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

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/

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

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 - 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/

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/

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/

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 - 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/