Brahmavihara: Cultivating Virtue Through The Four Immeasurables - Karuna - April 6, 2025

Emyo leads us on a guided meditation of the second of the Brahmaviharas, Karuna also known as Compassion.

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Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.

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WSP - Respect Clarity - Nanda Nina Lynch - August 9th, 2025

Nanda gives a Dharma Reflection on the fifth precept, Respect Clarity - I vow to refrain from intoxicants. I act at all times with mindfulness and clarity. I do not abuse my body or cloud my mind with the misuse of intoxicants.

Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.

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SPP25 - Seven Bodhisattvas - Ksitigarbha - Kenshin Cian Whalley - May 3rd, 2025

Faces of Compassion - Week 5 - Our next exploration is of Ksitigarbha as a Bodhisattva archetype.  Ksitigarbha, also known as Jizō in Japanese and Dizang in Chinese, is a prominent figure in Mahayana Buddhism, particularly in East Asia. He is revered as a rescuer of beings in hell and a guardian of souls, especially for children. Ksitigarbha is known for his great vow to remain in the six realms of rebirth until all beings are saved and the hells are empty, making him a symbol of compassion and dedication.

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.shiningbrightlotus.org/

SPP25 - Seven Bodhisattvas - Maitreya - Ming Po Larry Matthews - May 10th, 2025

Faces of Compassion - Week 6 - Our next exploration is of Maitreya as a Bodhisattva archetype. Maitreya is a revered figure in Buddhism, specifically a bodhisattva, which means he is a being on the path to enlightenment. He is believed to be the future Buddha of the current world, the one who will emerge to teach the Dharma when the teachings of Gautama Buddha (Shakyamuni) are forgotten. Maitreya is also known as "Maitreya the Buddha of the Future". 

Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.

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Daijo Scott Duffer is full on in training with Shining Bright Lotus Meditation Society. He serves as our Shuso - head student. He will be ordained as a priest with Dragon Heart Dharma. He’s working through Mondo Zen Facilitation. He serves as a guide in the Condor Clan, leading Condor Vision Quests and he has been a long time member of the Man Kind Project. Ekai Joel Kreisberg caught up with Daijo before his workday at Cal State University - Channel Islands, where he teaches in the science department.

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SPP25 - Seven Bodhisattvas - Vimalakirti - Ekai Joel Kreisberg - May 17th, 2025

Faces of Compassion - Week 7 - Our next exploration is of Vimalakirti as a Bodhisattva archetype. Vimalakirti is a revered bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism, particularly known for his central role in the Vimalakirti Sutra. He represents the ideal lay practitioner, demonstrating wisdom, skill in liberative techniques, and the importance of compassion and non-duality. He is a historical figure, a wealthy householder and patron of Shakyamuni Buddha, not a cosmic or mythic bodhisattva. 

Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.

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"And that's my prayer, may I truly be of benefit. May these words be aligned in such a way that I can really transmit."

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Emyo leads us on a guided meditation of the second of the Brahmaviharas, Karuna also known as Compassion.

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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.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Dharma Reflection of Weekend Sangha Practice - March 22, 2025

Jozen teaches about the Three Refuges, what they mean and invites us to look at where we take refuge.

Jozen Jonathon Fielder offers his teachings and his wisdom tireless through several sanghas. Having been ordained as a Hollow Bones Zen priest, he continues to lead a regular practice as part of the Virtual Zendo. As a martial arts teacher and dharma teacher, he is an associate clergy member of Shining Bright Lotus. Recently he has begun to develop his own dharma center Iron Mountain Zendo in the UK. 

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/iron-mountain-zendo

Dharma Reflection of Weekend Sangha Practice - February 22, 2025

Emyo distinguished wishes from intentions and offers a clear discussion as to how clear intentions serve to deepen ones practice and clear the mind off unconscious tendencies. 

Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.

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Dharma Reflection of Weekend Sangha Practice - March 8, 2025

Nanda offers wisdom and practice based on Song of Zazen by Hakuin. Engo Michael Jackson opens with Song of Zazen, the traditional change for a dharma talk or teisho.  

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Dharma Reflection of Weekend Sangha Practice - February 8, 2025

Ming Po Larry Matthews reminds us that our zazen practice is always available and that one must commit to daily practice.  Pure Awareness is embodied. Ming Po Larry Matthews is a Associate Clergy member of SBLMS, a Certified Facilitator, an excellent meditation teacher.

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Emyo leads us on a guided meditation of the first of the Brahmaviharas, Metta also known as Loving Kindness.

https://www.onewisdom.ca/

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.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Ekai Joel Kreisberg closes the Fall Practice Period with a discussion of how emotional koans work and Jun Po Roshi's belief that emotional maturity is an essential element in dharma practice.  Ekai developed The Mondo Zen Facilitator Program for Hollow Bones Zen from 2019 - 2022.  

