Exploring the Depths of Meditation and Healing
I was recently interviewed by Katarina Todorovic of MysticMag.com. I think the interview serves nicely as an introduction to my broader work as a healer and author I’m posting the initial interview here. If you would like to read the full interview, please do! Katarina, thank you for initiating the conversation!
Read The Full Interview
In the serene depths of spiritual exploration, there exists a guiding light in the form of Ekai Joel Kreisberg, the Spiritual Director of the Shining Bright Lotus Meditation Society. With over three decades dedicated to teaching healing and meditation, Ekai’s journey is a tapestry woven with threads of wisdom, compassion, and profound transformation. Having embarked on his path under the tutelage of Jn Po Denis Kelly Roshi at Hollow Bones Zen, Ekai received the name “Ekai,” symbolizing the vastness of generosity that characterizes his teachings. Ordained by Jun Po Roshi in 2018 at Dai Bosatsu, the root monastery for Hollow Bones, Ekai assumed the role of Executive Director in 2019, steering the community through turbulent waters following the loss of their founding abbot. His contributions extend beyond the spiritual sphere, with extensive publications in integrative medicine literature and authorship of the transformative book, “Coaching and Healing: Transforming the Illness Narrative.” In this exclusive Mystic Mag‘s interview, we delve into the depths of Ekai Joel Kreisberg’s insights, exploring the intersection of meditation, healing, and spiritual awakening.
How did this evolution in your career path influence your approach to healing and meditation, particularly in your work with Hollow Bones Zen and the development of the Mondo Zen Facilitator Program?
Attending the subtle dimension of healing was always a priority for the 30 plus years I practiced as a homeopathic physician. I attended my first Vipassana retreat in 1993 when I first started teaching classical homeopathy. Meditation quickly became essential to my personal practice as well as a component of my teaching homeopathy. Several of my students went on to work directly with Tinus Smits’ Inspiring Homeopathy system based on meditative provings. We would sit in a group taking a remedy such as Lac-humanum (mother’s milk) or Rhus toxicodendron (poison ivy), and with guided meditation, journey to meet the spirit of the substance, directly learning how to work with the remedies.
After training as an integral coach, I choose to focus on deepening my own experience of meditative states. That’s when I stumbled into the teaching of Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi. My first week-long sesshin with Jun Po Roshi was in 2010. I was ordained as a priest in the Hollow Bones Zen Order in 2018. I offered to develop the Mondo Zen Facilitator Program for Jun Po Roshi. I felt that my skills in healing, teaching and zazen, combined to allow me to bring a unique blend of spiritual development and healing arts. In the current group of students I’m training, I use historical Zen teachings, the trauma work of Thomas Hubl, the emotional intelligence perspective of Karla McLaren, and STAGES, a developmental psychology model created by Terri O’Fallon. Practitioners must do their own healing work as part of their ongoing development as Zen teachers.