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.shiningbrightlotus.org/

WSP26 - Zen and the Middle of Everything - Mingpo Larry Matthews - January 3rd, 2026

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 community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

FPP25 - Why there are no victims - Kenshin Cian Whalley - November 15th, 2025

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 ongoing story of being a victim is a choice shaped by conditioned parts of the self. He describes catching himself strategically allowing suffering to influence outcomes, seeing clearly that a deeper awareness was always present and choosing. Recognizing this “choice point” allowed him to step out of the victim–rescuer–persecutor cycle, reclaim his disowned power, and respond from presence rather than trauma-driven parts.

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/

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 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

SPP25 - Seven Bodhisattvas - Shakyamuni - Emyo Darlene Tataryn - April 5, 2025

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 Darlene Tataryn.

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/

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/