Dharma talks from Clouds In Water Zen Center

Date: 2026/10/25. Speaker: Guiding Teacher Rev. Sosan Theresa Flynn. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Sōsan has studied and practiced Sōto Zen Buddhism since 1992, receiving Dharma transmission (full teaching authority) from Joen Snyder O’Neal in 2012. Sōsan's areas of teaching include body awareness in Zen, loving-kindness practices, and the intersection of Buddhist practice and racial justice.

Date: 2026/10/18. Speaker: Rev. Myo-O Habermas-Scher. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Myo-O is a fully ordained Soto Zen priest, having received transmission in 2012 from Dokai Georgesen, Guiding Teacher at Hokyoji Zen Practice Community. She began Zen practice in 1975 with Katagiri Roshi, who was her root teacher, and studied with him until his death in 1990. She also studied and practiced in the Vipassana tradition for twelve years. In 2021 Myo-O retired after fourteen years as a staff chaplain at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, and is a mom and a grandma to two little boys. She is presently a consulting teacher at Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Date: 2026/10/11. Speakers: Friday Night Zen Panel. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Friday Night Zen is a meditation group for people in early adulthood. We meet at Clouds in Water Zen Center in St. Paul on the first and third Friday of each month, for meditation and discussion/sharing on the evening's topic, especially as it relates to the particular experiences of those in the first half of life. Come and hear the Dharma from the unique lens of this vibrant group!

Date: 2026/10/04. Speaker: Rev. Myoshin Diane Benjamin. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Myoshin began practicing Buddhism in 1996 and received Dharma Transmission as a lay Dharma teacher in 2022 from Sosan Flynn. She received priest ordination in 2026. Myoshin is enthusiastic about the myriad ways that the Dharma informs our everyday lives as human beings in a complex world. She taught for over a decade in the children’s program at Clouds in Water, has practiced at Hokyoji and Ryumonji monasteries, and has attended numerous retreats with Thich Nhat Hanh and his community. Additionally, she is fully certified to teach the Realization Process.

Date: 2026/09/27. Speaker: Rev. Taizan Alford. At Clouds in Water Zen Center / Mexico.

Taizan was ordained as a Soto Zen priest by Sosan Flynn in 2016, and completed shuso in 2021. He received Dharma Transmission from Sosan in 2024 and has full authority to teach in the Soto Zen tradition. Taizan's journey with meditation began on the yogic path in the early 1980s after getting sober. Taizan’s focus in Soto Zen Buddhism is on how zazen, taking refuge and loving kindness can heal old wounds and help create less suffering for individuals and their communities. He is a full member of the Teacher-ryo at Clouds.

Date: 2026/09/13. Speaker: Rev. Ann Fukutoku Morishita. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Fukutoku has practiced Soto Zen Buddhism for the past 18 years, and is a member of the teacher-ryo (team) at Clouds. In May of 2026 she received Dharma Transmission from Rev. Myo-on, Susan Hagler. Prior to committing to Buddhism, Fukutoku was a member of the Evanston, IL, Quaker Friends' Meeting for ten years. She enjoy conversing with others concerning all things about Buddhism. One of her favorite things about Clouds is Water is the people who attend there.

Date: 2026/09/06. Speaker: Rev. Sosan Theresa Flynn. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Sōsan has studied and practiced Sōto Zen Buddhism since 1992, receiving Dharma transmission (full teaching authority) from Joen Snyder O’Neal in 2012. Sōsan's areas of teaching include body awareness in Zen, loving-kindness practices, and the intersection of Buddhist practice and racial justice.

Date: 2026/08/30. Speaker: Rev. Jinzu Minna Jain. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Jinzū is a novice priest, teacher, and Communications and Marketing Director at Clouds in Water Zen Center. They serve on the teacher-ryo (team). As a queer, trans, disabled, BIPOC priest, Jinzū believes that Sōtō Zen practice helps us cultivate the capacity for collective care and liberation, supporting us to meet ourselves, one another, and these harrowing times with a teeming ecology of community, and a deep well of stillness and courageous action.

Date: 2026/08/23. Speaker: Rev. Kikan Michael Howard. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

The chant can be found on page 17 of the Clouds in Water Zen Center Chant Book.

Kikan Michael Howard started practicing at Clouds in Water Zen Center in the late 1990s and was ordained by Sosan in 2018. He is an associate member of the Teacher Ryo at Clouds. Kikan is an independent app developer, a licensed consultant in Dynamic Emotional Integration®, and he transcribes Katagiri Roshi’s dharma talks at the Katagiri Transcripts website, http://katagiritranscripts.net. He lives in Northfield, MN with his wife and cats.

