Membership Profiles

Martha Tressler

Martha has spent much of her life helping others deal with losses in their lives. After losing her husband in 1982, she struggled with the difficulties and challenges of raising three children. After going to a retreat called "The Beginning Experience" which was designed to give people support who were going through divorce or the loss of a loved one, she decided to train to become a facilitator to help others deal with their personal loses. 

Eventually, a Catholic priest offered her a job and for the next 13 years she worked at the Family Life Office of the Archdiocese. This office worked with people going through major changes in their families, often due to losses due to divorce or death of a loved one. She worked for another 8 years with Catholic Cemeteries doing bereavement ministry where she helped train people in Catholic parishes to be better listeners so they could serve in various roles at funerals and other community events. 

While Martha has always found this work rewarding she says it can also be very stressful. She had made many attempts to meditate before she came to the Zen Life & Meditation Center, but without much success. "I took the Primer classes", she said, "and got more than I bargained for." The mindfulness meditation and the practice of living a Zen-inspired life have been extremely helpful to her. She doesn't get as stressed as she used to. She discovered that much of her stress resulted from being too attached to a particular outcome. Meditation helped her be more detached and to take things less personally.  

Martha says "Zen Life & Meditation Center has so much to offer and the facility is so beautiful and peaceful. I've tried other meditations before, but now that I've taken the classes at ZLMC I'm getting better success and I enjoy being a member of the community."

We enjoy having Martha as a member too. Martha's two sons and one daughter are all grown up now. Her oldest son is an accountant in Chicago. Her youngest son also lives in Chicago and is a metal fabricator and her daughter is soon to be married and will moving out of Chicago for a warmer climate in a southern state. 

Jorge Ortiz

We increasingly talk about how stressful airports are, but we probably don’t realize that it’s even more stressful for the people who work there doing their best to be of service to us. Jorge Ortiz is one of those workers. He works on the baggage ramp for United Airlines at O’Hare Airport servicing aircraft and making sure baggage doesn’t get lost.

It’s a stressful job. There is constant pressure to get things done quickly. There’s a lot of movement around the planes, so one has to be constantly alert. And in the winter one is outside much of the time in very cold weather.

Jorge joined Zen Life & Meditation Center (ZLMC) in 2010 as a practicing member. He was always interested in meditation but was never sure if he was doing it right. He’s now completed the Primer and the Gateway series at ZLMC and says it’s been very helpful for him in his daily life. He finds that mindfulness helps him stay focused on his job. He says he has also become less reactive when dealing with other people. He likes the many offerings of ZLMC and being able to practice together with others in a spiritual community.

Jorge was born in Mexico in 1963. When he was 8 years old, his family immigrated to Chicago, where his father, Gonzalo worked in the Republic Steel Mill in South Chicago. In 1978 the steel mill closed and Gonzalo lost his pension, but he was lucky to get a job working at United Airlines. Now Jorge has the same job as his father. 

Jorge’s mother is Romona. He has three siblings: Jose, Maria and younger brother, Victor. Jorge has two sons and two daughters from a previous marriage.

So next time you’re at O’Hare Airport and you’re feeling frustrated, remember the people like Jorge who work there every day, often in much more stressful situations than yours, helping you travel safely and get to your destination with your bags intact.

Diana Conley

If you've come to the Zen Life & Meditation Center (ZLMC) recently, chance are you've seen the bright, welcoming smile of Diana Conley. You'll find her volunteering in the kitchen, cleaning altars, or making flower arrangements. Diana is an Advanced Member and sits on our board of directors as our Treasurer. Not only does she give generously of her time at the Zen Center but she also volunteers once a week teaching women how to meditate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

She grew up in Chicago where she attended Catholic grade school. Drawn to philosophy and Japan, she read Alan Watt's book, "Man, Woman, Nature" and decided Zen was for her. 

She tried meditating on her own, but it wasn't until she received some meditation instruction from a Tai Chi instructor that she realized how many misconceptions she had about the practice.

It wasn't long before she moved to Boulder and enrolled in Naropa. Three years later she received a BA in Traditional Eastern Arts with a concentration in Aikido. She spent several more years in Boulder working on the staff for Naropa University and Shambhala Mountain Center.

She began to feel homesick for Chicago, so she moved back here in 2008. She got a job at Gravity Tank, a consulting firm that helps businesses design new products. She began seeking out different Zen Centers in Chicago, but none really clicked.

When Diana attended her first Day of Mindfulness at ZLMC in late 2009, she was surprised and intrigued by the richness and variety of practices offered. The day included mindfulness meditation, a private session with the teacher, a Big Mind process and a closing Council Circle. After that she knew she had found a spiritual home.

She says both Big Mind, Council Circle, meditation and doing private koan study with Robert have been transformational in her life. She struggled with depression in high school and was always afraid of being taken over again by this "dark place". She was wary of Chicago because she knew how harsh it could be here. But the Zen practice has helped her make peace with herself. She doesn't have a heavy heart any more.

Diana feels the mindfulness practice taught at ZLMC has helped her clarify how her unexamined assumptions have driven a lot of her destructive habits. Her Zen spiritual path has helped her appreciate and enjoy her life and the world around her.

The practice has also had a big impact on the way she works. Raised in a working class family, she learned a strict work ethic. While this is good, it has also sometimes caused her to overwork in obsessive ways that created stress and unhappiness. Now she says, she is less compulsive about work. She is able to relax and enjoy each moment, to focus more clearly on the task at hand, and to let go of the work once she leaves the office.

She attributes much of this to the mindfulness practice she has learned in the Core Curriculum classes at ZLMC. The teachings on intention and mindfulness help her stay balanced. She can have a very busy day but it doesn't consume her like it used to.

She enjoys having much of her family close by. She has 3 brothers and a sister and her mother, Carol lives in Naperville. We are grateful and happy to have Diana as a member of our growing spiritual community.

Sergio Jimenez

Sergio is a Practicing Member at Zen Life & Meditation Center of Chicago (ZLMC). He is happily married to his wife, Maritza and has three sons, David (age 5), Francisco (age 4) and Benjamin (age 2). He is a quality control manager at a mid-sized company in Chicago.

Over a year ago he found himself burdened by increased anxiety and excessive worrying. He began to spiral down, losing weight and having trouble sleeping at night. He visited doctors, got diagnosed, and received medications, but nothing seemed to help. He discovered that the medications had disagreeable side-effects he didn't like. 

After much research and reading, he concluded that meditation might help. He began meditating. Slowly he was able to effectively reduce his stress and anxiety. As his eating and sleeping improved he regained his sense of balance and well being. After a few months of meditating at least twice a day, he was able to eliminate anxiety and excessive worrying completely.

Now he meditates every day. His job is stressful with many deadlines. Regular meditation helps ground him so that he can deal with the pressures of his job more effectively and successfully. He has also found that the mindfulness meditation practice has vastly improved his relationship with his wife and three sons. 

Regarding his experience in taking our Primer Series at ZLMC, Sergio says, "The material I have learned from Robert has been very helpful and instructive. The simple yet powerful mindfulness meditation techniques have opened a whole new world of positive possibilities for me. It is an honor to be a part of the Zen Center community." We are happy and grateful to have Sergio as a member of our community.