I first met Shen Yi Nick Von on sesshin with Jun Po Roshi at Black Mountain Retreat Center in Northern California. He would soon join our training program becoming an excellent Mondo Zen Facilitator. He continued his studies at Hollow Bones Zen, becoming ordained as a priest in 2023 at Dai Bosatsu. I’ve appreciated his approach, which brings together traditional ceremony with Zen practice. As a musician, he continues to bring us accessible teachings with his voice and guitar. He keeps a low profile as the leader of his sangha, Camino de Rose, in Tahachipi, CA. I am grateful to have caught up with Shen Yi, and his sacred music continues to bring clarity and joy in my life. To learn more about Shen Yi, visit

https://www.nichvon.com/

Ekai: I am here with Shen Yi Nich Von, an ordained priest in the Hollow Bones Zen tradition. Welcome Shen Yi, tell me a little bit about your meditation practice. How you got into this?

Shen Yi: I’ve had a formal practice for about 18 years. Kind of coincided with finding out I was going to be a father. I wanted to start getting my stuff together. I’d always had a deep interest in Buddhism, since about 10. I was in a parking lot at a gas station, and I was thinking about all of these deities, the fantastic blue guys playing the flutes and things, and the skinny dead guy on a cross. And then I saw this fat happy guy. I was just always really attracted to the idea of this fat happy Buddha. Later I find out that this is Hotai, so I decided at a very young age that I was going to be a Buddhist.

Ekai: And so how did you find your way to Buddhism?

Shen Yi: I dabbled a lot, as we do. Most of my formative years were fueled by punk rock and psychedelics so I didn’t have any kind of dedicated practice. My first kind of foray into formal meditation was actually through Transcendental Meditation. I had my first taste of absorption using that practice. It was like wow, this is actually doing something. That was enough to hook me in a little bit deeper into the practice.

Ekai: We met at a Hollow Bones retreat with Jun Po Roshi. Where had you been on other retreats?

Shen Yi: I had a handful of Vipassana style retreats, 10 days and 21 days. I had a very well established practice. I came to Hollow Bones after the passing of a teacher who grounded me in his style of meditation practice, which was Vipassana based.

Ekai: The way that Jun Po taught resonated with you?

Shen Yi: I found what I was looking for at that time. I’d been studying koans. I was reading the Blue Cliff Record and the Gateless Gate. I was mostly confounded and confused and not really penetrating very deeply into any of the koans. I had started looking for koan instruction when I came across the Mondo Manual online. It resonated very deeply with me. It was like somebody speaking directly to my experience, speaking directly to the things that I was looking to clear out through the practice of koans. For probably a year and a half, I was just Mondoing myself.

Ekai: Mondoing?

Shen Yi: Reading the manual with friends. Then I got curious, and I reached out to the organization and did my initial Mondo training with Engo, which coincided with the first cohort of Mondo Facilitation training you created. I was coming into the beginning of the reshaping of Mondo Zen Facilitation.

Ekai: Your timing was right because you definitely got to sit with Jun Po Roshi before he passed away. You were the early generation of certified Mondo folks. Hollow Bones isn’t hosting that program anymore, but you were part of that early generation. Are you using it these days?

Shen Yi: I’ve done it in a variety of settings. I do a lot of one-on-one instruction, which I find really valuable, just because of the intimacy that’s there. I’ve done several group structured facilitations, which has also been really wonderful, because we go at a much slower place. When I do it with a group, we often do it over a period of 30 days. It would just be one koan a day for two and a half weeks. Then we start moving into the training mirrors, and then we start moving into the construction of the emotional koans and things. So it’s a much slower process but can be equally deep.

Ekai: Jun Po Roshi loved to do it in groups. You have put it in a sacred setting called a dieta. Tell me about that.

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Shen Yi: Dieta suave is the technical practice. It’s a traditional plant diet. They’re teaching plants that are considered master plants. Everything we bring into our body has an effect on our psychology. With psychoactive plants, like marijuana, for instance, it’s easy to identify the psychoactive influence of that plant, right? And we understand that these plants have an attitude and an essence. With other plants, the energy is much subtler. We diet in a variety of ways. It’s not just food. We’re also dieting our eyes, our ears, our speech, our conduct. It’s a really in-depth practice. It takes place over about 40 days, with the goal of putting our body into a sattvic state through a variety of practices including meditation, embodiment practices, and controlling our diet by removing all of the pungent foods. So it’s very similar to what the Buddha said. Garlic, onions, leeks and all of these pungent, strong flavors make it difficult for our nervous system and our emotional body to relax so that we can meditate more deeply. Then within this container, we begin to study the koans together. It becomes a really in-depth practice for people. I get a lot out of it.

Ekai: It sounds lovely. I think Jun Po would really appreciate the practice. You’re saying that lots of substances have impact on our consciousness, on our awareness. A dieta allows us to work with different powerful plants.

Shen Yi: It’s more transformational than a single psychedelic or plant medicine journey, yeah, because you’re living it every day for a continued period of time. For four plus weeks you’re engaged in embodiment and inquiry practices. It really becomes quite transformational for people.

Ekai: Many people were attracted to Jun Po Roshi because of his history with psychedelics. So it tends to attract folks who have some experience with them. What you’re doing is a traditional practice. It’s something that people have been doing for a long time.

Shen Yi: Yes, thousands of years. Every culture understands the medicinal properties of plants. When you ask traditional healers how they come upon this knowledge, they say that the plants told them. I’ve encountered people who had access to this level of interaction with the natural world. It’s astonishing to remember that we can communicate directly with nature, not only with the plants. I believe that a big part of the dieta is our dream time. The plants will work with us during our dreams. One school of thought is that dreams are a direct communication with nature. Through this practice, we’re learning to reawaken our capacity to communicate directly with nature, for healing, insights and growth.

