sangha

This website offers personal insights into the early Buddhist teachings as a source of practical wisdom and happiness anyone can follow no matter how busy and chaotic their lives seem.

We can realistically bring about true happiness, true contentment in our lives just as they are. Now when I say our lives as they are I really do mean just as they are.

Many forms of spiritual practice which have found a home here in the West advocate extended meditation retreats, which is great. But I am often asked the following question about this kind of approach to spiritual cultivation:

Are extended meditation retreats necessary?

One very rich area, which unfortunately I don’t see discussed thoroughly enough, is how practical some of these ideas regarding meditation are for most of us. Some forms of meditation practice have been adapted to our contemporary society from renunciate, ascetic origins in the East.

Many of us first encountering these adapted forms of spiritual and contemplative development understandably may be just a little are put off by the emphasis placed on the value of extended meditation retreats. However, allow this point to settle in:

Our ordinary lives are where the action is

This website strives to offer an alternative to many retreat-focused approaches to contemplative spirituality, as it recognizes that a huge portion of our society simply cannot afford the expense nor the time involved in undertaking retreats.

And it presents the point of view that spiritual development is at times more thorough-going when undertaken in our lives as they are — and for many of us that means living paycheck to paycheck, or raising kids, or taking care of our aging parents.

What I present here are simply my own personal findings of a 40 plus year journey through Buddhist systems of meditation and contemplation. But please know that my approach to teaching is thoroughly secular and contemporary, incorporating poetry and ecology.

No one tradition holds all the answers

I hold very dear the teachings of early Buddhism. I also find the some of the contemplative practices described in Christian, Islamic, and Jewish mystical traditions especially helpful in illuminating a path for busy “householders.”

I hope that you find something here that makes sense for you.

About me

Hi. My name is Tom Davidson-Marx and I have been teaching Buddhist meditation in Honolulu since 1998, in our home on the island of O’ahu.

I trained in both an insight meditation lineage originating in Burma as well as a breath-awareness lineage as practiced in contemporary Sri Lanka. I spent three years as an ordained Buddhist monk practicing these two forms of meditation.

My story

My first exposure to meditation was through a 10 day silent retreat taught by assistant teachers of S. N. Goenka in December of 1979, when I was 24. That retreat was a major turning point in my life.

I could not see myself not making Buddhist meditation a central part of my life. I moved into a local Buddhist center in 1981–the International Buddhist Meditation Center located in the Korea-town area of Los Angeles.

It was there that I met my second teacher, the American former monk named Shinzen Young. Shinzen deeply understood the early Buddhist teachings and brought their central messages to life for me, using original metaphors drawn from his profound grasp of mathematics and science.

Training in Asia

After attending some 20 or so insight meditation retreats of varying lengths, from 10 days to the 3 month retreat in Barre, Massachusetts in 1983, I left the USA to study and practice in Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka I met with Bhikkhu Bodhi who helped explore the marvelous teachings in the suttas. I was ordained as a Theravada monk in November of 1984. After three years I returned my Buddhist robes to take up lay life again in the USA, in late 1987.

One my way back to the USA, I spent several months in India, practicing with Anagarika Munindra as well attending several 10 day retreats with assistant teachers of S. N. Goenka. I also completing a course of study in Vajrayana Buddhism at Sakya College in Rajpur, India before returning to live at the International Buddhist Meditation Center in Los Angeles in 1988.

Since returning to the USA I have been practicing in the Mahasi Sayadaw lineage of Burma. I am grateful for the guidance of several senior Western teachers in this lineage over the years, particularly Graham White of Australia.

Aloha Sangha founding

In 1990 I moved to Hawaii, where I met my wife Katina the following year. I also went to nursing school here, at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I have worked full-time as an RN at an inpatient psychiatric hospital for the past twenty five years.

We founded Aloha Sangha in February of 1998. I served as the coordinator of the local chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship here on O’ahu for some years. We have two adult children.

Aloha Sangha 25th Anniversary

Here is a photo album from our 25th anniversary celebration with sangha in March of 2023. Just click on link below:

Aloha Sangha 25th Anniversary party!

and a few more pics

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