Dharma talks from Clouds In Water Zen Center

Date: 2026/10/25. Speaker: Guiding Teacher Rev. Sosan Theresa Flynn. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Sōsan has studied and practiced Sōto Zen Buddhism since 1992, receiving Dharma transmission (full teaching authority) from Joen Snyder O’Neal in 2012. Sōsan's areas of teaching include body awareness in Zen, loving-kindness practices, and the intersection of Buddhist practice and racial justice.

Date: 2026/10/18. Speaker: Rev. Myo-O Habermas-Scher. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Myo-O is a fully ordained Soto Zen priest, having received transmission in 2012 from Dokai Georgesen, Guiding Teacher at Hokyoji Zen Practice Community. She began Zen practice in 1975 with Katagiri Roshi, who was her root teacher, and studied with him until his death in 1990. She also studied and practiced in the...

Date: 2026/10/11. Speakers: Friday Night Zen Panel. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Friday Night Zen is a meditation group for people in early adulthood. We meet at Clouds in Water Zen Center in St. Paul on the first and third Friday of each month, for meditation and discussion/sharing on the evening's topic, especially as it relates to the particular experiences of those in the first half of life....

Date: 2026/10/04. Speaker: Rev. Myoshin Diane Benjamin. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Myoshin began practicing Buddhism in 1996 and received Dharma Transmission as a lay Dharma teacher in 2022 from Sosan Flynn. She received priest ordination in 2026. Myoshin is enthusiastic about the myriad ways that the Dharma informs our everyday lives as human beings in a complex world. She taught for over a d...

Date: 2026/09/27. Speaker: Rev. Taizan Alford. At Clouds in Water Zen Center / Mexico. Taizan was ordained as a Soto Zen priest by Sosan Flynn in 2016, and completed shuso in 2021. He received Dharma Transmission from Sosan in 2024 and has full authority to teach in the Soto Zen tradition. Taizan's journey with meditation began on the yogic path in the early 1980s after getting sober. Taizan’s foc...

Date: 2026/09/13. Speaker: Rev. Ann Fukutoku Morishita. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Fukutoku has practiced Soto Zen Buddhism for the past 18 years, and is a member of the teacher-ryo (team) at Clouds. In May of 2026 she received Dharma Transmission from Rev. Myo-on, Susan Hagler. Prior to committing to Buddhism, Fukutoku was a member of the Evanston, IL, Quaker Friends' Meeting for ten years. S...

Date: 2026/09/06. Speaker: Rev. Sosan Theresa Flynn. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Sōsan has studied and practiced Sōto Zen Buddhism since 1992, receiving Dharma transmission (full teaching authority) from Joen Snyder O’Neal in 2012. Sōsan's areas of teaching include body awareness in Zen, loving-kindness practices, and the intersection of Buddhist practice and racial justice.

Date: 2026/08/30. Speaker: Rev. Jinzu Minna Jain. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Jinzū is a novice priest, teacher, and Communications and Marketing Director at Clouds in Water Zen Center. They serve on the teacher-ryo (team). As a queer, trans, disabled, BIPOC priest, Jinzū believes that Sōtō Zen practice helps us cultivate the capacity for collective care and liberation, supporting us to meet ou...

Date: 2026/08/23. Speaker: Rev. Kikan Michael Howard. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. The chant can be found on page 17 of the Clouds in Water Zen Center Chant Book . Kikan Michael Howard started practicing at Clouds in Water Zen Center in the late 1990s and was ordained by Sosan in 2018. He is an associate member of the Teacher Ryo at Clouds. Kikan is an independent app developer, a licensed consu...

Date: 2026/08/16. Speakers: Rev. Keika Karín San Juan and Prof. Jake Nagasawa. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Jake was born and raised on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, and is Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies at Macalester College. He received his PhD and MA in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his BA in Theology & Religious Studies and Asian Studies from...

Date: 2026/08/02. Speakers: Rev. Sosan Flynn (she/her), Rev. Taizan Alford (he/him), Rev. Myoshin Diane Benjamin (she/her), Shishin Leonard Madsen (he/him), Steve Plachinski (he/him), Kaizen Julie Warner (she/her). At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Participants talk about how they are practicing with race and racism, and this practice can be a benefit to our community. Clouds in Water is now partneri...

Date: 2026/07/26. Speaker: Guiding Teacher Rev. Sosan Theresa Flynn. At Hokyoji Zen Practice Community. Sōsan has studied and practiced Sōto Zen Buddhism since 1992, receiving Dharma transmission (full teaching authority) from Joen Snyder O’Neal in 2012. Sōsan's areas of teaching include body awareness in Zen, loving-kindness practices, and the intersection of Buddhist practice and racial justice.

Date: 2026/07/19. Speaker: Rev. MyoOn Susan Hagler. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. MyoOn began her Zen practice in 1980 at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center (MZMC). She was ordained in 2003 by Tim Burkett and received Dharma transmission from Dokai Georgesen in 2018. She has had the opportunity to practice at all the MN Zen centers as well as Green Gulch in CA, with Hokyoji Zen Practice Community be...