Ekai: It sounds lovely and very unique. What you’re describing is expanding the direction of these koans to include a broader, deeper psychological relatedness.

Shen Yi: I feel like it’s all one taste, right? Bodhisattvas can manifest as a plant if they want. I feel that all these master plants and healing plants that we work with are great bodhisattvas manifesting as plants so that we can then have a more direct relationship.

Ekai: I appreciate that. So you arrived in Hollow Bones, you went through the certification, and then you ended up becoming ordained as a priest.

Shen Yi: Yeah, I feel like when you’re so stubborn, you have to do things like become a priest, right? I feel like becoming a priest is just a symbol of my stubbornness. I have to go all in, otherwise I’ll find a loophole, and I’ll jump out. I’m not always good at being a follower or a joiner.

Ekai: How has anything changed since that was formalized?

Shen Yi: One of the main things that changed for me was this deeper realization of the interdependency between my role and the community I serve.The community put together a fundraiser for me to help pay for the robes and the trip. They helped get my family out there so that they could be a part of the ceremony. And that was deeply humbling.As far as I’m concerned, the robes belong to them, and I’m just the guy that gets to wear them for a bit. For me, it was something that Junpo said that really stuck with me. It was “don’t fall in love, stand in love.” Taking the robes was like an act of standing in love, and it was a way ofinspiring myself and others to stop running around digging a bunch of shallow holes trying to find water.

Ekai: What’s unique about what you’re describing is that you went through that process already with a sangha. I imagine your sangha is really proud of you.

Shen Yi: They were really, they celebrated me in a really beautiful way. They put on a little private concert and made food. It was a big celebration. It was just so rich. I felt really loved that day.

Ekai: Nice. Camino de Rose is the name of your Sangha.

Shen Yi: Yes, Alfonso de Rose was a wild man. Camino de Rose is the path of him. He lived in a monastery in Burma for some time and was getting ready to be ordained as a monk. And then circumstances aligned where he found himself beginning to work with in other mediums, like with plant medicine. My studies with him are what led me into that path. After his unexpected passing in 2016, I was the heir to the community. He had already told us many times that he was going to be leaving and going to do some other things, but he had had many conversations with his family, and with other leaders in the community at that time, that I was going to be the guy. I’ve now been leading longer than he ever did, which is kind of a wild transition, but I’m grateful to that. For a while there was a lot of novelty as everybody was getting used to it. But now it’s been a long time.

Ekai: How does the community serve you and your own growth and development?

Shen Yi: I am able to practice leadership. I am able to have a teaching practice, because teaching is a practice too.Because of the community, I always have a mirror of where others are bravely working, which you know mirrors where I’m always bravely working. Andthere’s been support and recognition, and all the beautiful fruits that you get when you have a sangha. We lift each other up, we support each other’s pursuits. It’s givenme the ability to step into a dream of myself that extended beyond what I previously ever thoughtI would be capable of.

Ekai: I’m going to change the subject slightly. You’re also a musician, and you write sacred music.

Shen Yi: Guilty as charged.

Ekai: How’s that going these days?

Shen Yi: I’m actually getting ready to release another EP. I release music every month on my Nich Von Patreon (www.patreon.com/cw/nichvon). I just did a rendition of the first paragraph of the Awakened Ones Vow. It’s kind of like a psychedelic rock-and-roll imagining of Awakened Ones Vow. I did a Hollow Bones record (

). If you’ve ever rung the great bells at the temples like Dai Bosatsu, there’s typically a prayer, “may this bell ring out into all of the hell realms and save everybody, liberate everyone.” I feel like music is just another way of ringing a bell. When we infuse the teachings of the Dharma into music, it just makes it a little sweeter, a little sugar for the medicine.

Ekai: It’s lovely. I really appreciate that one of the ways that you make meaning out of what you’re doing is to bring it into your musical creativity, and in a way that people can participate. Your music includes people, and others want to join you.

Shen Yi: I would say there’s three pillars to the community, and they’re meditation, medicine and music. We spend a lot of time teaching the songs of the community to others so they can share their own light within a ceremonial context or in a retreat context. We strongly encourage people to share their voice. Putting things into a musical format helps people remember the teachings.

When we do shorter retreats, they are more hybrid, where there’s music and the morning service. We bring in drums and guitars and group chanting. Our version of the morning service is a bit more rock-and-roll.

Ekai: I’m on the edge of my chair. The morning service, the Hollow Bones version, is a very unique animal because of what Jun Po did with it. It’s nice to see you making life out of it. Is there anything on the horizon you want to have happen looking forward?

Shen Yi: The big dream right now is to find some land, five-ish acres, out here in the Mojave Desert, and to start building a little adobe quarter. Nothing extravagant, enough for someone to have a table and a cot and come and join us for retreats.

Ekai: Thank you Shen Yi for taking the time to share. You bring a quality which I think is a really key to the evolving of the Dharma at this stage. Your teaching allows people to make more sense of it and to make meaning in a way that’s really powerful. As Song of Zazen says, “whether singing or dancing, we are the voice of the Dharma.”

Shen Yi: When we sing together, we get that experience of one taste of all in the one, one and all. I don’t know of a more expedient medium than when we sing together. It’s transcendent. Thank you, Ekai, for being one of the beads on my mala, one of the contributors to the robes. I dedicate all my merit to you as well. Thank you.

Ekai: You’re very welcome.

As I prepare for an eight day street retreat in honor of Rohatsu hosted by Zen Peacemakers, I’m quickly bumping into what not to bring. Starting with the obvious, no cellphone, no watch, no credit card, no reading materials. Anything else? No jewelry, no sunglasses, no toothbrush. Then come the comforts, no pillow, no change of clothes, no bag of my stuff for washing in the morning. No books, no pen, nothing to write with, no water bottle or hot mug.

