Gordon has been training in a Japanese lineage of Zen Buddhism for over 40 years, training that included intense training in Shodo (Japanese calligraphy) and swordsmanship. While the same principles infuse all three forms of training, in Shodo you could say that breath and body become the brush and those are expressed when ink hits the paper.
He teaches Zen as the resident priest at Spring Green Zen Dojo and that is where he also maintains his Shodo studio, housed in a timber-framed structure made from oaks logged and milled on the property by Gordon and several Zen students.
His Shodo training comes from a 1500-year calligraphy lineage, the name of which translates as “deep in the wood,” a suitable description of the Dojo complex.