Cosmopolitan Zen

Be the Best Form of Yourself - Jozen Jonathon Fielder

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

Seven Bodhisattvas - Shakyamuni - Emyo Darlene Tataryn

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

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/

Can you choose enlightenment? - Kogen Keith Martin-Smith

Can you choose enlightenment? - Kogen Keith Martin-Smith - FPP25

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

 

Non - Meditation - Ekai Joel Kreisberg Roshi

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

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/

When Does the Buddha Need Therapy? - Daiden Dan Pecaut

Fall Practice Period 2025

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/ 

Origins of our Practice - Roshi Ekai Joel Kreisberg

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/

Can anyone make you angry? - Shunya Lynn Hyer

Fall Practice Period 2025

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 - Emyo Darlene Tataryn

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/

You Can't Awaken What You Can't See - An interview with Kogen Keith Martin-Smith

Fall Practice Period 2025

 

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/