Simplicity Zen Podcast

Buddhist meditation is thousands of years old and has profoundly changed the lives of countless practitioners, but it is only very recently (in the last 4 years or so) have neuroscientists reached a point of understanding why humans experience so much discontentment with life and why and how meditation is the solution to this problem.  We explore this topic from the perspective of Zen Buddhist pra...

Susan Moon is a writer, editor, and lay teacher in the Soto Zen tradition.  She is the author of a number of books about Buddhism, including the humor book "The Life and Letters of Tofu Roshi" and "This Is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity". For many years she was the editor of Turning Wheel, the journal of socially engaged Buddhism.  Her most recent boo...

James Ishmael Ford is a Zen teacher and semi-retired Unitarian Universalist minister.  He has dharma transmission from Houn Jiyu Kennett and Inka Shomei from John Nanryu Ji'un-ken Tarrant.  He is the guiding teacher of the Empty Moon Sangha. For more about James: - http://www.jamesishmaelford.com/ For more about the Simplicity Zen Podcast : https://simplicityzen.com/

 Kellie Shojaku Garza M.A., LMHC, CST., is a licensed mental health counselor and has been practicing psychotherapy since 2004. A large part of her practice and focus has been on working with trauma survivors. Kellie received Dharma Transmission from Fusho Roshi in 2021. She enjoys integrating psychology with her Zen practice and teaching. For more about Kellie and Open Mind Zen: - https://openmin...

 Rev. Myō Lahey is a Dharma heir of Tenshin Reb Anderson and is the Abbot at Issan-ji as well as Guiding Teacher at Valley Streams Zen Sangha in Sacramento, California. He has previously served as the Practice Leader at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and has served leadership roles in the Soto Zen Buddhist Association of North America . For more on Issan-ji: - https://hszc.org/ For more on Simplici...

 Daniel Terragno, a native of Chile, is a teacher in the koan tradition of the Diamond Sangha, which was founded by Robert Aitken Roshi. Daniel is the dharma heir of John Tarrant Roshi of the Pacific Zen Institute. Daniel started his spiritual practice in 1967 studying the Gurdjieff Work with W.A. Nyland before taking up Zen. Daniel received authorization to teach Zen in 1995, and in 2001 received...

 Shozan Jack Haubner is an ordained Rinzai Zen priest and was a student of Kyozan Joshu Sasaki. He has written two memoirs (Zen Confidential,Single White Monk) about his experiences studying with Sasaki and is currently working on a third book. For more about Shozan: - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt9Q74t3o7AUCJ_bKTc5CgA For more about the Simplicity Zen Podcast : - https://simplicityzen.com/...

 Ben Connelly is a Senior Zen Teacher at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. Ben began Zen practice at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in 2001, was ordained in 2009, and received dharma transmission in 2015. He is currently serving as Program Administrator. He started teaching Introduction to Meditation in 2005, and since then has taught regularly at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center and more r...

 Geoff started to study Zen at the Zen Center of Denver in March of 1991. In November of 1996, he received the rakusu during Jukai--his ordained name is Strongvow. He studied with Danan Henry Roshi until Danan retired in 2009, when he continued he study with one of his heirs, Kenneth Morgareidge, Roshi. Geoff finished formal koan training in 2014 in the Diamond Sangha tradition of the Harada-Yasut...

 Brad Warner was born in Ohio in 1964. In 1983 he met Zen teacher Tim McCarthy and began his study of Zen while he was still the bass player of the hardcore punk band Zero Defex, whose big hit was the eighteen-second masterpiece "Drop the A-Bomb on Me!" In the 1980s he released five albums of psychedelic rock under the band name Dimentia 13 (that's the way he spelled it), though Dim...

Teresa Regan Hess practiced for five years under the renowned Rinzai Zen Master Shodo Harada Rōshi at Sogen-ji monastery in Japan.  There she received the Jukai precepts before leaving to raise a family in Washington state. For more information about Simplicity Zen Buddhist Podcast : - https://simplicityzen.com/

Robert  Mutoku Scheafer is a Rinzai Zen priest ordained Rinzan Pechovnik Osho of No Rank Zendo in 2022.   After years of following many spiritual paths, Robert began studying Zen under Rick Kendo Hart in the Mt Baldy Zen Center lineage.  Next he began Zen studies with Konrad Ryushin Marchaj at Zen Mountain Monastery and remained his student for many years.  For the last several years he has been p...

Robert Koho Epstein, Sensei has practiced meditation and a wide range of spiritual practices over the past 40 years. This includes Zen and mindfulness meditation, Yang style T’ai Chi, Iyengar Yoga, and Advaita Vedanta. Robert taught Iyengar Yoga and practiced deep tissue massage for 15 years in New York and was ordained by the New Seminary as an Interfaith Minister. He also started his acting stud...

