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 by studying Hakuin, the Rinzai master who revitalized Zen by emphasizing embodied practice, rigorous discipline, and the integration of awakening into everyday life. Keith describes Hakuin’s teachings on the four ways of knowing, the need for great faith, great doubt, and great determination, and the danger of mistaking partial insight for complete awakening. He shares Hakuin’s metaphors—like the fire lotus, blooming stronger in the flames of ordinary life—and the bamboo tube with the trapped rat, illustrating that true awakening cannot be chosen conceptually but emerges when one realizes there is no way forward, no way back, and no place to remain.   Fall Practice Period 2025 — Shining Bright Lotus Meditation Society  

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 through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action. https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Three Refuges - Nanda Nina Lynch - Dharma Reflection - June 14th, 2025 Nanda gives a Dharma Reflection and brief meditation on the Three Refuges. In Buddhism, the three refuges, also known as the Three Jewels or Triple Gem, are the Buddha, the Dharma (teachings), and the Sangha (community). They represent the foundational elements of Buddhist faith and practice, guiding practitioners towards enlightenment.  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/

Daiden Dan Pecaut’s talk centers on awakening as the process of seeing through the ego and returning to embodied wholeness. He describes the ego not as a fixed entity but as a shifting collection of stories, memories, and defenses. Zen, he says, doesn’t destroy this process but places it in proper perspective, allowing the deeper self — Buddha-nature — to lead. Daiden stresses that awakening isn’t about gaining anything new but realizing what’s already present. Yet, he acknowledges that modern practice must include healing the psyche and body, since traditional Zen often bypassed trauma. Integrating Zen, shadow work, and embodiment, Daiden teaches that awakening matures through the body — where breath, awareness, and being are one.   https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/fallpractice25 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 gives a talk about the Origins of Our Practice at Gently Sitting Like a Stone 2025.   Ekai Roshi Joel Kreisberg discusses the origins of our lineage and practice. Bridging ancient teachings with 21st-century understanding, translating traditional koans like “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” into accessible insight questions such as “Can you listen without an opinion?” Ekai explains how zazen, koan inquiry, and daily mindfulness form complementary “technologies” of awakening—ways of recognizing no-self, interconnection, and pure awareness in everyday life. https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Shunya Lynn Hyer shares teachings inspired by Junpo Roshi, exploring the transformative nature of emotions, especially anger and fear, as gateways to awareness rather than reactions to avoid. She explains that beneath anger lies deep caring, and when met with mindfulness, anger becomes a compass pointing toward unmet needs and truths. Using tools like an “emotions wheel,” she encourages expanding emotional intelligence and viewing emotions as valuable information rather than moral judgments. Through personal reflection on grief and loss, she illustrates how anger can mask deeper pain, while fear, too, serves as vital information for survival and growth. Both emotions, when held with compassion and awareness, become alchemical forces—turning pain into clarity, fear into courage, and ultimately revealing the innate Buddha-nature within all beings. https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/fallpractice25 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 - Upekkha - April 6, 2025 Emyo leads us on a guided meditation of the fourth of the Brahmaviharas, Upekkha also known as Equanimity. 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/

Kogen Keith Martin-Smith is the author of several books devoted to the life and dharma teaching of Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi. Kogen was ordained by Jun Po Roshi in 2012.  He continues to teach and to write. He offers an innovative podcast at The Integral Edge. Roshi Ekai Joel Kreisberg caught up with Kogen recently in anticipation of his joining the Fall Practice Period at Shining Bright Lotus.     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/ 

Ming Po gives a Dharma talk on Ethical Living and Spiritual Practice. The talk explores how the Three Pure Precepts—refraining from harm, doing good, and living for the benefit of all—interweave with the Zen Peacemaker Tenets of not knowing, bearing witness, and taking loving action. Ming Po emphasizes that these are not rigid rules but living vows inviting openness, compassion, and mindful responsiveness. By releasing fixed ideas, we create space for natural goodness and compassionate action to arise. Ethical living in Zen is not about moral perfection but about presence—returning again and again to awareness and integrity in each moment. 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 gives a Dharma talk on the 7th precept, Celebrate Others - I vow to refrain from praising self at the expense of others. I rejoice in the good fortune of others. I do not, through my thoughts, words or actions, separate myself from others through coveting, envy or jealousy.   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/

In “The Way Out Is Through” Jozen Jonathon Fielder defines consciousness as the ever-changing lens shaped by upbringing, biology, culture and ego—those personas and hot buttons we wear—then distinguishes that from awareness: the unchanging, ever-present ground that simply knows. He emphasizes that consciousness is always in relationship (to memories, God, others, desires), that identities are constructed and fluid, and that true spiritual work is noticing this rather than clinging.   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/

How does Zen understand meditation?  In what ways is Rinzai practice different from Soto practice?  How do we understand Zazen versus meditation?  In this introductory talk,  Roshi Ekai Joel Kreisberg traces the history of Zen Buddhism and how it evolves into the modern day practice of Zen in 21st Century America.  This dharma talk introduces the Five Gates approach of Cosmopolitan Zen.  It was offered at Gently Sitting Like a Stone, October 6th, 2025 https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

WSP25 - Embody Compassion - Nanda Nina Lynch - September 6th, 2025 Nanda gives a Dharma Reflection on the precept, Embody Compassion - I vow to refrain from ill will. 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/

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. 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/

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. https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

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/

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/

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/

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/