Date: 2026/08/16. Speakers: Rev. Keika Karín San Juan and Prof. Jake Nagasawa. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Jake was born and raised on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, and is Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies at Macalester College. He received his PhD and MA in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his BA in Theology & Religious Studies and Asian Studies from the University of San Francisco. He is interested in ancient and medieval Tibetan Buddhism, and Asian American religions in the contemporary U.S.

Keika came to Clouds in Water Zen Center in 2005 and served on the Board for more than a decade before being ordained as a novice priest by Sosan Flynn in 2024. Areas of interest include Buddhist liberation theology; Buddhist pedagogy; and the Daoist roots of Chan. One favorite thing about Teen Practice is when conversations take surprising turns. She and her wife live in St. Paul with a bevy of mismatched tropical plants.

Date: 2026/08/02. Speakers: Rev. Sosan Flynn (she/her), Rev. Taizan Alford (he/him), Rev. Myoshin Diane Benjamin (she/her), Shishin Leonard Madsen (he/him), Steve Plachinski (he/him), Kaizen Julie Warner (she/her). At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Participants talk about how they are practicing with race and racism, and this practice can be a benefit to our community.

Clouds in Water is now partnering with Reckon With, an organization that works to help white people learn to acknowledge, disrupt, and repair racial harm; and transform themselves, their white families and friends, and the institutions they're a part of.

Date: 2026/07/26. Speaker: Guiding Teacher Rev. Sosan Theresa Flynn. At Hokyoji Zen Practice Community.

Sōsan has studied and practiced Sōto Zen Buddhism since 1992, receiving Dharma transmission (full teaching authority) from Joen Snyder O’Neal in 2012. Sōsan's areas of teaching include body awareness in Zen, loving-kindness practices, and the intersection of Buddhist practice and racial justice.

Date: 2026/07/19. Speaker: Rev. MyoOn Susan Hagler. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

MyoOn began her Zen practice in 1980 at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center (MZMC). She was ordained in 2003 by Tim Burkett and received Dharma transmission from Dokai Georgesen in 2018. She has had the opportunity to practice at all the MN Zen centers as well as Green Gulch in CA, with Hokyoji Zen Practice Community being her primary place of practice from 2010-2019. MyoOn joined the teacher-ryo at Clouds in early 2019 as a transmitted teacher. For MyoOn, life’s experiences and the people she has crossed paths with have been her greatest teachers.

Date: 2026/07/12. Speakers: Rev. Sōsan Theresa Flynn, Rev. Shozoku Nomura, and Prof. Jake Nagasawa. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

The ceremony included singing and dancing. Link to song: Sanbo Gowasan. Link to videos of the dances: Tankō Bushi (Mining Song/ Obon Dance) and Tokyo Ondo.

• Sōsan has studied and practiced Sōto Zen Buddhism since 1992, receiving Dharma transmission (full teaching authority) from Joen Snyder O’Neal in 2012. Sōsan's areas of teaching include body awareness in Zen, loving-kindness practices, and the intersection of Buddhist practice and racial justice.
• Shozoku came to the US to study at a college and is now a proud Minnesotan. In 2008, she started learning mindfulness from Thich Nhat Hanh’s books, and coming to Clouds in Water. Challenges like chronic illness, being a parent, working as a civil engineer, and facing racism help her to continue to practice. Shozoku received Jukai in 2020 and was ordained as a priest in 2022 by Teacher Sosan Flynn. Seeing the truth, including seeing oneself as a bodhisattva in action, is a practice she is currently focused on, as a way to truly be kind and love oneself and all beings.
• Jake was born and raised on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, and is Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies at Macalester College. He received his PhD and MA in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his BA in Theology & Religious Studies and Asian Studies from the University of San Francisco. He is interested in ancient and medieval Tibetan Buddhism, and Asian American religions in the contemporary U.S.

Date: 2026/07/05. Speaker: Rev. Jinzū Minna Jain. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Jinzū is an artist, writer, and racial & systemic equity educator residing on the lands of the Dakhóta Oyáte, in South Minneapolis. They identify as BIPOC, disabled, queer and trans/nonbinary. Jinzū has been practicing Sōtō Zen Buddhism for over twenty-five years and is a novice priest, a member of the teaching team, and Communications and Marketing Director at Clouds in Water. Jinzū believes that Sōtō Zen practice helps us cultivate the capacity for collective care and liberation, supporting us to meet ourselves, one another, and these harrowing times with a teeming ecology of community, and a deep well of stillness and courageous action.

