Smoothing the Edges: Life Becomes Practice

Smoothing the Edges: Life Becomes Practice

Jacksonville Sanga Zoom – 12/15/25, 7 PM EST
By Fusatsu – Apriel Jessup Searcy

Roots and Early Influences

I grew up in southwestern Kentucky, deep in the Bible Belt, raised within the Southern Baptist tradition. Religion and spirituality have been the cornerstones of my life for as long as I can remember.

My first exposure to Buddhism came during a Women’s and Religion course while studying nursing at the University of Louisville. Still, it would be many years before I formally began practicing. That step didn’t come until my wife encouraged me to visit the local Atlanta Shambhala Center.

Around that same time, I was also attending the Spiritual Living Center of Atlanta. Yet Buddhism became my primary path, and Shambhala became my community for ten years—until a disruption involving a teacher left many of us unable to reconcile the teachings with the situation at hand.

Finding Community, Again and Again

When that disruption occurred, I began searching for another community. After about six months, I found the Atlanta Soto Zen Center. I began practicing with the sangha there and eventually took refuge and the Zaike discipleship vow.

While studying at ASZC, I met Hoko Karnegis from Sanshin Zen Community, and her teaching style resonated with me deeply. I practiced frequently with Sanshin during the pandemic, and shortly afterward began working more closely with them.

In 2024, this evolving connection led me, together with my friend Rev. John Karn, to co-found the Three Mountains Sangha study group. We practice remotely with Sanshin whenever we can and continue to expand our local offerings, incorporating a wide range of spiritual teachings. Every path, every community, every teacher along the way has been an integral part of my journey.

Recognizing the Thread of Truth

Over time, I’ve come to recognize the thread of truth woven through all the great wisdom traditions. My daily practice includes body movement, sitting meditation, work practice, homestead practice, and personal study.

When I first learned to still my mind and work with my thoughts, it took time to realize that everything I practiced in the safety of a container or sangha was preparation—training for the moment-to-moment lived experience of my life.

Eventually, I began to understand there is no separation.

How Practice Shapes a Life

I return to this understanding again and again: as diamonds are formed under great physical pressure, and as stones and landscapes are shaped by water flowing over them, our practice shapes and softens our lives.

As we return to the stillness and quietness of our minds, we learn to be present. We learn to respond rather than react. In a time when so much of the world feels reactive and chaotic, I have found refuge in my practice. It provides the ground from which I work in the midst of it all.

Smoothing the Edges

And so we return to the topic for this evening:
allowing practice to smooth our edges.

In every moment of our lives, practice is happening. There is no separation.

An Offering

What the Water Keeps

A jagged rock
Argues with the river's edge
resisting.

Seasons pass
Water keeps its vows
What once cut the current
now cups it,
holding silence
where sharpness once lived.

— Fusatsu, Apriel Jessup Searcy