Simplicity Zen Podcast

Teresa Regan Hess practiced for five years under the renowned Rinzai Zen Master Shodo Harada Rōshi at Sogen-ji monastery in Japan.  There she received the Jukai precepts before leaving to raise a family in Washington state.For more information about Simplicity Zen Buddhist Podcast:- https://simplicityzen.com/

Robert  Mutoku Scheafer is a Rinzai Zen priest ordained Rinzan Pechovnik Osho of No Rank Zendo in 2022.   After years of following many spiritual paths, Robert began studying Zen under Rick Kendo Hart in the Mt Baldy Zen Center lineage.  Next he began Zen studies with Konrad Ryushin Marchaj at Zen Mountain Monastery and remained his student for many years.  For the last several years he has been practicing with the Rinzai Zen koan curriculum at No Rank Zendo where he frequently attends sesshin.For more in No Rank Zendo:- https://www.norankzendo.org/More more on Simplicity Zen Buddhist Podcast:- https://simplicityzen.com/

Robert Koho Epstein, Sensei has practiced meditation and a wide range of spiritual practices over the past 40 years. This includes Zen and mindfulness meditation, Yang style T’ai Chi, Iyengar Yoga, and Advaita Vedanta. Robert taught Iyengar Yoga and practiced deep tissue massage for 15 years in New York and was ordained by the New Seminary as an Interfaith Minister. He also started his acting studio and began training actors in Meisner Technique, a moment-to-moment acting method that he still teaches today. Robert received Dharma Transmission from Fusho Roshi in 2022.For more about Robert and Open Mind Zen:-  https://openmindzen.com/Fore more about Simplicity Zen:- https://simplicityzen.com/

Barbara O'brien has been practicing Zen Buddhism since the 1980s. She works as a journalist, reporting primarily on religion in America. She is the author of The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World, Rethinking Religion: Finding a Place for Religion in a Modern, Tolerant, Progressive, Peaceful and Science-affirming World and has written about Buddhism for many outlets including About.com, The Guardian, Tricycle, and Lion’s Roar. She blogs about whatever is on her mind at her personal blog, The Mahablog (mahablog.com). For more information on Simplicity Zen:- https://simplicityzen.com/

Al Fusho Rapaport, Roshi has practiced and taught Zen for almost 50 years. He studied with Kozan Roshi, Maezumi Roshi, and Genpo Roshi until receiving Dharma Transmission from Shuzen Roshi in 2008. As President of Open Mind Productions, Al produced the first Yoga Journal Conferences as well as the Buddhism in America Conferences from 1996 until 2001. He is author of Open Mind Zen: A Guide to Meditation, and currently serves as  Director of Open Mind Zen International and MBSR Florida in Melbourne, Florida. Roshi is a member of the White Plum Asangha, the American Zen Teachers Association and Secretary/Treasurer of the Lay Zen Teachers Association.More from Al Fusho Rapaport, Roshi: - https://openmindzen.com/More about Simplicity Zen:- https://simplicityzen.com/

 Kokan (古観) Genjo (玄成 )Marinello is a Rinzai priest and abbot of Chobo-ji in Seattle. He began his Zen training in 1975 after befriending Rev. Daizen Brian Victoria at UCLA and began practicing zazen under the instruction of Thích Thiên-Ân. Genjo did his first sesshin in the summer of 1977 under the instruction of Soto Zen Priest Hirano Osho-san. Genjo was ordained an unsui (priest in training) in 1980 in Seattle. For parts of 1981 and 1982 he trained for one winter period at Ryutaku-Ji (龍澤寺) in Japan, under Sochu Suzuki Roshi and retired Soen Nakagawa Roshi. For a time both Genjo and Genki trained with Joshu Sasaki. After Genki Takabayashi retired, Genjo trained with the late Eido Shimano, former abbot of DaiBosatsu Monastery in New York, who affirmed Genjo as Dharma Heir on May 21st, 2008. In addition to being our Abbot, Genjo is a psychotherapist in private practice. More about Genjo: - https://choboji.org/ More about Simplicity Zen: - https://simplicityzen.com/ 

Kijo Sensei has practiced primarily in Zen for over thirty years, being first ordained as a Zen priest in the Maezumi Roshi White Plum Soto Zen tradition in 1991 and then was ordained in the Order of Clear Mind Zen by Shoji Roshi in 2017. Kijo Sensei was Transmitted as a Zen teacher and a full priest, by Shoji Roshi in early 2021. He is also a member of Zen Peacemakers International and has guest lectured at the American University in London and at Heythrop College, the then theological college of London University. He leads the Smiling Buddha Zen Center in Colorado. More information about Kijo and Smiling Buddha Zen Center: - https://www.smilingbuddhazen.com/ More information about Simplicity Zen: - https://simplicityzen.com/

 Rev. Joshua Paszkiewicz, D.Min., (aka Sunyananda) has been studying and teaching Buddhism full time as a Zen Priest since 2010, and has been practicing formally since his childhood. Sunyananda holds a B.A. in Liberal Studies, an M.A. in Religion, a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Psychotherapy, and board certification as both a Pastoral Counselor and a Clinical Chaplain. Sunyananda has served as an official delegate to many major Buddhist events both nationally and internationally, including the first White House Buddhist Leader’s Conference, and the United Nation’s World Day of Vesak. Sunyananda is a fully authorized teacher in Vietnamese and Korean Zen schools, and was made an Assistant Teacher (as a student of Fusho Roshi) in Open Mind Zen in 2019. More about Sunyananda here: http://www.drjrp.com/ More about Simplicity Zen here: https://simplicityzen.com/

 Henry Shukman is the Spiritual Director of the Mountain Cloud Zen Center. Henry has been trained by Zen several teachers, particularly the roshi’s Joan Rieck, John Gaynor, Ruben Habito and Yamada Ryoun Roshi, as well as by teachers and mentors in other traditions. He currently guides a wide range of students from all walks of life. He has received dharma transmission (inka shomei) from Yamada Ryoun Roshi, the abbot of Sanbo Zen, and is a Zen Master of the Sanbo Zen lineage of Kamakura, Japan. He is also a mindfulness teacher and is the Spiritual Director of Mountain Cloud Zen Center. Previously he had a career as an award-winning author and poet. His struggles as a youth, combined with a spontaneous awakening experience at 19, paved the way for Henry to develop a well-rounded approach to spirituality and meditation, under the guidance of his teachers – one that includes both compassionate concern for the sufferings of the world and the great liberative power of awakening as its foundations. More about Henry and Mountain Cloud: - https://www.mountaincloud.org/ More about Simplicity Zen: - https://simplicityzen.com/ 

 Jundo Cohen is a Zen teacher and founder of the Treeleaf Zendo, a Sōtō Zen community using visual media to link Zen practitioners around the world. Treeleaf serves those who cannot easily commute to a Zen center due to health concerns; age or disability; living in remote areas; or work, childcare, or family needs; and provides zazen sittings, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Zen Buddhist sangha, all fully online without thought of location or distance. Jundo was born and raised in the United States but has lived in Japan for more than half his life. He was ordained and subsequently received Dharma transmission from Master Gudo Wafu Nishijima. More about Jundo: - https://www.treeleaf.org/ More about Simplicity Zen: - - https://simplicityzen.com/