At this point, you might be starting to wonder what will I bring? Clothing, wear all the clothing I will need to stay warm for eight days. A sleeping bag or blanket for sleeping on the street, something to keep the rain off me and a small bag to hold my few things. I can pick up a plastic water bottle or paper cup from the streets. A printed copy of the sutra book. That’s it!

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1n 1994 - Bernie Glassman, a student of Maesumi Roshi, articulated the three tenants of Zen Peacemakers.

• Not Knowing - giving up fixed ideas about oneself and the universe, seeing all manifestations as the teachings of no-knowing,

• Bearing Witness - by allowing myself to be touched by the joy and suffering of the universe,

• Healing - of myself, the earth, humanity and all creations.

Let’s look more deeply - Bearing Witness.

“Bearing witness can allow you to eventually come to terms with the most difficult life circumstances. The practice is always available to you regardless of the time, place, situation, or people involved. There is nothing that you cannot bear witness to, from dusting the lint off your sweater to living in a pit for two years. In bearing witness, you are actively engaged and embodied, even struggling, with whatever is arising.”

I’m already in the process of Bearing Witness as I prepare for my street retreat. This includes noticing my attachment to my comforts - heat, tea in the morning, going to the gym, and a high quality food. I’m also noticing the challenge others are having with just thinking about me going on a street retreat. Folks immediately are concerned for my safety. I assure them then there must safety precautions and a structure for our time together. Zen Peacemakers have been leading these retreats for many years.

For now, I can only share what I know from the Zen Peacemakers website. Since I’ve not done this before, I don’t really know how it is all going to work — not knowing. I’ll get back to you in nine days with a report of my adventure!

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It was a great honor for serve Jun Po Roshi. We shared joys and pains. I appreciated his dignity as he continued to teach in his final days with us. Jun Po Roshi had a big impact on my life. He recognized that emotions are constructed, and that we can use zazen and koan practice set our intentions on writing a more compassionate response when set off by activating emotional triggers. I continue to share what I learned. I feel compelled to extend what he started, to bring emotional integrity and maturity to the dharma.

Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi continues to be missed by many. If you are one us in this regard, Please join me for his Memorial Service, today, May 12th, beginning at 5:30 ET. The service liturgy is available on the SBLMS library page.

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In the fifth of our series tracing the origins of Hollow Bones Rinzai Zen, we turn to the beginnings of Chan in 6th-century China. Having explored the Japanese lineage across four previous posts—including two devoted to Hakuin Ekaku—we now look further back to how Mahayana teachings entered China through the First Patriarch, Bodhidharma.

Traditionally, only the first six figures—Bodhidharma, Huike, Sengcan, Daoxin, Hongren, and Huineng—are recognized as patriarchs. However, given the central importance of Linji Yixuan to our lineage, I will also include key stories from his direct ancestors: Nanyue, Mazu, Baizhang, and Huangbo, Linji’s teacher. Linji himself will be taken up in a separate post.

Bodhidharma (c. 480–520)

Born a prince in India, Bodhidharma studied under Prajnatara, the 27th patriarch in the Indian lineage of Gautama Buddha. He later traveled to China, a journey said to have taken three years.

One of the most famous accounts of his teaching is his meeting with Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty. The emperor, a devoted patron of Buddhism, asked:

“What is the highest meaning of the holy truths?”
Bodhidharma replied, “Emptiness, no holiness.”
“Who stands before me?”
“No knowing.”

This exchange, preserved in the Blue Cliff Record, reflects a defining shift: Chan’s movement away from doctrinal Buddhism toward direct realization.

Bodhidharma is also associated with nine years of wall-gazing meditation at Shaolin Monastery. Though few texts are reliably attributed to him, the Outline of Practice presents four key approaches: accepting injustice, adapting to conditions, seeking nothing, and practicing the Dharma.

His teaching is often summarized in the well-known verses:

A special transmission outside the scriptures
No dependence on words and letters
Direct pointing to the human mind
Seeing one’s nature and becoming Buddha

Huike (487–593)

The Second Patriarch, Dazu Huike, is remembered for his fierce determination. In a famous story from the Mumonkan, he stands in the snow outside Bodhidharma’s cave and cuts off his arm to demonstrate sincerity.

When he asks for his mind to be pacified, Bodhidharma replies:

“Bring me your mind, and I will pacify it.”
“I cannot find it,” Huike responds.
“Then it is already pacified.”

Sengcan (529–613)

Little is known about the Third Patriarch, Jianzhi Sengcan, except for his association with Huike and his authorship of the classic poem Faith in Mind:

The Great Way is not difficult

Just avoid picking and choosing.

If you have neither aversion nor desire,

You’ll thoroughly understand.

A hair’s breadth difference

Is the gap between heaven and earth.

If you want to come forth,

Let there be no positive and negative.

Daoxin (580–651)

Dayi Daoxin established one of the first Chan monastic communities. His contributions include integrating meditation with the Bodhisattva vows and incorporating scriptural traditions like the Lankavatara and Prajnaparamita teachings.

He emphasized that many names—Buddha-nature, nirvana, prajna—refer to a single, ungraspable reality.

Peace of mind

Cannot be summed up in words;

True understanding of it

Comes from your heart.

Hongren (601–674)

The Fifth Patriarch, Daman Hongren, is closely associated with the East Mountain School. He taught that deep practice requires distance from worldly distraction, comparing practitioners to trees growing strong in remote valleys before serving as pillars.

His legacy includes transmitting the Dharma to both Huineng and Shenxiu, leading to the later distinction between “sudden” and “gradual” approaches.

Huineng (638–713)

The Sixth Patriarch, Huineng, is one of the most influential figures in Chan. His teachings are preserved in the Platform Sutra.

