Natalie Talks Live with Author Joan Diane Stamm

Joan Diane Stamm grew up in a rural community of wheat farmers in North Dakota. Nothing in her upbringing foretold of a later interest in Japan and Japanese culture. During college years an interest in Eastern philosophy developed, but not until 1991, when she moved to Japan to teach English would she participate in her first Zen experience at a training temple in Kobe. An interest in Buddhism deepened during her time in Japan, and further developed upon her return home two years later. She would continue a life-long study and practice of Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as ikebana (the art of Japanese flower design), which would lead to her first booAfter many trips to Japan to study ikebana, and many years studying and practicing Buddhism, the idea of a Buddhist pilgrimage was born. In 2012, along with her sister, she embarked on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage of 33 Temples; that same year she co-founded Cold Mountain Hermitage, a Buddhist study and practice group. Her second book recounts this amazing pilgrimage route.More recently Joan’s interests are moving toward explorations of NW native and pollinator-friendly plants in our time of climate-change, pollinator collapse, and habitat loss. She has begun using native and pollinator-friendly plants in her ikebana and encourages others to grow native plants in their gardens. The heart of Buddhist precepts: “Do No Harm,” informs her actions more and more.Joan is a certified ikebana teacher under the Saga Goryu School of Ikebana in Kyoto, Japan, and holds an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College. Her previous books include Heaven and Earth are Flowers: Reflections on Ikebana and Buddhism and A Pilgrimage in Japan: the 33 Temples of Kannon. She lives in the Pacific Northwest.

BOOK   The Language of Flowers in the Time of COVID: Finding Solace in Zen, Nature and Ikebana -

https://joanstamm.com