Paths of Practice: Conversations on Journeys into Buddhism

Damiano Finizio was born in Italy in 1992. He began practicing traditional Japanese martial arts in 2012, where he met the Buddhist monk Seiun, who transformed his curiosity for Eastern disciplines and philosophies into dedicated practice. In 2014, he officially took refuge in the Dharma at Tenryuzanji Temple, receiving the name Seiryu, symbolizing his deep bond with his teacher and the temple. Si...

Ordained since the late 1970s, Ven. Robina has worked full time since then for Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). Over the years she has served as editorial director of Wisdom Publications, editor of Mandala Magazine, executive director of Liberation Prison Project, and as a touring teacher of Buddhism. Her life and work wi...

Sinclair Shinryu Thomson is the abbot of the Village Zendo in New York City. He received Denkai, or full priest ordination, from Enkyo O’Hara Roshi in August 2007, dharma transmission in December 2009, and Inka in January 2021. He has been affiliated with the Village Zendo since 1998. He is a also member of the Phajjsi Qollut Jalsu Zen Center in La Paz, Bolivia, which he co-founded in 1992. Shinry...

Naomi Matlow is a writer and educator specializing in integrating mindfulness and meditation into the lives of those that struggle with busy minds. She recently published her Mindfulness Studies Masters thesis from Lesley University, “A Thought is Just a Thought: A Buddhist Guide to OCD” which is available on Amazon and naomimatlow.com. We talked about musical theatre and Obsessive-compulsive diso...

*Disclaimer: this episode features brief mention of self-harm. Phoenix Song is a queer, nonbinary Korean American adoptee teacher, performer, writer, and healer featured in SF Magazine’s Best of the Bay for yoga music. Phoenix was initiated on the spiritual path at Plum Village with Thich Nhat Hanh and is a dharma teacher at East Bay Meditation Center and Spirit Rock. They believe that everyone ca...

The daughter of Chinese immigrants born and raised in the SF Bay Area, Dr. Vickie Chang first encountered the dharma through the doorway of mindfulness meditation in 2008. She graduated from the Spirit Rock Dedicated Practitioner’s Program and has benefited from extended periods of retreat at Spirit Rock and IMS. She lived in a Taiwanese Guanyin Pusa monastery and worshipped at the feet of Arunach...

Venerable Clear Grace Dayananda is a Buddhist Monk who received novice ordination in 2018 as Sister True Moon of Clear Grace in the Plum Village Vietnamese Zen tradition headed by the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. In 2020, she received higher ordination and carries forward both the Theravada and Mahayana lineages of her preceptor, Venerable Dr. Pannavati Karuna of whom she was transmitted the name Da...

Ram Appalaraju has served on the boards of nonprofit organizations for over eight years after retiring from the high-tech industry where he worked for 35 years. Ram has been studying Buddhism under Gil Fronsdal and is currently in the Insight Meditation Center’s Dharma Leaders Training. He also graduated as a chaplain and an eco-chaplain from the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies. He now teaches as...

Yogi Acharya Lama Gursam Rinpoche was born in India and received a monastic education from the age of six. He went on to study at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Varanasi where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees. He graduated at the top of his class, receiving honors from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Thereafter, he taught language and philosophy at the...

Gulwinder “Gullu” Singh is a mindfulness and Dharma teacher who also practices corporate real estate law. Although he was exposed to meditation as a child, he found his own practice when, after law school, he found himself working at high-powered law firms where the job was extremely stressful. Gullu completed the four-year Spirit Rock Meditation Center Teacher Training Program and qualified to te...

The Venerable Lobzang Dorje, Leon E. Pettiway, Ph. D., began his dharma studies in January 1999 and took refuge under the guidance of Kyabje Dagom Rinpoche in May of that year. In 2002, he received Getsul (Novice) Vows in Kathmandu, Nepal, and took Gelong Vows (full ordination) in Switzerland from Kyabje Dagom Rinpoche in 2005. While he has studied with and has received numerous empowerments from...

Rev. Dr. Enrique Galvan-Alvarez is a professor of Humanities and Digital Society at the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja-UNIR and a Jōdo Shinshū priest that serves Jinen-Kō, an online community of Portuguese and Spanish speaking folk who are interested in learning and practicing the Dharma, or teachings, of Pure Land Buddhism. For more information about Jinen-Kō, please see the following link...

Rev. Hibiki Junkyo Murakami serves as an Associate Minister at the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple. He was born and raised as the oldest son of Jonen-ji Temple in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan. Rev. Murakami received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Shin Buddhism from Ryukoku University in Kyoto in 2016 and 2018 respectively. He received Tokudo ordination in 2013 and Kyoshi certificatio...