In a famous contest, Shenxiu wrote:

The body is the Bodhi tree
The mind a bright mirror stand
Polish it diligently
Let no dust alight

Huineng responded:

Bodhi has no tree
Nor is there a mirror stand
Originally not a single thing exists
Where could dust alight?

Recognizing his insight, Hongren secretly transmitted the Dharma to Huineng.

Huineng’s teaching emphasizes sudden awakening and direct realization. In another famous exchange about a flag moving in the wind, he resolves the debate: “It is not the wind or the flag moving—it is your mind.”

Our Lineage Blogs

• Understanding Our Lineage 1 - Eido Roshi to Hakuin

• Understanding Our Lineage 2 - Nanpo Jomyo to Hakuin

• Understanding Our Lineage 3 - Hakuin - Pt. 1

• Understanding Our Lineage 4 - Hakuin Pt. 2

Nanyue Huairang (677–744)

A disciple of Huineng, Nanyue Huairang is known for challenging attachment to meditation itself. In a famous story, Nanyue questions Mazu about his commitment to meditation. He says, “What does Your Worthiness intend to do by sitting in meditation?” Nanyue then takes a brick to the door of the hut and rubs. Mazu pays little attention. After a long while, Mazu asks, “What are you doing?” Nanyue replies, “I am rubbing a brick to make a mirror.” Mazu says, “How can you make a mirror by rubbing a brick?” The master says, “If a mirror cannot be made by rubbing a brick, how can one become a Buddha by sitting in meditation?” Mazu asks the master, “What should one do then?” The master says, “If a cart drawn by an ox does not move, is it correct to whip the ox or the cart? Do you want to sit in meditation or to be a sitting Buddha? If you want to sit in meditation, meditation is neither sitting nor lying. If you want to be a sitting Buddha, Buddha is not motionlessness; moreover, motion should be neither accepted nor rejected. If you sit (to become a) Buddha, you will simply kill him. If you cling to sitting you will never realize the Dharma.”

His teaching cuts through fixation on form and points to the living essence of practice.

Mazu Daoyi (709–788)

Mazu Daoyi is a pivotal figure in the development of Chan’s dynamic teaching style. Known for unconventional methods—including shouting and striking—he embodied the immediacy of awakening. He is the first Chan teacher to be acknowledged as using the keisaku, or encouragement stick, to wake up students during practice.

When asked about the essence of Buddhism, he replied, “What is the meaning of this moment?”

Baizhang Huaihai (720–814)

A disciple of Mazu, Baizhang Huaihai established monastic rules still influential today. His famous dictum is “A day without work is a day without eating.” The second koan of the Mumonkan, known as Baizhang’s Fox, is another essential story of Chan. The story is too long repeat here. Key elements of the story are the old man, who reports to Baizhang that in a former life as a monk, he had incorrectly responded to an inquiry of the teacher. Because of this response, the monk was reborn as a fox for five hundred years. The old man now asks Baizhang to offer a turning word to release him from this karmic debt. Baizhang is asked by the old man, “Does a great adept fall into cause and effect or not?” Baizhang says, “A great adept is not blind to cause and effect.” This response releases the old man from this karmic debt. This teaching reinforces a middle way approach in Chan teachings, in which ethical living cannot be ignored.

Huangbo Xiyun (d. 850)

Huangbo Xiyun, teacher of Linji, emphasized the unity of mind and Buddha. His teachings often dismantle spiritual ambition and supernatural display. He was said to have been seven feet tall with a large protruding forehead which was called a “large pearl.” Huangbo left a small body of writing. A wonderful legend offers a nice picture of Huangbo’s teachings. On a journey to Mt. Tiantai he meets a monk. Coming to a stream, the monk tries to encourage Huangbo to cross. Huangbo says, “If Elder Brother wants to go across, then go ahead.” The monk walks across the top of the water, just as though it was dry land. The monk again encourages Huangbo to cross. Huangbo yells, “Ah! You self-serving fellow! If I had known this before, I would have chopped off your legs!” The monk cries out, “You’re truly a vessel for the Mahayana, I can’t compete with you.” He then vanished. (Zen Chinese Heritage, Ferguson, 2010).

Huangbo’s transmission to Linji Yixuan is a well-known story as well, in which Linji is struck three times by Huangbo in dokusan. Linji leaves to go to study with Gao’an Dayu. In the Dayu exchange, when Dayu insults Linji, Linji returns the blow with insight. Upon returning to Huangbo, he reports the events that occurred with Dayu. As Huangbo responds, Linji strikes him as well. These are the essential details of this early transmission!

Looking Ahead: Linji

Linji Yixuan, founder of the Linji school (Rinzai in Japan), stands as one of the most influential figures in Zen history. His teachings—direct, forceful, and uncompromising—will be explored in the next post.

Closing Reflection

Across these generations, a consistent thread emerges: a transmission beyond words, rooted in direct experience. From Bodhidharma’s stark negations to Huineng’s sudden awakening and Mazu’s immediacy, Chan continually returns us to what is present, alive, and ungraspable.

References

• Record of the Lankavatara Masters, translated by John McRae

• Two Zen Classics, Katsuki Sekida, 1996

• Zen Chinese Heritage, Andy Ferguson, 2011

• Images from

https://terebess.hu

Roshis:

Taiso Hannya Byran Barto Roshi received dharma transmission in 2011 from Jun Po Roshi. He currently presides as the Abbot of Hollow Bones Zen.

Rev. Dai En Hi Fu George Burch received Inka in 2009. He served as the Vice-Abbot of Hollow Bones Zen for many years. He founded and continues to operate the Wild Goose Zendo.

Meru Doug Szper Roshi received Inka from Jun Po around 2009. He opened the Still Point Center in Wisconsin with his wife Khyati Penny Johns, an ordained priest. Still Point Center is not offering programs at this time.