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Cosmopolitan Zen is an inclusive approach to Zen that transcends cultural and institutional boundaries. Its name comes from the etymology of the word cosmopolitan, which means “citizen of the world.” Cosmopolitan Zen offers a dynamic practice not confined to monastic settings or rigid traditions. Instead, it is an adaptable approach capable of flourishing in diverse contemporary contexts. 

Find out More

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Fugen Roshi brings us through very practical approaches to Mondo Zen teachings and how to integrate these into our daily practice. Fugen Roshi's Dragon Heart Dharma is an open collaborative of sanghas devoted to the Rinzai dharma teachings of Jun Po Roshi. 

https://www.dragonheartdharma.org/

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It's the sitting practice that becomes more and more important. The psychedelic experiences become less and less significant because you're already experiencing that expanded consciousness and altered states from the practice itself.

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/sblms-blog/hoshodonkoehler

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Emyo Darlene Tataryn offers and in depth look at jealousy and how it provides a challenge for deepening our work as Zen practitioners. She hosts here own sangha One Wisdom Zen in Selkirk, Manitoba. https://www.onewisdom.ca/

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Daiden Dan Pecaut is a senior student of Jun Po Roshi. His sangha Siouxland Zen in Sioux City, IA is a thriving community of zen practitioners. He has published two books about his Zen experience and continues to teach the dharma to all who come.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Siouxlandzen/

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Engo Dohi Michael Jackson opens our Fall Practice Period with a discussion of non-duality.  Engo was ordained by Jun Po Roshi and serves as a senior training faculty for programs at Shining Bright Lotus Meditation Society and Dragon Heart Dharma. 

This podcast was originally offered as a dharma talk as part of The Heart of Zen - The Fall Practice Period 2024 at Shining Bright Lotus Meditation Society.

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Kogen Keith Martin-Smith offers his personal reflections about Jun Po Roshi's Koan Who Are You?  Author of The Heart of Zen.  Kogen share intimately some of his experience with Jun Po Roshi. 

This podcast was originally offered as a dharma talk as part of The Heart of Zen - The Fall Practice Period 2024 at Shining Bright Lotus Meditation Society.

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Ekai Joel Kreisberg discusses the next step development of Jun Po Roshi's emotional koans.  Bringing in the wisdom of Karlan McLaren's Language of Emotions, Ekai unpacks the eleventh and twelfth koan of Mondo Zen Facilitation, showing how Jun Po Roshi pointed to this work and how much more is possible as we explore new emotional koans. This podcast was originally offered as a dharma talk at Shining Bright Lotus Sacred Ceremony, October 19th, 2024.

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If you look at it historically, it’s not proselytizing. It’s saying the Dharma has to spread. Nature has to move the seeds, either through the wind or through a bird, picking it up and dropping it somewhere else. The Dharma spreads. So part of getting the robe or the rakasu is to say I'm part of the spreading. So I bring it somewhere else.

- Nanda Nina Lynch

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/sblms-blog/nanda

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Weekend Sangha Practice - Between Love and Lust - Ming Po Larry Matthews - July 26th, 2025

Ming Po gives a Dharma Reflection on the 3rd precept, Be Loving – I vow to refrain from misusing sexuality.  I am conscious and loving in all of my relationships. In sexuality, I discern the difference between love and lust and do not take advantage of other human beings. I transform the arising of lust into true loving.    

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.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Emotional Koan work is for those interested in taking their practice off the cushion and into our interpersonal world in which our habitual emotional responses offer us insight and access to wisdom and transformation. This is a basic meditation instruction for practice led by Ekai Joel Kreisberg.  This is the second meditation from the Zazen and Emotional Koan retreat recently completed in October, 2024

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/events/zazenkaiemotionalkoans24

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Emotional Koan work is for those interested in taking their practice off the cushion and into our interpersonal world in which our habitual emotional responses offer us insight and access to wisdom and transformation. This is a basic meditation instruction for practice led by Ekai Joel Kreisberg

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/events/zazenkaiemotionalkoans24

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

I found out how magic works, manifestation works and how changing the mind and the field around us works. And then looking back at tantric Buddhist tradition, I recognized that the initiatory practices are the path. If you break down all of the facets of the prostration, it really is a magical practice meant to transform your mind into the mind of a Buddha

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/sblms-blog/kenshin

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Fugen Tom Pitner Roshi is a busy man. After 25 years of service to Jun Po Roshi and Hollow Bones Zen, he is leading a six day retreat in South Dakota as the head of Dragon Heart Dharma. The retreat includes a Jukai Ceremony for five new members as well as ordination of the first three priests for Dragon Heart Dharma. Fugen Roshi wears many hats - a professional coach, a teacher, and a leader in the ManKind Project to name a few. I did manage to catch up with him to share how he see’s himself moving forward given his unique role as a Roshi of his own sangha 25 years after beginning with Jun Po Roshi and Hollow Bones Zen.

