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Bringing together the best from the many diverse forms of Zen, Theravada, Mahamudra, Developmental Psychology and Integral Theory, Cosmopolitan Zen offers a broad inclusive vision of 21st Century Zen Buddhism. Hosted By Ekai Joel Kreisberg.
Episodes
Friday Mar 20, 2026
Friday Mar 20, 2026
Ekai Joel Kreisberg Roshi and Emyo Darlene Tataryn introduce their four-month Foundations in Mondo Zen Facilitation program, describing it as a structured, relational, and embodied path rooted in koan practice and emotional inquiry. They emphasize that effective learning begins with sincere curiosity, clear intention, vulnerability, and compassion, supported by dialogue, small-group work, and a steady 108-day practice container, creating a focused environment for deepening insight and skillful facilitation.
Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.
Wednesday Mar 18, 2026
Wednesday Mar 18, 2026
In this interview, Simha Frederick Marx recounts his Buddhist journey from beginning practice in 1988 with Nichiren Shoshu, moving to vipassana, and meeting Junpo in 2000, which led him to decades of practice with Hollow Bones Rinzai Zen. He describes attending 15–16 retreats over 26 years, his openness to all Dharma traditions despite a strong Rinzai focus, and his use of solo retreats to self-diagnose and settle recurring neuroses and anger loops. He shares his disinterest in social media, touches on themes from his recent book Confessions of a Sacred Fool, and notes that, after moving out of the city, he’s now launching a new sangha and stepping more fully into Zen teaching, something he feels is long overdue.
Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.
Saturday Mar 14, 2026
Saturday Mar 14, 2026
Letting Be: Relaxing into Natural Wisdom - Hosho Don Koehler - January 24th, 2026 - WPP26
A Dharma talk exploring “Awakening Through Love” based on Chapter 2 of John Makransky’s work. Hosho Don Koehler reflects on innate wisdom beyond self-grasping, drawing from Dzogchen and contemporary psychology to show how relaxation, receiving love, and letting be reveal our natural compassion and clarity. The talk bridges non-dual awareness with heart practices, offering a gentle path of recognition rather than striving, and prepares listeners for a guided meditation on releasing the grasping self and resting in pure awareness.
Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.
Friday Mar 06, 2026
Friday Mar 06, 2026
This talk explains the structure and purpose of Mondo Zen facilitation as a living dialogue rather than a technique. Ekai describes how a facilitator uses precise, compassionate questioning to bring unconscious beliefs, emotional patterns, and fixed identities into direct awareness. The process relies on deep listening, embodied presence, and timing rather than interpretation or advice. Mondo Zen is framed as a way of helping students see through their own stories in real time, allowing insight to arise naturally through inquiry, silence, and resonance between teacher and student.
Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.
Friday Feb 27, 2026
Friday Feb 27, 2026
Receiving Love: The Key to the Spiritual Path - Ming Po Larry Matthews - January 17th, 2026 - WPP26
Ming Po Larry Matthews teaches that spiritual awakening does not begin with effort, self-improvement, or performance, but with allowing ourselves to be loved as we are. Drawing on Makransky, Alan Watts, Rumi, Mary Oliver, and Zen teachers, he explores how giving love keeps us in control, while receiving love requires vulnerability, trust, and letting go of the belief that we are unworthy.
Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.
Friday Feb 20, 2026
Friday Feb 20, 2026
Ekai Joel Kreisberg Roshi offers an introduction to the Mondo Zen Facilitation, through an intensive look at the Thirteen koans of Jun Po Roshi. After a discussion of the context and history of Mondo Zen Facilitation, Ekai Roshi leads a pointing out meditation for the First Koan of Mondo Zen - Is it possible to purely listen without an opinion?
Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.
Friday Feb 13, 2026
Friday Feb 13, 2026
Atta Dipa and Prayer - Heisoku Maik Bain - WSP25 - December 20th, 2025
Heisoku gives a reflection on the Buddha’s teaching to be your own refuge: recognize the inner light of selfless awareness, let go of ego, beliefs, and emotions as they arise and pass, and live with meditative awareness, clear intention, wisdom, compassion, and skillful action.
Our mission is to foster a diverse, inclusive community, dedicated to awakening through Buddhist teachings promoting personal and interpersonal healing with ethical compassionate action.
Sunday Feb 08, 2026
Sunday Feb 08, 2026
The Heart of Zen FPP24 - October 27, 2024
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.
Saturday Jan 31, 2026
Saturday Jan 31, 2026
Zen and the Middle of Everything - Mingpo Larry Matthews - January 3rd, 2026 - WSP26
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.
Friday Jan 23, 2026
Friday Jan 23, 2026
Why there are no victims - Kenshin Cian Whalley - November 15th, 2025 - FPP25
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.