Cosmopolitan Zen

Zen Master Bankei and the Unborn - Nanda Nina Lynch - April 18th, 2026 Nanda Nina Lynch gives a talk on Bankei Yōtaku and his realization of the “Unborn” shows that awareness is already complete and effortless. Suffering comes from clinging to thoughts and emotions, practice is simply to trust and abide in this natural, ever-present mind in all moments. Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusiv...

Suffer Well: Insights from Buddha's Teachings - Ming Po Larry Matthews - April 4th, 2026 Ming Po gives a talk inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh teachings that true peace comes from accepting yourself, staying present through mindful breathing, and meeting suffering with awareness and kindness, allowing it to transform rather than control you. Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedi...

Seven Bodhisattva Archetypes - Manjushri - Jozen Jonathon Fielder - April 12th, 2025 - SPP25 Faces of Compassion - Week 2 - Our next exploration is of Manjushri as a Bodhisattva archetype.  Manjushri is a bodhisattva embodying supreme wisdom and clear seeing. He is often depicted with a sword (symbolizing the cutting away of ignorance) and a scripture (representing the transmission of wisdom) - Se...

This talk introduces Rohatsu—the traditional period honoring the Buddha’s awakening—and places it in the context of winter’s darkness and the symbolic “birth of the light.” Roshi Ekai reflects on the masculine framing often found in Zen history and highlights overlooked feminine perspectives through stories such as the family koan of Layman Pang, his wife, and their daughter Ling Zhao. Their respo...

FPP25 - The Dignity and Disaster of My Ego - Emyo Darlene Tataryn Fall Practice Period - October 25th, 2025 Emyo gives a Dharma talk entitled, The Dignity and Disaster of My Ego. Based on Keith Martin-Smith's book, When the Buddha Needs Therapy, for our Fall Practice Period. https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/fallpractice25 Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awak...

Letting It Out: Extending the Love that We Receive - Nanda Nina Lynch - January 31st, 2026 - WPP26 This talk by Nanda Nina Lynch explores the Buddhist teaching that true happiness comes not from self-centered striving, but from love and compassion for others. Drawing on Shantideva, Makransky, and bodhisattva teachings, it explains that our true nature (Buddha nature) is inherently loving, open, an...

Compassion as a Liberating Power: Bring Difficulties into Compassion - Jozen Jonathon Fielder - February 7th, 2026 - WPP26 This talk marks the final week of a winter practice series based on Awakening Through Love and focuses on compassion as a liberating power. After briefly recapping earlier weeks—love as our true nature, letting be, and extending love to others, Jozen explores Mahayana and Zen...

In this talk, originally made for Hollow Bones Zen, Ekai explains that Mondo Zen is not just a facilitation process but an ongoing path that blends genuine insight with emotional maturity, rooted in zazen, koan practice, and community support. The first set of koans deepens direct realization of clear, compassionate awareness, while the emotional koans help practitioners work skillfully with trigg...

Ekai Roshi explains the Zen koan “Does this clear, deep heart-mind come and go?” and emphasizes that while awakened awareness (clear, deep heart-mind) is ever-present, our sense of self or ego “comes and goes” and often obscures it. Meditation practices like concentration (shamatha) can quiet the mind and reveal this awareness, but deeper insight practice (vipassana) is needed to understand how ou...

Spirituality and Spiritual Identity - Roshi Ekai Joel Kreisberg - FPP25 - October 18th, 2025 The talk introduces a six-week Shining Bright Lotus series on Junpo Roshi and Keith Martin-Smith’s When the Buddha Needs Therapy, exploring how Buddhism can meet modern psychological and emotional realities. It focuses on spiritual identity, the blending of meditation and therapy, and the difference betwee...

How to Work with Emotional Koans - Ekai Joel Kreisberg Roshi - February 21st, 2026 Ekai Joel Kreisberg Roshi explains that traditional Rinzai koan training, systematized by Hakuin Ekaku, treats awakening (kensho) as the starting point of practice. Junpo Denis Kelly Roshi recognized that insight alone does not ensure emotional maturity, so he extended koan inquiry into the realm of feelings through...

Ekai Joel Kreisberg Roshi and Emyo Darlene Tataryn introduce their four-month Foundations in Mondo Zen Facilitation program, describing it as a structured, relational, and embodied path rooted in koan practice and emotional inquiry. They emphasize that effective learning begins with sincere curiosity, clear intention, vulnerability, and compassion, supported by dialogue, small-group work, and a st...

