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A Heart Blown Open
Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi began his serious investigation of Buddhist thought and practice in 1965. He started Buddhist practice at Zen Center San Francisco under Suzuki Roshi.
In 1976 and 77 he met and trained closely with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the 16th Karmapa in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, but ultimately found Trungpa’s teaching style and the baroque nature of Vajrayana too much for his taste. He returned to his Soto Zen practice until, in 1978, he finally met his Dharma match and became a student of Rinzai Zen Master Eido T. Shimano Roshi of Zen Studies Society in New York. He trained intermittently at Dai Bosatsu Zendo Livingston Manor, New York where he was ordained in 1984 and where he served as head monk, vice abbot and resident Yoga teacher from 1987 until 1993.
He received Inka, his Zen Master recognition, from Eido Roshi in 1992, the first student of Eido Roshi to receive that title. Devoted and determined to bring and integrate the essence of his Japanese Zen lineage (Rinzai tradition) into American culture without Asian cultural ethnocentric limitations, Jun Po left the monastery in 1993 and went “independent”. By incorporating Western psychological insight, he attempted to liberate Zen from its Japanese cultural moorings.
In 1999 he founded the Hollow Bones Zen lay Buddhist order. He has established Zen training for members of the international men’s movement, The Mankind Project. He has compressed and updated his traditional Zen Koan study using a thirteen koan dialectic dialog. He has named this ego deconstruction and reconstruction protocol Mondo Zen. www.mondozen.org. While traditional koan practices are designed to stump the intellect and create the space for Awakening, Jun Po created emotional koans designed to mature the emotional body while also creating the space for Awakening.
His Yoga training lineage is Astanga from the BKS Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois tradition. Four of his current personal passions when he is not just ‘sitting’ around doing nothing are Argentinean Tango, swimming, Yoga and wild edible mushrooming. In 2006 he underwent four months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment for Stage Four throat cancer and has been beat up by it, but remains cancer-free. He reports now that his fight with cancer was “a priceless and interesting experience”, and one that led to the maturation of Mondo Zen. He invites you to join him at a Mondo Zen retreat.
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By Paul GoldmanJun Po Denis Kelly Roshi began his serious investigation of Buddhist thought and practice in 1965. He started Buddhist practice at Zen Center San Francisco under Suzuki Roshi.
In 1976 and 77 he met and trained closely with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the 16th Karmapa in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, but ultimately found Trungpa’s teaching style and the baroque nature of Vajrayana too much for his taste. He returned to his Soto Zen practice until, in 1978, he finally met his Dharma match and became a student of Rinzai Zen Master Eido T. Shimano Roshi of Zen Studies Society in New York. He trained intermittently at Dai Bosatsu Zendo Livingston Manor, New York where he was ordained in 1984 and where he served as head monk, vice abbot and resident Yoga teacher from 1987 until 1993.
He received Inka, his Zen Master recognition, from Eido Roshi in 1992, the first student of Eido Roshi to receive that title. Devoted and determined to bring and integrate the essence of his Japanese Zen lineage (Rinzai tradition) into American culture without Asian cultural ethnocentric limitations, Jun Po left the monastery in 1993 and went “independent”. By incorporating Western psychological insight, he attempted to liberate Zen from its Japanese cultural moorings.
In 1999 he founded the Hollow Bones Zen lay Buddhist order. He has established Zen training for members of the international men’s movement, The Mankind Project. He has compressed and updated his traditional Zen Koan study using a thirteen koan dialectic dialog. He has named this ego deconstruction and reconstruction protocol Mondo Zen. www.mondozen.org. While traditional koan practices are designed to stump the intellect and create the space for Awakening, Jun Po created emotional koans designed to mature the emotional body while also creating the space for Awakening.
His Yoga training lineage is Astanga from the BKS Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois tradition. Four of his current personal passions when he is not just ‘sitting’ around doing nothing are Argentinean Tango, swimming, Yoga and wild edible mushrooming. In 2006 he underwent four months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment for Stage Four throat cancer and has been beat up by it, but remains cancer-free. He reports now that his fight with cancer was “a priceless and interesting experience”, and one that led to the maturation of Mondo Zen. He invites you to join him at a Mondo Zen retreat.