Vicara Staya Marry Connelly Roshi received Inka from her husband Jun Po Roshi in 2025. She actively serves at Hollow Bones Zen and Zen River Sangha.

Hui Neng Stan Koehler Roshi received Inka In 2016. He operates Peace on The Streets in NYC.

Fugen Hannya Tom Pitner receive Inka from Jun Po Roshi in 2019. He is the director at Dragon Heart Dharma.

Lloyd Fickett Foshi was certified in 2018 as part of the same sesshin as my priest ordination. He teaches with Taiso Roshi at Hollow Bones Zen.

Fudo Myoo Teja Bell Roshi was originally certified by Doshin Roshi. Jun Po recognized Teja as part of the Hollow Bones Lineage in 2021. Fudo Myoo operates Qigong Dharma.

Sanchi Reta Lawler is the director of Morningstar Zen Center in Boulder, CO. Eido Shimano is her root teacher. She was fully recognized by Jun Po Roshi.

Doshin Daigu M.J. Nelson received Inka in 2011. He founded integral Zen and continues to teach actively.

Vimala Muni John Nemick Roshi was recognized as a Roshi in 2013. He founded the Green Bay Zen Center. Vimala Roshi passed away in 2021.

Priests:

Jun Po ordained many priests over his nearly 20-year career. Currently, there appear to be about 25 active priests, though not all are easy to locate. Two clergy members have passed away. I have identified approximately 25 priests who are either no longer active or no longer identify as priests. Where they have landed is the subject of another blog.

In Memory Of:

Daju Huehai Suzanne Friedman was a beloved clergy member of Hollow Bones Zen. She was a noted author of several books including The Jun Po Roku. Daju passed away in 2014.

Manju Usra Bill Frankelton was an early student of Jun Po Roshi, an active leader in Zen River Sangha. He was ordained in 2003. Manju passed away in 2022.

Active Priests:

Bodhi Dharma William Prince was ordained in 2013. He actively practices with Fudo Myoo Teja Bell in California as part of Qigong Dharma.

Daiden Eno Dan Pecaut was ordained in 2014. He is the director or Siouxland Zen in Iowa.

Dazu Kodo Justin Park was ordained in 2013. He lives with his wife Koren Dojin Kathryn Park who was ordained in 2015. They cofounded the New Iona Foundation in Maine in conjunction with Wild Goose Zendo.

Doyo Ken Morrison continues to serve in his role as a priest in Wisconsin.

I was ordained in 2018 at Dai Bosatsu Monastery.

Emyo Seien Darlene Tataryn was ordained in 2014 in a ceremony with Daiden. She runs One Wisdom Zen in Selkirk, Manitoba.

Engo Dohi Michael Jackson was ordained in a ceremony at Sonoma Mountain Zen Center in 2013 with Bodhi and Choan. He continues to serve as a senior priest at Hollow Bones Zen and Shining Bright Lotus Meditation Society.

Fushin Reimyo Eva Hermongenes was ordained in 2014. She resides in Spain.

Guruma Amala Donna Elser and her husband Kodo Aishi Mike Elser were both ordained by Jun Po Roshi. I believe they continue to serve as priests.

Kensho Len Silverston was ordained in 2011. He runs Zen with Len in Colorado.

Kevala Jnana Deb Hoffman was ordained in 2010. She is a senior priest at Zen River Sangha.

Kogen Ananda Keith Martin-Smith was ordained in 2012. He continues to teach in Boulder, Colorado.

Koto Washi Dallas Chief Eagle was ordained by Jun Po. He runs All Nation’s Gathering Center in Kyle, South Dakota. He serves on the board at Shining Bright Lotus.

Ma Dhyana Prajna Kathleen Kelly, Jun Po’s sister, was ordained in 2005. She teachers through her yoga studio in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Bay Area Yoga.

Myoshin Seido Stefan Schoch was ordained by Doshin Roshi in 2016, Jun Po Roshi recognized him in 2022. He lives and teaches in Germany.

Reishin Dai Nei Denise Leong was ordained in 2010. She currently serves as the leader of Hollow Bones Zen programs.

Seiron Bussho Martin Boroson was ordained in 2019. He is widely recognized as a coach and author for his book, One Moment Meditation.

Shunya Prajna Lynn Hyer was ordained in 2015. She is the director of Green Bay Zen Center.

Simha Kuti Frederick Marx was ordained in 2019. He recently established a sangha in Grass Valley California. He has authored several books on Zen, including Turds of Wisdom and Confessions of a Sacred Fool.

Umi no Nami Dan Rotnem was ordained in 2019. He founded his own sangha Open Door Zen in Ohio.

Zuikan Scott Rebellon was ordained in 2019. After living at Daibosatsu Monastery for a year, he left to settle nearby in New York.

Inactive priests:

The following individuals were ordained by Jun Po Roshi. I do not have complete information about their current status. Jun Po often said that becoming a priest is a one-way commitment, and formal renunciation is required to leave the clergy. Since my information is incomplete, I list these individuals as inactive clergy within the Hollow Bones Zen lineage:

Anjo Shishin Lissy Williams, Amrita Tara Sandra Foulk, Bukkai Haku Ted Hall, Bunan Daiko Michael Brown, Choan Hoki Tim Cook, Da Ji Miao Bei Corina Peterson, Dai Ki Inzan Tess Martin, Daikan Hannya Todd Isom, Dokan Eika Sean Hearn, Eisho Shi Jun Lailah Shima, Gangyo Dairen Larry Gagler, Hokyo Yoi Inu Joshua Rothier, John Rinsho Shealy, Kai Jin Hannya Emily Klein, Kisen Sido Lynne Bosche, Kugai Hoto Kristian Merckoll, Liaoran Bo Re Spencer Grey Kindred, Onryu Ingrid Bamberg, Ryosen Seikan Roberta Anderson , Soham Clink Van Egreen, Sosan Junho Marcus Karlstad, Tenshin Kaishin Charles Crutchfield, Tozan Hannya John Verin, Yoshin Eka Dave Klaus, Yudo Gaku Robert Yorga, and Zenrin Jo Tai Jeff Goodman.

