Christopher Ives the Zen Professor

By Sydney Maxey

“And I just started hiking…and looked up…there was virtually no one around. I was totally alone. It felt like it was just me and Mt. Everest and all these spectacular mountains in all directions…it was spectacular…it was gorgeous.”

A STOL air plane dropped Professor Christopher Ives at the foot of Mt. Everest for a three week expedition at the start of November 1983. In the three week period, eight days were spent doing extensive hiking until Ives and his group reached the base of the mountain. Ives says it was one of the greatest experiences he’s had.

Ives grew up in the conservative and quaint town of Litchfield, Conn. during the 1960s. Son to Edward and Marilla Ives admits he has landed where he is today, “in a sort of roundabout way.”
After graduating from Williams College, a university north of his Connecticut hometown, Ives travelled to Japan.

At age 21, Ives found himself immersed in a large epicenter of Japanese pop culture. Before Japanese anime had invaded America. Before Hello Kitty was a fixture in every American household. In 1975 before America and Japanese assimilation was well underway, freshly out of college, Ives moved to Kyoto, Japan. Ives lived in the city he now refers to as his “home away from home” for five years, making a living as an English teacher.

Growing up, Ives says he was addicted to brainteasers, “it was almost maniacal, that moment of ‘aha!’ I figured it out.”

It was that same gratification that propelled Ives to become fluent in Japanese, he even jokes that his only real skill is speaking Japanese, “I’m useless when it comes to computers, I can’t fix a broken car, but if you ever have lost Japanese tourists in your neighborhood, send them my way, then I can help out.”

Ives also took time to meet many native Japanese people, travel, observe art, and most importantly nurture his ever-growing curiosity of Buddhism during his five years in Kyoto.
Ives interest in Buddhism began in college when he witnessed his fellow college peers meditating. An aspiring psychotherapist at the time, Ives was fascinated in the link between meditation and psychotherapy. Following his fascination Ives began to study further in the western psychology field, ultimately leading him to move and study in Japan.

“I was most interested in the meditative state of awareness,” says Ives of his studies in Zen Buddhism. “It seemed similar to things I experienced as a kid.” Ives explaines the meditative state of awareness is: “those moments where you’re not separate from things, not analyzing but embracing things appearing in all their beauty.”

Today, Ives says he has a special place in his attic where he meditates on a daily basis.
Following his five years in Japan, Ives moved back to the states to continue his studies at Claremont Grad School. Before graduating, Ives took a year off from grad school to travel.

“I took off to Asia, parts I had not gotten to see.” Sri Lanka, Nepal and Mt. Everest were among the places the professor travelled.

Ives says the Olympic Mountains in Northern Washington and the North Cascades National Park are two of his most favorite hiking spots as well.

In addition to travelling and hiking, Ives is an avid surfer. He cites Straw’s Point in New Hampshire and Cape Cod as his preferred surfing spots, but says “wherever there’s waves,” is truly his favorite locale. While attending grad school in California Ives also surfed quite often at Huntington Beach, and for a time considered becoming a marine biologist.

Ives says throughout all of his studies, all of his travels, he has been, “Following my curiosity.” Which is what led him to his current occupation, teaching Religious Studies courses at Stonehill College.

“My own curiosity led me to religion and its connection to people’s life. It’s almost a scam that I get paid to read books I’d be reading otherwise, and teach what I love,” Ives laughs.
“As a teacher I hope I can access that [curiosity] in my students, cultivate their curiosity and support them in a quest of their own explorations.”