Shining Bright Lotus Meditation Society

12/03/2025

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/sblms-blog/renewing-our-vows The latest blog emphasizes winter as a time for renewal and describes how the community revisits the Buddhist Precepts as guiding principles for compassionate, mindful living. It highlights their seasonal ceremony as an invitation to recommit to clarity, ethics, and shared well-being.

Join us tomorrow for our Precept Renewal Ceremony. Click the link below for more info.
https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/events/recommitment-ceremony-dec4

To study the Precepts is therefore to step fully into the Sangha — to take responsibility not only for our personal conduct, but for the well-being of all beings with whom we practice.

12/01/2025

Can you choose enlightenment? - Kogen Keith Martin-Smith https://youtu.be/tazmsPOgZz0

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.

11/28/2025

Can anyone make you angry? - Shunya Lynn Hyer
https://shiningbrightlotus.podbean.com/e/can-anyone-make-you-angry-shunya-lynn-hyer-november-8th-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.

11/24/2025

When Does the Buddha Need Therapy? - https://youtu.be/cs8NMErNolMDaiden

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.

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/

11/22/2025

Emyo leads us on a guided meditation on the fourth of the Brahmaviharas, Upekkha also known as Equanimity.

Brahmavihara: Cultivating Virtue Through The Four Immeasurables - Upekkha

https://shiningbrightlotus.podbean.com/e/brahmavihara-cultivating-virtue-through-the-four-immeasurables-upekkha-emyo-darlene-tataryn/

11/17/2025

Can anyone make you angry? - Shunya Lynn Hyer
https://youtu.be/9MifemayJpg

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

11/15/2025

Kenshin Cian Whalley will discuss how our emotional triggers present an opportunity to choose wisdom and respond compassionately. Join us for a dharma discussion followed by our weekend meditation service.

11/14/2025

You Can't Awaken What You Can't See - An interview with Kogen Keith Martin-Smith
https://shiningbrightlotus.podbean.com/e/kogan-interview/

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.

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/fallpractice25

11/12/2025

Three Objects of Awareness - Ekai Joel Kreisberg Roshi

11/10/2025

Roshi gives a Dharma talk on the history of Koans and how they can show up in our daily lives. The talk explores the heart of Rinzai Zen practice through koans—paradoxical riddles meant to awaken direct insight beyond logic. Beginning with the classic *Mu* koan (“Does a dog have Buddha nature?”), the Fugen Roshi reflects on the journey from intellectual understanding to embodied realization in the present moment. Through stories of training with Junpo and lessons from Hakuin’s “Sound of One Hand,” the teaching emphasizes humility, discipline, and emotional integration as essential to awakening. True Zen practice, the Fugen notes, dissolves ego, beliefs, and expectations through breath, awareness, and surrender, revealing wisdom that arises naturally when one listens without opinion. The path is both ancient and evolving, grounded in form yet open to new ways of becoming—an invitation to live a spiritual life rooted in clarity, compassion, and community.

https://youtu.be/dpGFWGrAZwI

11/07/2025

Ming Po gives a Dharma talk on Ethical Living and Spiritual Practice.

https://shiningbrightlotus.podbean.com/e/precepts-integration-ming-po-larry-matthews/

The talk explores how the Three Pure Precepts—refraining from harm, doing good, and living for the benefit of all—interweave with the Zen Peacemaker Tenets of not knowing, bearing witness, and taking loving action. Ming Po emphasizes that these are not rigid rules but living vows inviting openness, compassion, and mindful responsiveness. By releasing fixed ideas, we create space for natural goodness and compassionate action to arise. Ethical living in Zen is not about moral perfection but about presence—returning again and again to awareness and integrity in each moment.

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/

11/06/2025

Shunya Prajna Lynn Hyer will discuss the information contained in strong feelings like anger and the difference between reacting and responding. Join us for a dharma discussion followed by our weekend meditation service.

https://www.shiningbrightlotus.org/fallpractice25