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.

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

Ekai Joel Kreisberg offers and introduction to the Mondo Zen Facilitation through and 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 and 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.

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

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.

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/

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

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/