Rev. Nyoze Kwong serves as abbot of Sonoma Mountain Zen Center (Genjo-ji) in Santa Rosa, CA. Kwong-roshi received a B.A. in Anthropology/Archeology from University of California Santa Cruz. He worked as a fundraiser in Stanford University’s Engineering Department. In 1998, he lived and worked at Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico and studied socially engaged Buddhism with Joan Halifax-roshi...

Sensei José Shinzan Palma was born in Veracruz, Mexico. He is an ordained Zen priest and the Dharma successor of Roshi Joan Jiko Halifax. He met Korean Zen teacher, Ven. Samu Sunim in Mexico City in 1996, and then trained in the Buddhist Maitreya Seminary while living in the Toronto Zen Buddhist Temple where he stayed until 2005. He was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest by Ven. Samu Sunim in 2004....

Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in blending spirituality and meditation with social justice. Having grown up in an ecumenical Christian community where families practiced a new kind of monasticism and worked with the poor, at the age of twenty-five she entered a Buddhist monastery in the Plum Village tradition and spent fifteen years living as a nun under the guidanc...

Rev. Blayne Higa is the Resident Minister of the Kona Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Kealakekua on the Big Island of Hawaii. He holds a Master of Divinity from the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California with a focus on Shin Buddhist ministry and chaplaincy. He has been a contributor to Tricycle, Lion’s Roar, and Buddhadharma, and is a frequent speaker and seminar leader at Buddhist co...

Rev. Shinshu Roberts is a Dharma Heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received her priest training at San Francisco Zen Center and from the North American branch of the Japanese Soto School. She has been appointed Kokusaifukyoshi (International Dharma Teacher) by the Shumucho (Japanese Soto Administration). She co-founded Ocean Gate Zen Center in Capitola, CA with...

Rev. Teijo Munnich is a Soto Zen priest serving the Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple sangha based in Alexander, North Carolina, as well as the Zen Center of Asheville and Charlotte Zen Meditation Society. Rev. Teijo is a disciple and dharma heir of Rev Dainin Katagiri. She studied with him from 1975 until his death in 1990, receiving formal training at Hokyoji (Catching the Moon Zen Mountain Center)...

Dawn Mauricio (she/her), a Filipina-Canadian, has been practicing and studying Insight Meditation since 2005. She graduated from the first teacher development group of True North Insight, Spirit Rock's Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation Training, Spirit Rock's Dedicated Practitioners' Program, and Spirit Rock's 4-year Retreat Teacher Training. She teaches with a playful, dynamic, and...

Rev. Chimyo Atkinson is a Soto Zen priest that serves the Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple in Alexander, NC, as well as sanghas and centers throughout the United States and internationally. Rev. Chimyo was ordained by Rev. Teijo Munnich in 2007 and received Dharma Transmission in 2015. She received monastic training at Great Tree Temple and completed two Sotoshu International training periods (angos)...

Rev. CJ Sokugan Dunford (they/them/theirs) is a Jōdo Shinshū minister serving as minister's assistant at the Berkeley Buddhist Temple and Tokudo minister at the Buddhist Temple of Marin. Rev. CJ recently completed a Doctorate of Ministry degree at the Pacific School of Religion and teaches at the Institute of Buddhist Studies. Rev. CJ works towards establishing practical Jodo Shinshu framework...

Rev. Cyndi Jikaku Yasaki is a Jōdo Shinshū minister that serves the White River Buddhist Temple based in Auburn, WA. Rev. Cyndi completed her Certificate in Shin Buddhism from the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Spring 2019 and received the first level of ordination, Tokudo, in Kyoto, Japan in Summer 2019. She married her husband, Rev. Tadao Koyama, in 2020 and moved with him to Tacoma, WA upon h...

Fresh “Lev” White is a love and compassion activist. He offers mindfulness, mediation, and diversity trainings as tools for shifting towards more authentic, conscious, and passionate living. He teaches and writes about how unconditional love and self-compassion are the ultimate gateways to honoring and understanding others; thus, healing our communities and our planet. For more information about L...

Rev. Myozen Joan Amaral is a Soto Zen priest and the Founder and Guiding Teacher of the Zen Center North Shore located in Beverly, MA. Joan is a dharma heir of Zenkei Blanche Hartman in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi. Joan trained at Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery for six years. While in residency at San Francisco Zen Center, she formed a dharma group – Dharma en Español – devoted to study...