FROM THE TACHERIA CENTER BOARD OF DIRECTORS
September 1, 2025
Dear Wisdom’s Way Students, Alumni and Spiritual Community,
It is with an extremely heavy heart that I write this. Over the past few weeks, we have gone from seven confirmed students to three confirmed students for the upcoming year, which makes it untenable for us to continue Wisdom’s Way this year. We need eight students for the program to cover its costs, and while we could weather the financial strain of being one or two students under that, having only three total students leaves us in an unviable position.
The teaching team and I are heartbroken. We were very much looking forward to being with you again this year on your spiritual journeys, and we have not come to this decision lightly.
For the past few weeks, the Zen sangha I sometimes attend has been sitting with the koan: “This is the stone, drenched in rain, that points the way.” The entire teaching team has been holding the stone of declining enrollment for a while, offering it–and all of us–love and compassion, trying to be creative and to bring positive energy to the situation, thinking about things we can do, trying to recruit more students, and now it seems the way our declining enrollment points has become clear: as painful as it is, we need to practice letting go.
We are grateful for all of the gifts you brought to Wisdom’s Way, and we are grateful for all of the profoundly moving moments we shared. And we hope we are able to stay connected through some of the other things Wisdom’s Way has to offer, including the alumni group and the Tuesday Gathering of Souls. Sue or Fran can give you more information about both of those, if you need it.
The three remaining students are all in AZ, and WW’s sister school in Tucson, Tacheria, is offering F2F classes this year. It has a dozen students, so it is going to run. It’s a pretty long drive for the students in Phoenix, but the class is available to you, and several students have made the trek in the past, including Cathy Stafford (the co-founder of WW) and Dave Wehner (of our teaching team). Betty, the director of Tacheria, has also offered to run the class as a hybrid, like we did with the 12-Step presentation last year, if any of the Phoenix students are interested in attending that way.
If you would like to talk, I would be glad to meet with you. If you would like to be part of a group that explores the future of Wisdom’s Way, I would be glad to talk to you about that as well.
Again, we are profoundly sorry that we cannot continue this year! We are sending you love and positive energy!
Ken Vorndran, Tacheria Board Chair and Director of Wisdom’s Way School
Dave Wehner, Fran Walsh, and Sue Larson, Wisdom’s Way Leadership Team
with Tacheria Center Board Members