I will say that if this information is untrue or any of these folks would like to contact me, I would be happy to update their status.

Closing Blessing

Throughout the ten directions and the three times,
All matriarchs and patriarchs,
All awakened ones, venerable ones, compassionate ones, great ones—
Rely upon this incomparable transcendent wisdom.

The koans themselves are often teaching stories from the Chan (Chinese Buddhist) tradition, which later became Zen in Japan and the United States. Chan flourished between the 6th and 13th centuries, producing writings and stories of patriarchs and teachers. These encounters were preserved in classic koan collections, most notably:

• The Gateless Gate (Mumonkan), compiled by Wumen Huikai

• The Blue Cliff Record, compiled by Xuedou Chongxian and Yuanwu Keqin

• The Book of Serenity, compiled by Hongzhi Zhengjue and Wansong Xingxiu

Formulated in the 12th and 13th centuries, these texts became foundational to Rinzai koan training. In our lineage, The Blue Cliff Record and The Gateless Gate form the essential core of the curriculum.

Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi spent many years at Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji, working through koans with Eido Shimano Roshi. The training unfolded primarily within sesshin (intensive eight-day retreats) and kessei (90-day practice periods). During these extended periods of practice, the koan was given in private interviews known as dokusan. The koan became the focal point of meditation, eventually extending beyond the cushion into work, meals, and daily activity.

In dokusan, the student presents their understanding or embodied experience of the koan. If the teacher is satisfied, the student “passes” and receives the next koan. If not, they are sent back for further inquiry. Teachers may pose “checking questions” to refine and deepen insight. The intention is not intellectual comprehension, but embodied awakened awareness.

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Koan Practice in Context

Koan inquiry is a profound and transformative process. However, it is not the only form of Buddhist or Zen practice. In contrast, the Soto school emphasizes shikantaza, “just sitting”, a practice of wholehearted presence with what arises. While Soto teachers may reference koans as teaching stories or “public cases,” they are not generally used as a progressive meditative curriculum.

Many forms of Buddhism do not use koans at all. Yet for Jun Po Roshi and our Rinzai lineage, koan practice is essential. Jun Po employed koans both as meditative inquiry and as living teaching vehicles.

Awakening and Growing Up

As a Mahayana path, Zen aims at the awakening of all beings, moving beyond ego and recognizing the universal nature of consciousness. One might assume that awakening naturally produces kindness and compassion. However, Jun Po Roshi’s experience as head student, and later vice-abbot, revealed something more complex.

He distinguished between awakening (kensho) and what he called growing up. This distinction resonates strongly with the integral theory of Ken Wilber. Awakening may reveal the non-dual nature of reality, yet psychological and emotional maturity does not automatically follow. Growing up involves learning to live compassionately and responsibly with others.

Jun Po observed that traditional monastery practice did not sufficiently address emotional development. While compassion is central to Zen teaching, it did not always translate into embodied emotional intelligence.

Emotions and the Evolution of Consciousness

Traditionally, Buddhist texts use the term feeling (vedana) to describe basic attraction, aversion, or neutrality toward stimuli—not what modern psychology calls emotions. Emotions, as we understand them today, involve complex narratives layered upon primary feeling tones.

A review of classical koan literature reveals almost no explicit attention to emotional life. This absence makes sense when viewed historically. Western understandings of emotion were shaped significantly by figures like William James and Sigmund Freud to name just a few. Cultural interpretations of emotion have evolved dramatically. Even the modern notion of romantic love is a relatively recent Western development.

More recently, neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett proposed the theory of constructed emotion, suggesting that emotions are not universal biological givens but socially and culturally constructed. While basic affective processes exist, emotions themselves are shaped by learned concepts and context.

This view parallels the Buddha’s teaching of dependent origination: everything arises in relationship and through conditions. What we feel, think, and believe is conditioned—and therefore transformable.

Jun Po Roshi referred to emotional reactivity as the “hysterical historical”—our present reactions shaped by past conditioning. Though he was not explicitly drawing on contemporary neuroscience, his Mondo Zen Facilitation practice aligns closely with this constructed view of emotional life.

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The Emergence of Emotional Koans

With the capacity to witness the mind through meditation and koan practice oriented toward awakening, Jun Po extended inquiry into the emotional domain. Rather than abandoning classical koans, he added a new category: emotional koans.

Traditional koans often test or deepen realization of non-dual awareness. Emotional koans, by contrast, examine the relative world—how feelings and behaviors manifest in lived experience. They assume that the practitioner has already tasted kensho, which Jun Po described as Pure Awareness or Clear Deep Heart-Mind.

Mondo Zen Facilitation begins with nine koans that stabilize this recognition. As in Hakuin’s curriculum, awakening is only the beginning. Koans nine through thirteen apply awakened awareness to daily life.

The ninth koan asks:

“What feelings arise when you actually experience this insight and understanding?”

This question looks nothing like a classical koan from The Gateless Gate or The Blue Cliff Record. Rather than pointing beyond the ego, it turns toward it. It invites inquiry into the emotional response that accompanies awakening. Kensho may feel blissful, joyful, peaceful, or neutral. What matters is recognizing and expressing the felt sense arising within Pure Awareness.

Just as in traditional dokusan, the facilitator acknowledges the student’s expression—completing the Mondo exchange. The subsequent emotional koans continue this descent into embodied life, integrating awakened awareness with emotional conditioning.