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Engo Michael Jackson is one of the few priests ordained by Jun Po Roshi who has experience leading an eight day sesshin in the role of the Tanto - the spiritual leader of the sesshin,. He has mastered all of the retreat roles through his extensive commitment to the Jun Po Roshi’s dharma. He continues to lead through the Virtual Zendo, serve as a primary teacher in the clergy training at Dragon Heart Dharma, and as a board member at Shining Bright Lotus Meditation Society. He continues to raise his two boys in Huntington Beach, CA. I caught up with Engo on zoom a few weeks ago

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Koto Washi is a elder in the Lakota Sioux Tribe living on the Pine RIdge Reservation. He and his wife Becky operate All Nation’s Gathering Center, a non-profit retreat center on their lend in Yellow Bear Canyon, outside of Kyle, SD. Together, they have been hosting our retreats annually since 2022, Koto Washi has taken on several significant roles at SBLMS as a dharma teacher and a member of the Board of Directors. I caught up with him on zoom recently to learn more about him.

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

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SPP25 - Seven Bodhisattva Archetypes - Manjushri - Jozen Jonathon Fielder - April 12th, 2025

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) - Seven Bodhisattvas with a dharma talk by Jozen Jonathon Fielder.

Jozen Jonathon Fielder offers his teachings and his wisdom tireless through several sanghas. Having been ordained as a Hollow Bones Zen priest, he continues to lead a regular practice as part of the Virtual Zendo. As a martial arts teacher and dharma teacher, he is an associate clergy member of Shining Bright Lotus. Recently he has begun to develop his own dharma center Iron Mountain Zendo in the UK. 

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/iron-mountain-zendo

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.shiningbrightlotus.org/

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

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SPP25 - Seven Bodhisattva Archetypes - Samantabadhra - Ekai Joel Kreisberg - April 21st, 2025

Faces of Compassion - Week 3 - Our next exploration is of Samantabadhra as a Bodhisattva archetype.  Samantabhadra is a prominent Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism, often associated with wisdom, compassion, and practice. He is also known as "Universal Worthy" or "All Good". Samantabhadra is frequently depicted seated on an elephant, sometimes with multiple heads, and is part of the Shakyamuni Triad alongside Shakyamuni Buddha and Manjushri. 

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.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Weekend Sangha Practice - Small Mind, Big Mind, One Mind - Ming Po Larry Matthews - May 31st, 2025

The phrase "Small Mind, Big Mind, One Mind" is a concept often explored in Zen Buddhism and mindfulness practices. It refers to different perspectives or modes of awareness within the mind and how they relate to each other. Ming Po reflects on this concept, gives personal examples, and a brief practice.

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.shiningbrightlotus.org/

 "It's like opening up the shell, peering out the shell, and then casting off the shell and allowing a new outer appearance." 

Heisoku Maik Bain is preparing for his ordination as a Dragon Heart Dharma priest. He continues to offer Mondo Zen Facilitation actively and participates in several sanghas including One Wisdom Zen, Dragon Heart Dharma, Hollow Bones Zen and Shining Bright Lotus Meditation Society. 

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.shiningbrightlotus.org/

SPP25 - Seven Bodhisattva - Avalokiteshvara - Nanda Nina Lynch - April 26th, 2025

Faces of Compassion - Week 4 - Our next exploration is of Avalokiteshvara as a Bodhisattva archetype.  Avalokiteshvara is a revered Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism, known as the Bodhisattva of Compassion. They are also known by various names in different cultures, such as Guanyin in China. Avalokiteshvara's primary role is to assist sentient beings in their journey towards enlightenment by embodying compassion and offering protection. 

Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.

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Our current Shuso, Daijo Scott Duffer offers a Dharma Reflection entitled Daishizen and Stewarding the Earth. This teaching was given at the Shuso Ceremony June 28th, 2025

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.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Brahmavihara: Cultivating Virtue Through The Four Immeasurables - Mudita - April 6, 2025

Emyo leads us on a guided meditation of the third of the Brahmaviharas, Mudita also known as Sympathetic Joy.

https://www.onewisdom.ca/

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.shiningbrightlotus.org/