Hi, my name is Thomas. In this write-up, I will share some of my personal experiences and vision for this community. The Contemplative Practice Community is still an experiment, and what it will become depends on whether the project resonates with people like you — and what you bring to the table.

My initial vision is to build a community that takes the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism as an umbrella, providing a broad and inclusive approach that brings together people from various backgrounds, and creating an environment that fosters the development of spiritual friendships. If this group becomes cohesive, I can also envision anchoring our programming in a small residential community of 5–10 core members living at a semi-rural location near San Diego. At that point, small-scale regenerative farming could also become part of the project.

Where I Come From

Growing up often haunted by loneliness and struggling to fit in, at twelve years old I discovered a passion for performing magic, around which I constructed a sense of worth that helped me navigate my teenage years. However, when I started USC as an undergraduate, shortly after winning a major international magic competition, this whole system of self-worth based on accomplishments collapsed. I fell into a serious depression that I struggled with for over a year. This is when I discovered Buddhism, and began my practice of Zen meditation.

As I recovered, my life was no longer the same. I had realized that my worth was not a function of what I could accomplish, but a feature of my very being — something I could best access through meditation and the wisdom of the Buddha's teachings. My trajectory shifted away from performing magic and increasingly toward greater commitment to practicing the Dharma.

During both undergraduate and graduate school, I studied Western philosophy of mind and consciousness, but I was continually in dialogue between the Western tradition and the Buddhist teachings I was practicing. While in the philosophy PhD program at UC Irvine, I found academia too limited and rigid, so I stopped with an MA and shifted to full-time Zen practice. After more than a year of this, I found myself drawn toward the Chinese Mahayana tradition — particularly the teachings of Great Master Hsuan Hua — and eventually toward monastic life. In 2012 I was ordained as a novice, and in 2014 I became a fully ordained monk, spending the better part of eleven years in monastic training, including about a year in Taiwan.

The Accident — and What Followed

I had no intention of leaving monastic life. However, in September 2023, while riding my bike to an electrical supply store, I was hit by a car that ran a red light. This get-well card from my niece provides a good illustration of the admittedly humorous (in retrospect) situation of monk-on-bike vs. crazy LA traffic!

I was fortunate to escape with — relatively speaking — minor injuries, but the accident triggered a chain of events that led me to take a break from monastic life. Leaving the monastery actually allowed me to help my parents during a critical time: we discovered my father has Parkinson's Disease, and a year later my parents' home was destroyed in the 2025 Pacific Palisades fire. I've since been able to support their move to La Jolla, where they are now near my brother and his family. (Check out Meierz.org for more about my dad and his artwork.)

Aside from allowing me to better support my family, this transition has brought me into a period of deep personal reflection. I feel there are still lessons I am meant to learn that I have not yet fully processed. One thing I've noticed is that the intensity of my monastic training, although building my strength and patience, did not always help me open my heart in the ways I had hoped. This is part of why I feel drawn to building this community with an emphasis on spiritual friendship — a space where we can genuinely support each other in practice and study, rather than endure it alone. Given my own history with loneliness, and today's epidemic of isolation in our overly digital society, I am excited by the possibility of building something anchored in friendship and mutual support as its cornerstone.

My Role Here

My aspiration is to draw on my monastic experience to organize and facilitate this community. But I am explicitly not assuming the role of a Buddhist or Dharma teacher — I show up here as a fellow practitioner. I will use my knowledge of monastic practice and the scriptures only to give some structure to the group, while keeping everything discussion-based. For those with deeper questions, I can point you toward trusted Buddhist teachers.

Although I will draw on Buddhist teachings as part of my personal background, others will be encouraged to share their own experiences and traditions as well. In fact, these last few months, I myself have begun to explore the teachings of Jesus, especially more mystical forms of Christianity, and find it helpful to look at similarities and differences with the Buddha's teachings.

For the purpose of this group, I am working to formulate core principles that are somewhat general and shared by different religious and contemplative practices, yet still have enough cohesion to anchor the group around common values. Principles such as the following: this life is a preparation and training ground for what comes next, the development of character and virtue is an essential part of our lives, we are responsible for the consequences of our actions, meditation is an invaluable tool for spiritual cultivation, and the physical world is only a small part of a much greater invisible reality.

My personal belief is that if we can go beyond the narrow conceptions into which Western education typically boxes us, we can open to a more meaningful life — one in which our efforts in this lifetime are part of a much larger trajectory.

Currently, I am staying in San Diego to continue supporting my parents, while also maintaining my own study and practice. I was looking for ways to carry out the spirit of serving others, and forming this community felt like a natural convergence — a way to find synergy between my personal path and the aspiration to be of service.

I see myself returning to monastic life in the future, and if this group has grown strong by that point, maybe it can continue and serve as a kind of bridge between this kind of open-ended, inclusive, and accessible format, and the more formal methods and teachings of Buddhism.