Continuing the Evolution of Dharma

The Rinzai koan system evolved over more than a millennium. Throughout most of that history, emotional life remained largely unexamined within formal koan curricula. Jun Po Roshi, thoroughly trained in Hakuin’s system, did what Zen masters have always done: he evolved the dharma to meet the needs of his time.

Emotional koans extend post-awakening training into the psychological and relational sphere. Rather than transcending the ego, they invite practitioners to embody awakened awareness within the ego’s emotional patterns.

In doing so, Jun Po Roshi continues the spirit of Hakuin’s insight: awakening is the beginning, not the end.

In the next blog, we will explore the remaining emotional koans in greater depth and examine how they function in lived practice.

Photos Courtesy of Ryoshin Darrin Frisby www.darinharrisfrisby.com

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Mondo Zen Facilitation (MZF) is a learning sequence of thirteen koans that brings classical Rinzai Zen koan study into direct relationship with emotional reactivity. Mondo, or Way of Dialogue, and Zen, Clear Deep Heart-Mind, are offered through a live relational process guided by a trained Mondo Zen Facilitator.

If you are reading this, you may have already completed MZF with a priest or Mondo Zen Facilitator. After taking the journey through the thirteen koans, Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi, the creator of Mondo Zen Facilitation, states:

“In order to fully embody and express awakening in your daily life, it is important for you to be able to communicate and facilitate this Mondo Zen process with others, for both your benefit and others. Until you can authentically share this teaching with others, you do not clearly understand your realization.” (Mondo Manual, 2021, pp. 26–27)

So how is this done?

That is where I come in. I train Mondo Zen Facilitators. Several questions naturally arise: How does one effectively learn to offer Mondo Zen Facilitation? What does it mean to be competent in helping another access the wisdom of Mondo Zen? If MZF requires “transmission” of Clear Deep Heart-Mind, does this not primarily involve one’s own capacity to access and stabilize this awareness?

This blog is the first in a series exploring how Mondo Zen Facilitation is learned and offered. A key theme throughout is that MZF skills can be refined through sustained practice and intentional learning cycles. With practice, assessment, and feedback, one can measurably improve the skills that support authentic transmission.

Behind the Curtain: Koan Practice in Mondo Zen

Koan study is central to the Rinzai Zen tradition. Depending on the source, there are over 1,700 koans drawn primarily from classical Chan and Zen literature. Jun Po Roshi incorporated four traditional forms of koan study into Mondo Zen:

• Insight Koans

• Spontaneity Koans

• Verbal Articulation Koans

• Precept Koans

In addition, Jun Po Roshi created Emotional Koans, which are distinct from traditional Precept Koans. Emotional Koans uniquely integrate emotional reactivity into koan practice and distinguish Mondo Zen from other Zen traditions (with the exception of Integral Zen, which adds further elements to the form).

The Five-Step Koan Dialogue Process

Mondo Zen Facilitation understands koan dialogue as a five-step process:

1. Deconstructing one’s philosophical view through insight

2. Settling into this insight and seeing how realization is obscured by confused or illusory views

3. Transforming the ego, not by destroying it, but by integrating insight

4. Constructing a new foundational perspective, grounded in Mahayana teachings and liberating in nature

5. Applying this liberating view to emotional reactivity, allowing insight to be integrated into daily life through Emotional Koan practice

Transmission and Mutual Recognition

Mondo Zen Facilitation is an awareness practice. Both facilitator and client awaken to Clear Deep Heart-Mind while simultaneously recognizing the ego perspective. This mutual recognition is referred to as transmission, a term that traces back to the story of Shakyamuni Buddha twirling a flower and Mahākāśyapa’s silent acknowledgment.

In Mondo Zen, the facilitator must embody the awareness and insight of each koan and bring this understanding directly into dialogue. Through this transmission, the client recognizes awareness and responds—not intellectually, but experientially.

Intellectual understanding is not the goal. Genuine insight is recognized by the facilitator through the participant’s verbal and embodied response. This recognition—sometimes described as “claiming one’s understanding”—is essential to Mondo. When successful, both client and facilitator recognize the koan insight together. For this reason, the facilitator must deeply know each of the thirteen koans—not conceptually, but relationally and experientially.

Learning to Facilitate: Two Truths in Practice

So how does one effectively learn to offer Mondo Zen Facilitation? Given the Mahayana teaching of the Two Truths—relative truth and absolute truth, which are not-two—it is essential that facilitators do the koan work themselves. While Clear Deep Heart-Mind is always present, our capacity to remain grounded in it is often challenged in emotionally charged situations.

Ongoing personal practice, including continued participation in Mondo dialogue with teachers and peers, strengthens the facilitator’s ability to remain present with the koans. At the same time, the Two Truths doctrine includes both the relative truth of form, and the absolute truth of emptiness. Effective facilitation requires both awakened awareness and skillful means.

Six Areas of Skill Development

We have identified six core skill areas that support the learning and offering of Mondo Zen Facilitation:

• Cognitive Understanding – Demonstrating a clear and accurate understanding of each Mondo Koan

• Mondo Processing – Planning, following instructions, attending to detail, and responding flexibly during MZF

• Rapport Building – Creating a safe container; practicing openness, honesty, vulnerability, empathy, and discernment

• Future Framing – Identifying patterns that no longer serve the client and framing new responses through actionable commitments (Emotional Koans)

• Authentic Knowing – Remaining grounded in Clear Deep Heart-Mind while transmitting the koan and recognizing mutual knowing

• Ongoing Commitment to Practice – Maintaining integrity with the dharma, engaging in feedback loops, listening generously, and supporting the sangha

These six skill areas allow facilitators to set, seek, apply, and assess repeatedly within a healthy learning environment. Through these cycles of learning, one’s capacity to offer Mondo Zen Facilitation is steadily refined.

