Welcome to Roots of Life
About Roots of Life
My name is Bruce Taylor, and my work centers on the nature of the mind and the quiet field that emerges when thought settles. I teach meditation, mental stillness, Zen practice, Traditional Japanese Usui Reiki Ryōhō, and therapeutic psychedelic work, with a focus on helping people understand how patterns form and how to unwind them. Much of this teaching is grounded in my ongoing study and time spent each year in Kyoto, practicing with monks on Mt. Hiei and Mt. Kurama, the historical roots of the Usui lineage.
This direction was shaped by personal experience. For many years, I worked as a secondary school teacher in Chicago and Hong Kong. The long hours and accumulated stress eventually eroded my health. My blood pressure rose, my system began to unravel, and a later cancer diagnosis forced me to stop, reassess, and rebuild. That period returned me to practices I had carried since childhood: meditation, stillness, and the study of consciousness. As I healed, I began to see how the mind creates friction, how identity tightens around experience, and how the body follows the stories we hold. That realization reshaped the trajectory of my life.
Why I Teach
Today, my work is to offer a clear and grounded path into these areas. I support students and clients in exploring the layers of mind, energy, and perception, and in understanding how real change begins with the ability to sit still and see directly. Whether through teaching meditation and mental stillness, training practitioners in Reiki Ryōhō, guiding retreats in Japan, or supporting therapeutic psychedelic processes, the focus is the same: to help people step out of reactive loops and into a steadier, more spacious way of being.
Roots of Life exists to support this work. It is a place for training, inquiry, and practice, shaped by years of study, personal experience, and ongoing immersion in the traditions that informed my own path. My aim is simple: to help others reconnect with clarity, presence, and the quiet foundation beneath the mind.
My Credentials & Focus
- Teacher of Mental Stillness and the Nature of the Mind Guiding students into the direct study of consciousness, patterning, and the perceptual shifts that arise when thought becomes quiet. My work centers on helping people see the structures of the mind clearly and move through experience without distortion.
- Zen and the Nature of Reality Training rooted in extended time each year with monks in Kyoto on Mt. Hiei and Mt. Kurama, where I study stillness, perception, and the mechanics of attention within traditional Zen environments.
- Traditional Japanese Reiki Ryōhō Teacher Teaching Reiki in its original form, supported by ongoing study in Japan and an emphasis on mental stillness, simplicity, and direct experience. My approach returns the practice to its roots in clarity and presence rather than belief or mysticism.
- Psychedelic and Plant Medicine Guide Supporting ceremonial and therapeutic work with cannabis, psilocybin, and rapéh. Approached with neutrality, these medicines reveal the structural movement of the mind and invite us into the raw fabric of experience without emotional blur. This opens the possibility for deep insight and genuine healing.
- Sound Practitioner Using sound as a precise tool to explore the mind’s response to resonance. I work with the interplay between vibration and awareness, observing how neutral listening dissolves mental friction and reveals the subtle architecture of consciousness.
- Holistic Wellness Mentor Working with individuals to examine the internal narratives shaping their lives and to understand how perception, physiology, and reactive identity are intertwined. The focus is on clarity, discernment, and the ability to meet experience without collapse.
- Retreat Leader Leading retreats in Japan and internationally that focus on stillness, contemplative practice, and the dismantling of conditioned patterns. These retreats create the conditions for students to step out of ordinary identity and into a field of wider awareness.
- Yoga and Breathwork Instructor Integrating movement and breath as entry points into the study of mind, internal rhythm, and the relationship between physical form and perception.
My Reiki Ryōhō Lineage
I have been studying and practicing Reiki Ryōhō since 2006, completing training in the USA, Hong Kong, and most recently in Kyoto. My lineage and training reflect a long-standing commitment to preserving traditional Japanese Usui Reiki Ryōhō. Each year, I return to Kyoto to study and practice with my teachers, maintaining a direct connection to the system’s historical roots.
One of the central precepts of Reiki is:
Just for today, do your work honestly.
For me, this means approaching the practice through clarity, simplicity, and direct experience. I remain a lifelong student of the system while continuing to teach it, always returning to the source traditions that shaped it.
I intend to connect students with the origins of Usui Reiki Ryōhō. This intention flows through my online courses, global retreats, and the Reiki pilgrimages I lead to Kyoto, the birthplace of the practice. It is my joy and my honor to walk beside you on this path and to help you meet Reiki at its source.
Inamoto Sensei & Bruce — Osugi Gongen, Mt. Kurama (birthplace of Reiki).
Doi Sensei & Bruce — Osaka, Japan.
Many Practices Converging at the Same Point
My path back to myself has never moved in a straight line. Meditation has been with me since childhood and remains the central thread through all of my work. It is the discipline that showed me how the mind behaves, how patterns form, and what becomes possible when those patterns quiet. Everything I teach grows from this study of attention and perception.
Meditation is not about suppressing thoughts or forcing silence. It is an investigation of the present moment, this exact moment here and now. When we sit, we see how the mind constructs experience and how quickly we are pulled away from what is actually here. This practice has shaped my life in both difficulty and calm.
My intention is to share this study with others. The method does not matter. It can come through Zazen, breath awareness, or the straightforward act of sitting still. What matters is the willingness to enter fully and to meet the mind without resistance.
Plant medicine work became another doorway into this same field. When approached with neutrality, these medicines reveal the movements of the mind with striking clarity. They strip away emotional distortion and place us directly inside the fabric of experience. This allows us to witness our internal world without being pulled into its currents. It is not about visions or narratives. It is about seeing the machinery of perception without interference.
In a ceremony, the invitation is simple. We sit, we observe, and we allow the mind to show itself without reacting. The plants amplify this process not by creating something new, but by removing the habitual filters that keep us from seeing the truth of our own experience.
For me, meditation, Reiki, Zen practice, and plant medicine are not separate paths. They all point to the same inquiry: how does the mind move, and what happens when it no longer pulls us away from what is here.
I am honored to walk alongside these plant allies and to offer ceremonial work through both my guided plant sessions and Sacred Roots Pilgrimages.
Touching Silence is a book on the nature of the mind and the quiet field that opens when thought settles. It draws on meditation, Reiki Ryōhō, Zen, and years of direct practice to explore what becomes possible when we turn toward stillness rather than away from it.
The book is written for practitioners and newcomers alike. It does not require any prior background, only a willingness to look closely at how experience unfolds and to sit with what is already here.
If you’d like a better feel for me and what I teach – there are over 200 videos on Reiki and Wellness on Youtube:
Ready to begin? Let’s connect.
Share where you are on your path, and I’ll be in touch within 1–2 days.
Thanks for reading about Roots of Life. If you’d like to connect, I’m always happy to answer questions.