Date: 2026/07/12. Speakers: Rev. Sōsan Theresa Flynn, Rev. Shozoku Nomura, and Prof. Jake Nagasawa. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. The ceremony included singing and dancing. Link to song: Sanbo Gowasan . Link to videos of the dances: Tankō Bushi (Mining Song/ Obon Dance) and Tokyo Ondo . Sōsan has studied and practiced Sōto Zen Buddhism since 1992, receiving Dharma transmission (full teaching auth...

Date: 2026/07/05. Speaker: Rev. Jinzū Minna Jain. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Jinzū is an artist, writer, and racial & systemic equity educator residing on the lands of the Dakhóta Oyáte, in South Minneapolis. They identify as BIPOC, disabled, queer and trans/nonbinary. Jinzū has been practicing Sōtō Zen Buddhism for over twenty-five years and is a novice priest, a member of the teaching te...

Date: 2026/06/28. Speakers: Rev. Koji Acquaviva, Rev. Korin LaJoy, Rev. Jinzū Minna Jain, and Yūgen Haley Webb. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Koji is the current Tanto (director of practice) and on the teaching team at Clouds in Water, as well as the guiding teacher of Cedar Rapids Zen Center and co-guiding teacher of Nebraska Zen Center. As a queer, and neurodivergent person, Koji makes their be...

Date: 2026/06/21. Speaker: Rev. Kattō Laura Phillips. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Kattō started practicing Zen at Clouds in Water in 1997. When she moved to Stillwater, MN to focus on family life she joined a meditation community there called Zen Bridge. She later returned to Clouds for study, practice, and training on the path to becoming a priest and in 2022 received ordination from Sosan Fly...

Date: 2026/07/14. Speaker: Rev. Keika Karín Aguilar- San Juan. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Keika came to Clouds in Water Zen Center in 2005 and served on the Board for more than a decade before being ordained as a novice priest by Sosan Flynn in 2024. Areas of interest include Buddhist liberation theology; Buddhist pedagogy; and the Daoist roots of Chan. One favorite thing about Teen Practice i...

Date: 2026/07/07. Speaker: Rev. Myoshin Diane Benjamin. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Myoshin began practicing Buddhism in 1996 and received Dharma Transmission as a lay Dharma teacher in 2022 from Sosan Flynn. She received priest ordination in 2026. Myoshin is enthusiastic about the myriad ways that the Dharma informs our everyday lives as human beings in a complex world. She taught for over a d...

Date: 2026/05/24. Speakers: Joanna Hill and Rev. Dr. Rin LaJoy. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Joanna Hill is from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota. My clan is the Bullhead (Wawaazisii) which is one of the five original clans of the Anishinaabe People. The Wawaazisii clan people are mediators, teachers, scholars and healers. My Ojibwe name is Kiizhibaayaanimadookwe, which means Whirlwind...

Date: 2026/05/17. Speaker: Guiding Teacher Sosan Theresa Flynn. Clouds in Water Zen Center. Sōsan has studied and practiced Sōto Zen Buddhism since 1992, receiving Dharma transmission (full teaching authority) from Joen Snyder O’Neal in 2012. Sōsan's areas of teaching include body awareness in Zen, loving-kindness practices, and the intersection of Buddhist practice and racial justice. She has a m...

Date: 2026/05/10. Speaker: Rev. Fukutoku Ann Morishita. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Fukutoku is a Sōto Zen priest in training at Clouds in Water Zen Center. She has practiced Soto Zen Buddhism for the past 15 years. In May of 2021, Fukutoku took home leaving vows with Rev. Sojun, Diane Martin of Udumbara Sangha in IL. Sojun was transmitted by Rev. Sekijun Karen Sunna. In 2022, Fukutoku began Ze...

Date: 2026/05/03. Speaker: Rev. MyoOn Susan Hagler. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. MyoOn began her Zen practice in 1980 at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center (MZMC). She was ordained in 2003 by Tim Burkett and received Dharma transmission from Dokai Georgesen in 2018. She has had the opportunity to practice at all the MN Zen centers as well as Green Gulch in CA, with Hokyoji Zen Practice Community be...

Date: 2026/04/26. Speaker: Guiding Teacher Sosan Theresa Flynn. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. Sōsan has studied and practiced Sōtō Zen Buddhism since 1992, receiving Dharma transmission (full teaching authority) from Joen Snyder O’Neal in 2012. Sōsan's areas of teaching include body awareness in Zen, loving-kindness practices, and the intersection of Buddhist practice and racial justice. Sōsan wa...

Date: 2026/04/19. Speaker: Rev. Jūken Zach Fehst. At Clouds in Water Zen Center. After first encountering the Dharma and studying meditation while living in South Korea in 2006, Jūken entered the path of formal practice in 2014 as a member of the Brooklyn Zen Center, and was ordained a priest by Sōsan Flynn at Clouds in Water in 2025. He is a chaplain on-call with M Health Fairview hospitals, and...