Foundations of Mondo Zen Facilitation

We are pleased to offer a four-month training, Foundations of Mondo Zen Facilitation, beginning March 8, 2026.

For more information, visit: https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/fmzf

Joanna Macy (1929 – 2025) passed away last year. Macy brought together a scholarly understanding of deep ecology, systems science, anti-nuclear activism and Buddhist teachings. She was a co-author of Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings with John Seed, Pat Fleming, Arne Naess and Dailan Pugh. Her own text, World as Lover, World As Self, is a seminal work in ecodharmic teachings. Her Buddhist training was in the tradition of Nyanaponika Thera, a Sri Lankan Theravada teacher.

Daju Suzanne Friedman (1969 - 2014) was a doctor of Chinese medicine and Qi Gong master. Daju edited The Junpo Roku: The Dharma & Recorded Sayings of Junpo Denis Kelly. She founded the Robe & Bowl sangha in San Francisco.

Sandra Jishu Angyo Holmes (1941-1998) co-founded the Zen Peacemakers Order with her husband Roshi Bernie Glassman. She was the second abbot of the Zen Community of New York and co-founded the Interfaith Peacemaker Community.

Gesshin Myoko Prabhasa Dharma Cheney (1931-1999) was a student of Joshu Sasaki Roshi. She became an Osho in 1972 and served as director and vice abbess of the Mt. Baldy and Cimarron Zen Centers in southern California. She received Dharma Transmission from Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Man Giac in the lineage of Vietnamese Rinzai Zen.

“You all know that I come from the Zen Buddhist tradition. But when we enter on a spiritual path, and we follow it all the way to its origin, to the root of things, then we all arrive at the same source: the source of everything. That is the way of Zen. Zen just means meditation, but it is a particular way of meditation. It is the way to find the realm of consciousness in which things are not yet divided into past, present and future. When we realize that, it liberates us from the notion that we have to do something to get there or get it.

- Gesshin Myoko Prabhasa Dharma

Houn Jiyu-Kennett (1924-1996) established the Shasta Abbey monastery in northern California in 1970, where she served as abbess until her death in 1996. She was the first western woman to train at Soji-ji, one of the head Soto temples in Japan. Jiyu-Kennett Roshi received inka from Rev. Keido Chisan Koho Zenji, chief abbot at Soji-ji. Her teachings are available here.

Keido Chisan Koho Zenji and Houn Jiyu-Kennett

Maurine Myo-on Stuart (1922 - 1990) was a student of Yasutani Roshi and Soen Nakagawa Roshi. After her ordination by Eido Shimano at Dai-Bosatsu, she led the Cambridge Buddhist Association. She received inka from Soen Nakagawa. Her teachings can be found in Subtle Sound: The Zen Teachings of Maurine Stuart.

Baiho Sesshin Trudy Dixon (1939 - 1969) was an early student of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She transcribed and edited his classic book of talks, Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind.

Ruth Fuller Sasaki (1893-1967) was the first westerner to train in Japan. She worked as a translator bringing some of the first Zen books into English, including Zen Dust and The Recorded Sayings of Layman P’ang. She eventually married Sokei-an Sasaki, a Rinzai teacher in the United States. She returned to Japan after her husband’s passing and restored Ryosen-an, a sub temple at Daitoku-ji, which became the First Zen Institute of America. She was the first American priest at Daitoku-ji, a leading Rinzai monastery.

Kasai Joshin (1914-1985) was a disciple of Yoshida Eshun and Kodo Sawaki Roshi. She was key in passing on sewing of nyoho-e, robes and o-kesa to Suzuki Roshi’s students.

Yoshida Eshun (1907-1982) taught the craft of nyoho-e sewing in the US in the early 1970s. Some of her most notable students were Tomoe Katigiri and Zenkei Blanche Hartman. She was the abbess of Kaizen-ji Temple in Nagoya, Japan. Learn more about nyoho-e.

Taniguchi Setsudo (1901-1986) devoted her life as a Soto nun to running an orphanage, Lumbini-en, guided by Dogen’s four bodhisattva methods: generosity, kind speech, beneficial activity and cooperation.

Kojima Kendo (1898-1995) was a lifelong activist nun. She was the first leader of the Soto-shu Nuns’ Organization, which was supported in part by Koho Keido Chisan Zenji when he was abbot of Soji-ji. Kendo worked tirelessly to gain equality for female monastics. Some of her demands, such as allowing women to teach independently again, were finally achieved by the end of her life. She was part of several international Buddhist organizations representing the interests of women throughout the Buddhist world.

Nogami Senryo (1883-1980) practiced Zadatsu Ryubo - die sitting, die standing – following Dogen’s instruction to do all activities with complete presence and attention. She died standing in front of the Buddha image in the worship hall at age 97.

Shiroyama Chisen, Nagasawa Sozen Roshi, Harada Sogaku Roshi and Harada Tangen Roshi

Nagasawa Sozen (1880-1956) was a disciple of Harada Sogaku, becoming part of his Soto lineage with considerable Rinzai influence. She was the abbess of one of Tokyo’s most important convents, Kannonji, and was renowned for keeping women’s practice alive during the Second World War. Her work is published under the title In This Body, In This Lifetime.

Mizuno Jorin (1848-1927), Hori Mitsujo (1868-1927), Ando Dokai (1874-1915) and Yamaguchi Kokan (1875-1933) established the Aichi-ken Soto-shu Niso Gakurin in 1903, nine months after the Soto-shu regulations prohibiting women’s education facilities were lifted. They were key figures in re-opening Soto Zen to women after centuries of increasing limitations. All four spent their entire adult lives striving to create monasteries for women at a time of tremendous political and social upheaval.