In this interview, Simha Frederick Marx recounts his Buddhist journey from beginning practice in 1988 with Nichiren Shoshu, moving to vipassana, and meeting Junpo in 2000, which led him to decades of practice with Hollow Bones Rinzai Zen. He describes attending 15–16 retreats over 26 years, his openness to all Dharma traditions despite a strong Rinzai focus, and his use of solo retreats to self-di...

Letting Be: Relaxing into Natural Wisdom - Hosho Don Koehler - January 24th, 2026 - WPP26 A Dharma talk exploring “Awakening Through Love” based on Chapter 2 of John Makransky’s work. Hosho Don Koehler reflects on innate wisdom beyond self-grasping, drawing from Dzogchen and contemporary psychology to show how relaxation, receiving love, and letting be reveal our natural compassion and clarity. Th...

This talk explains the structure and purpose of Mondo Zen facilitation as a living dialogue rather than a technique. Ekai describes how a facilitator uses precise, compassionate questioning to bring unconscious beliefs, emotional patterns, and fixed identities into direct awareness. The process relies on deep listening, embodied presence, and timing rather than interpretation or advice. Mondo Zen...

Receiving Love: The Key to the Spiritual Path - Ming Po Larry Matthews - January 17th, 2026 - WPP26 Ming Po Larry Matthews teaches that spiritual awakening does not begin with effort, self-improvement, or performance, but with allowing ourselves to be loved as we are. Drawing on Makransky, Alan Watts, Rumi, Mary Oliver, and Zen teachers, he explores how giving love keeps us in control, while recei...

Ekai Joel Kreisberg Roshi offers an introduction to the Mondo Zen Facilitation, through an intensive look at the Thirteen koans of Jun Po Roshi. After a discussion of the context and history of Mondo Zen Facilitation, Ekai Roshi leads a pointing out meditation for the First Koan of Mondo Zen - Is it possible to purely listen without an opinion? Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive communi...

Atta Dipa and Prayer - Heisoku Maik Bain - WSP25 - December 20th, 2025 Heisoku gives a reflection on the Buddha’s teaching to be your own refuge: recognize the inner light of selfless awareness, let go of ego, beliefs, and emotions as they arise and pass, and live with meditative awareness, clear intention, wisdom, compassion, and skillful action. Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive comm...

The Heart of Zen FPP24 - October 27, 2024  Emyo Darlene offers her unique teachings on Jun Po Roshi's Mondo koans. She takes students all the way through the first seven koans in this teaching. Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action. https://www.shining...

 Zen and the Middle of Everything - Mingpo Larry Matthews - January 3rd, 2026 - WSP26 Through humor, poetry, and lived examples, Ming Po reflects on non-duality, mindfulness, and the ordinary moments of daily life, inviting listeners to discover awakening not by escaping life, but by meeting it fully in the messy, vibrant middle of being human. Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive communi...

Why there are no victims - Kenshin Cian Whalley - November 15th, 2025 - FPP25 Kenshin Cian reflects on a lifetime of examining the difference between real victimization and the identity of victimhood, sharing how early childhood trauma shaped his unconscious patterns in relationships. Through Mondo Zen practice, shadow work, and metacognitive awareness, he realized that while harm is real, the ong...

A brief profile of Zen priest and martial arts teacher Jozen Jonathon Fielder, tracing his path from yoga and diverse Buddhist traditions to Rinzai Zen, Hollow Bones ordination, and the integration of Zen practice with martial arts through his teaching and the emerging Iron Mountain Zendo. Jozen Jonathon Fielder offers his teachings and his wisdom tireless through several sanghas. Having been orda...

Seven Bodhisattvas - Shakyamuni - Emyo Darlene Tataryn - April 5, 2025 - SPP25 Faces of Compassion - Week 1 - We begin with an exploration of Shakyamuni as a Bodhisattva archetype. The journey from Prince Siddhartha to the Awakened One offers insights for all the bodhisattva archetypes. Join us for the opening session of the Spring Practice Period - Seven Bodhisattvas with a dharma talk by Emyo Da...

Can you choose enlightenment? - Kogen Keith Martin-Smith - FPP25 Keith Martin-Smith reflects on writing When the Buddha Needs Therapy as a way of distilling what he learned from his teacher Junpo, who passed soon after the book was finished, leaving Keith to continue his path without a direct guide. Over the past four and a half years, he found his way back into training through new teachers and b...

Dharma Reflection - Weekend Sangha Practice - January 25, 2025 Ekai delves into the difference between dharana, shamata or concentration practice and non-meditation, silent illumination or shikantaza, or just sitting, being with what arises. The distinction helps one recognize the value of both types of meditation. Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening thr...