Barbara O'brien has been practicing Zen Buddhism since the 1980s. She works as a journalist, reporting primarily on religion in America. She is the author of The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World, Rethinking Religion: Finding a Place for Religion in a Modern, Tolerant, Progressive, Peaceful and Science-affirming World and has written about Buddhis...

Al Fusho Rapaport, Roshi has practiced and taught Zen for almost 50 years. He studied with Kozan Roshi, Maezumi Roshi, and Genpo Roshi until receiving Dharma Transmission from Shuzen Roshi in 2008. As President of Open Mind Productions, Al produced the first Yoga Journal Conferences as well as the Buddhism in America Conferences from 1996 until 2001. He is author of Open Mind Zen: A Guide to Medit...

 Kokan (古観) Genjo (玄成 )Marinello is a Rinzai priest and abbot of Chobo-ji in Seattle. He began his Zen training in 1975 after befriending Rev. Daizen Brian Victoria at UCLA and began practicing zazen under the instruction of Thích Thiên-Ân. Genjo did his first sesshin in the summer of 1977 under the instruction of Soto Zen Priest Hirano Osho-san. Genjo was ordained an unsui (priest in training...

Kijo Sensei has practiced primarily in Zen for over thirty years, being first ordained as a Zen priest in the Maezumi Roshi White Plum Soto Zen tradition in 1991 and then was ordained in the Order of Clear Mind Zen by Shoji Roshi in 2017. Kijo Sensei was Transmitted as a Zen teacher and a full priest, by Shoji Roshi in early 2021. He is also a member of Zen Peacemakers International and has guest...

 Rev. Joshua Paszkiewicz, D.Min., (aka Sunyananda) has been studying and teaching Buddhism full time as a Zen Priest since 2010, and has been practicing formally since his childhood. Sunyananda holds a B.A. in Liberal Studies, an M.A. in Religion, a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Psychotherapy, and board certification as both a Pastoral Counselor and a Clinical Chaplain. Sunyananda has served as a...

 Henry Shukman is the Spiritual Director of the Mountain Cloud Zen Center. Henry has been trained by Zen several teachers, particularly the roshi’s Joan Rieck, John Gaynor, Ruben Habito and Yamada Ryoun Roshi, as well as by teachers and mentors in other traditions. He currently guides a wide range of students from all walks of life. He has received dharma transmission (inka shomei) from Yamada Ryo...

 Jundo Cohen is a Zen teacher and founder of the Treeleaf Zendo, a Sōtō Zen community using visual media to link Zen practitioners around the world. Treeleaf serves those who cannot easily commute to a Zen center due to health concerns; age or disability; living in remote areas; or work, childcare, or family needs; and provides zazen sittings, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and...

Renshin is a Soto Zen Priest and retired professional chaplin.  She met her teacher Myogen Steve Stücky in January of 1994. She took jukai with Myogen at Dharma Eye Zen Center in October of 1996; was priest ordained by Zenkei Blanche Hartman at San Francisco Zen Center on January 3, 2003; served as shuso (head student) with Myogen at Tassajara in the fall of 2008, and received dharma transmission...

 Meido Roshi began Zen practice in 1988 and trained under three teachers in the line of the great 20th century Rinzai master Omori Sogen Roshi: the late Tenzan Toyoda Rokoji, in whose training hall he resided for seven years while also enduring a severe training in traditional martial arts; Dogen Hosokawa Roshi (Omori Roshi’s main dharma heir), with whom he trained for fifteen years; and So'z...

Seth Dennis a working emergency room chaplain and Zen priest in the Dogen Zenji and Matsuoka Roshi Zen lineage.  He was a student of and received Dharma Transmission from John Shoji Sorensen. Seth is best reached via is Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/seth.dennis.35 For more about Simplicity Zen, please visit: https://simplicityzen.com/  

Jyozen Anjyu is a Zen priest in the lineage of Dogen Zenji and Matsuoka Roshi.  He is head priest at  Kanzeonji temple in Los Angeles.   His root teacher is Kaizan Wajo and his dharma transmitting teacher is Ryugen Osho. For more about Kanzeonji:  https://www.facebook.com/Kanzeonji-Nanka-207144837802 For more about Simplicity Zen: https://simplicityzen.com/

 Bob has been practicing Zen since 1972 but it was not until 1989 that he found his root teacher, Sojun Mel Weitsman, at Berkeley Zen Center. Bob received lay entrustment in Soto Zen from Sojun in 2010, and founded a Zen group in the Sierra foothills shortly afterwards. Bob is one of the founding members of the Lay Zen Teachers Association. At the invitation of Karen Terzano he has been a visiting...