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The Legacy of Stephen Wurzel: From Zen to Little People Farm

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I started this person’s story on January 1st, Part I of this person’s life and titled it:
Stephen Wurzel: A Journey Through Zen and Service. He is a person I admire, and I want to continue the tale about his amazing adventures. Stephen Wurzel studied in Japan during college and became a Zen master. This section details his return from Japan and his next adventure.

After he returned from Japan, he graduated from SUNY (State University of New York) and moved to Schenectady, NY and lived with in his house. He collaborated with his friend who created and owned the Schenectady Zen Center. He led many of the meditations, and spent a lot of time there, often eating at the community dinner on Fridays. He helped create a beautiful community in New York and they decided to take it to another level.

In 1975, Stephen gathered about twenty of his friends from the Zen Center  and they decided to buy some land in Arkansas. They wanted to create that harmonious work/play environment we all hoped to escape to in those days. They bought 110 acres of land in what was known as the Hazel Valley outside of Fayetteville. The Zen folks drove their belongings down a long (over a mile) dirt road. Everyone pitched in and they started building their homes. They also dug out and planted a ten-acre garden for their food. They also built a sweat lodge and had ceremonies, attempting to become closer to or in touch with their environment. The woods were thick and surrounded their settlement. The folks that were native to Arkansas felt sorry for these east coast neophytes and decided to help them build their houses and sheds. The founders of this farm were height-challenged and therefore the farm was christened as the Little People Farm (not to be confused with dwarfism or classified as Little People like you watched on TV, just really short people)!

There was one neighbor who drove a semi-tractor trailer and helped them out with a whole trailer full of roofing materials. All the neighbors were amazing people to help these crazy hippies out. And the group went around and volunteered and worked on their neighbors’ farms, so it was nice to hear that at one time, these folks really lived together in harmony.

Alas, all good things must end. These good people woke up one day and realized they were woefully unprepared for the harsh winters. They didn’t grow enough food and didn’t know how they were going to make a go of it. The farm lasted for only a few years and people went their separate ways. Most people sold their portions and moved on. Stephen kept his portion, about forty-five acres for longer, and finally sold it about ten years ago. It was a beautiful concept, but ended before it could blossom.

Stephen returned to New York, this time back to the South Shore of Long Island. He found a new love and studied at a Yoga Ashram lead by Gurani Anjali (Gurani meaning female guru). In Stephen’s own words, he told me, “The Gurani was giving a lecture on love, and that’s when I met Janice. It was definitely a case of love at first sight!” Stepehen said he turned around and saw this beautiful woman with long curly hair. He said he knew that she was going to be his wife, and he got her phone number! This was when his real adventure began. –Stay tuned for Part III!

Stephen Wurzel: A Journey Through Zen and Service

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Or Someone Who Is Calm Before the Storm.

Wow! We made it! I am happy nothing blew up, there were no fires, and we had a wonderful time with each other as we survived the night. The wind is howling outside, but we will persevere! I want to start out the New Year with an interview of a person I met and got to know. This will be a several part series and I hope you enjoy my conversation with him.

I met Stephen Wurzel at the Louisville Senior Center. We had lunch together and he was a delightful person, full of energy, and very entertaining. We formed a bond and now sit at the table on the days he and I come in for lunch.

Stephen helps out at so many places in town, working at Sister Carmen, in Lafayette, as well as handing out burritos to the unhoused and downtrodden folks in Boulder to name a few. He gave a lot of himself to so many people in his lifetime, and he regaled us with stories about some of his past antics and training. I was intrigued by his stories so I asked if I could interview him and he agreed. We picked a date and got together.

Stephen went to college at SUNY (State University of New York) in Albany, NY in the late 1960s and early 1970s. When he was almost finished, he took a Zen Buddhism class which included meditation. The professor was Japanese and was headed back to Japan. Stephen ran across campus and tracked him down. He asked the professor if he could go back with him to Japan to study with a Zen Master, and the professor agreed to take him to his Zen master. He was able to use his student visa and received a full semester of credits while in Japan.

The plane was an old military type plane, and the trip was long and arduous. They finally arrived in Kyoto, and it was winter. The students practiced with bare feet and hands, and it was extremely cold. He found housing with a Japanese family who owned a restaurant. They lived above the restaurant in a sort of a compound. When he first arrived, they had him sleeping on the second floor with all of their dogs. He asked to work at the restaurant, and they obliged. So here was this young, white man in a sea of Japanese, learning how to prepare squid. They taught him how to take the eyeballs out of the squid to make it edible. He wound up becoming a tourist attraction and achieved the local reputation as the “Best Squid Eyeball Popper” ever. He eventually was able to move upstairs to live with the family.

While in Kyoto, he was able to expand his training with many Masters of the arts. He learned calligraphy with one master. He learned how to prepare the tea and participate in tea ceremonies. The Zen master taught him many techniques and they praised him for his abilities. Stephen’s semester was almost over, and his student visa would be up after seven months in this beautiful and serene environment. He went to his master one more time and asked him what he should do next. The master said: “You can do anything you want!” At 20 years old, this was well-received advice, and he flew back to New York feeling that he could indeed do anything.

—More tomorrow.