Date: 2026/06/28. Speakers: Rev. Koji Acquaviva, Rev. Korin LaJoy, Rev. Jinzū Minna Jain, and Yūgen Haley Webb. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

• Koji is the current Tanto (director of practice) and on the teaching team at Clouds in Water, as well as the guiding teacher of Cedar Rapids Zen Center and co-guiding teacher of Nebraska Zen Center. As a queer, and neurodivergent person, Koji makes their best effort to identify and confront the ways Buddhism is taught which re-inscribe harm for members of marginalized communities.
• Rin LaJoy, PhD is a plant evolutionary biologist by training. His dissertation research focused on how long-lived trees respond to changes in their environment to predict how they will respond in the short-term and evolutionarily to climate change. Rin is a priest-in-training at Clouds in Water and is most interested in how Buddhist teachings can be used to unravel systems of harm and oppression.
• Jinzū is a novice priest, a member of the teaching team, and the Communications and Marketing Director at Clouds. As a queer, trans, BIPOC disabled priest and teacher, Jinzū is committed to supporting a Sōtō Zen practice that helps us to meet ourselves, one another, and these harrowing times with a teeming ecology of community, and a deep well of stillness and courageous action.
• Yūgen is a priest candidate, living in Denver, Colorado. They are a white, queer, trans educator who strives to create equitable access to mental and physical health services, specializing in gender affirming care. Yūgen has a particular love for emptiness teachings, and the ways that "not knowing" can help build pathways to intimacy and curiosity within ourselves, alongside respect and honor for others.

Date: 2026/06/21. Speaker: Rev. Kattō Laura Phillips. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Kattō started practicing Zen at Clouds in Water in 1997. When she moved to Stillwater, MN to focus on family life she joined a meditation community there called Zen Bridge. She later returned to Clouds for study, practice, and training on the path to becoming a priest and in 2022 received ordination from Sosan Flynn. In 2026 she received Dharma Transmission from Sosan. After having been a member of Zen Bridge for over 15 years she is now its guiding teacher. Kattō is a retired psychotherapist and draws on her 20 years of trauma-related work as she explores ways for people to build nurturing, respectful ways of connecting with vulnerability, authenticity, and curiosity.

Date: 2026/07/14. Speaker: Rev. Keika Karín Aguilar- San Juan. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Keika came to Clouds in Water Zen Center in 2005 and served on the Board for more than a decade before being ordained as a novice priest by Sosan Flynn in 2024. Areas of interest include Buddhist liberation theology; Buddhist pedagogy; and the Daoist roots of Chan. One favorite thing about Teen Practice is when conversations take surprising turns. She and her wife life in St. Paul with a single bonsai tree and a bevy of mismatched tropical plants.

Date: 2026/07/07. Speaker: Rev. Myoshin Diane Benjamin. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Myoshin began practicing Buddhism in 1996 and received Dharma Transmission as a lay Dharma teacher in 2022 from Sosan Flynn. She received priest ordination in 2026. Myoshin is enthusiastic about the myriad ways that the Dharma informs our everyday lives as human beings in a complex world. She taught for over a decade in the children’s program at Clouds in Water, has practiced at Hokyoji and Ryumonji monasteries, and has attended numerous retreats with Thich Nhat Hanh and his community. Additionally, she is fully certified to teach the Realization Process.

Date: 2026/05/24. Speakers: Joanna Hill and Rev. Dr. Rin LaJoy. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Joanna Hill is from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota. My clan is the Bullhead (Wawaazisii) which is one of the five original clans of the Anishinaabe People. The Wawaazisii clan people are mediators, teachers, scholars and healers. My Ojibwe name is Kiizhibaayaanimadookwe, which means Whirlwind Woman. I am an Indigenous Herbalist. I use and practice my ancestral wisdom when working with the plants. I've had lifelong relationships with plants but when I started to learn more deeply about my cultural teachings and ceremonies this opened a door for me and deepened my relationships with the plants. I am deeply grateful for my elders and spiritual teachers.

Rin LaJoy (he/him), PhD is a plant evolutionary biologist by training and received his doctorate degree from the University of Minnesota in 2014. His dissertation research focused on how long-lived trees respond to changes in their environment to predict how they will respond in the short-term and evolutionarily to climate change. His research primarily focused on tropical ecology, and he had the privilege to spend half of his graduate career living and working in Costa Rica and Honduras. His academic interest now revolves around how to effectively teach biology in a way that is meaningful, accessible, and relevant in multicultural college classrooms. Rin is a priest-in-training at Clouds in Water and is most interested in how Buddhist teachings can be used to unravel systems of harm and oppression.

Rev. LaJoy referred to the following readings in his talk: The Way of the Bodhisattva and Dhammapada .