Expanding Consciousness
Hosho Don Koehler
Hosho Don Kohler has been practicing for over 25 years as a licensed clinical psychologist living in Richmond Virginia. He is a longtime meditator. He runs a sangha called the Integral Meditation Group at Ekoji Buddhist Sangha in Richmond. He originally, did Jukai with Jun Po Roshi, continuing to study with Doshin Roshi of Integral Zen. Recently he was ordained as a Dragon Heart Dharma priest with Fugen Roshi.
Ekai: Welcome back everyone. Ekai Joel with Cosmopolitan Zen. Today I'm going to continue my interviews, and we'll be speaking with Hosho Don Koehler. Welcome Hosho.
Hosho: Thanks for having me.
Ekai: You're very welcome. Hosho Don Kohler has been practicing for over 25 years as a licensed clinical psychologist living in Richmond, Virginia. He is a longtime meditator. He runs a sangha called the Integral Meditation Group at Ekoji Buddhist Sangha in Richmond. He originally, did Jukai with Jun Po Roshi, continuing to study with Doshin Roshi of Integral Zen. Recently he was ordained as a Dragon Heart Dharma priest with Fugen Roshi. Welcome Hosho, how did you get into this meditation stuff?
Hosho: Like many, I had been involved with the ManKind Project. Fugen Roshi and Doshin Roshi were both part of that. I knew them before any of us knew about Hollow Bones Zen. After we had done our initiation, we found ourself seeking more advanced training. The first course was the Warrior Monk developed by Bill Kaulf. Then it was recommended that we really learn about what meditation is. That was when we were first introduced to Jun Po Roshi. I had been doing some Contemplative Prayer and my own form of meditation prior to that. I did my first eight-day silent retreat with Hollow Bones Zen in 2003. At that point, I became a serious meditator.
Ekai: Had you completed shorter retreats previously?
Hosho: Outside of Zen. It was more contemplative, as a Christian. I actually have a degree from a Protestant seminary. I was interested in spirituality from an early age. I have a lot of loss in my life, so I learned about impermanence from a very early age.
Ekai: Sorry to hear that. I know a little bit about the loss, but not so early in life….You were interested in counseling psychology and Integral Theory as well.
Hosho: I don't know when I was introduced to Ken Wilbur. I think the ManKind Project was a good clearing house for all kinds of different ways to look at the world. Ken Wilbur came up in that context. Doshin Roshi and I studied Wilbur’s work together. I think my psychology background attracted me to Wilbur’s work. I appreciate his map.
Ekai: Interesting because Ken Wilbur’s map can be a spiritual growth path or a psychological practice tool. As a clinical psychologist, does his work show up in your private practice?
Hosho: Yeah, it does. I look at things in a more holistic way that involves applying that integral map to a person's life and consciousness.
Ekai: That makes sense. You had both. With all that training and connection to teachers, did it take a while to get hooked on this type of Zen?
Hosho: No, I'd say I was involved pretty quickly. Now I would say I was very interested in spiritual bypassing. I see spiritual gurus and spiritual masters have a lot of psychological problems. They have blind spots like anybody else. Often, they're really not dealing with those blind spots from their spiritual path. So their meditation practice is not really helping them deal with these blind spots. Still the combination of psychology and spirituality was an interest from early on.
Ekai: Was there a sense that Mondo Zen is not bypassing? Or can it be bypassing as well?
Hosho: It can be. I got into an argument with Jun Po about this. I wasn't the only one. But I think he felt that if you do Mondo really well, then maybe you are dealing with shadow. I think it's probably not sufficient in and of itself, but it is helpful. Mondo Zen Facilitation is very consistent with working on both shadow and spiritual growth, expanding both states and stages of consciousness. Terri O’Fallon’s work is good at explaining these two – states and stages.
Ekai: While you did Jukai with Jun Po Roshi, you ended up spending more time with Integral Zen and Doshin Roshi.
Hosho: I lived in Denver, so it was natural for me to participate in the Integral Zen Sangha. Integral Zen had a much broader lens for the awakening process than Jun Po’s Hollow Bones Zen. Integral Zen was doing shadow work regularly, integrating this with dropping into a deep state of consciousness, witness and see what's showing up. We expanded beyond Mondo Zen Facilitation.
Ekai: What was that like for you? Was that a period of significant development?
Hosho: It was good. We started calling out and confronting Doshin Roshi around shadow that related to shame. He took it in. I appreciated that. He would also call us out, and we would out call each other about shadow. What I appreciated most is that we would take time to really listen to the feedback. What we saw happening in the circle of those that were really involved on a weekly basis. What we saw happening right here and now. We gave very careful feedback from each person in the circle. That kind of inquiry with interpersonal feedback was very helpful.
Ekai: You did that for a few years.
Hosho: Yes, then Circling also came in because of the Integral Institute in Boulder.
Ekai: But somehow you ended up in Virginia. I imagine you followed someone there.
Hosho: Yes, I followed my youngest daughter. I had been moving away from the sangha anyway. I hadn’t been involved with Hollow Bones or Integral Zen for a while. I eventually came back to Hollow Bones through another person that was involved with new Warrior Training, Ming Po Larry Matthews. I was in Boulder doing a training on psychedelic assisted therapy with an integrative psychiatry group. So that was a good entrance back into Mondo Zen.
Ekai: Did you go off and study any other forms of Buddhism in that space when you moved back?
Hosho: Yes, I was studying some of Henry Schuckman's work. I appreciated Goldstein and others. I am pretty open to others, Pema Chodren.
Ekai: You also wanted to lead a sangha. Tell us about your Sangha that you're leading now.
Hosho: My wife, Cheryl Pallant, and I started having a meditation circle in our home. She had Buddhist training at the Berkeley Zen Center and San Francisco Zen Center. So we started our meditation circle. And then, because we had some contacts with Ekoji, we ended up in this Buddhist house, where a number of different Buddhist groups practice. Ekoji is a collective of several different types of Zen Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, a Soto Zen group.
Ekai: Yours is Integral. What's this look like?
Hosho: We're pretty open. Somebody doesn't have to have a particular path or a particular history with Buddhism. We're very open to whoever comes. We get college students and people just exploring. It's not a formal Buddhist training or even meditation at first.
Ekai: You do meditate, but you do other things. What might you do in an evening?
Hosho: We'll do interpersonal work. We'll do shadow work. Circling and movement like qigong or walking meditation.
Ekai: How long has that been going on for?
Hosho: Since 2017
Ekai: For seven years. Then you ended up in a clergy training program with Fugen Roshi with Dragon Heart Dharma. You were ordained in September at All Nations Gathering Center on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. What inspired you to go back and get ordained?
Hosho: I hadn't done Mondo for a while, and Ming Po shared how much it had changed. The kind of training that was happening and how it is offered now. I had been trained in Mondo years before. He offered to take me through Mondo Facilitation. Shortly after I'd had a big opening with psychedelics with a group of other psychedelic assisted therapists. They were psychiatrists and psychologists who were being trained in using psychedelics with other mental health approaches. That was in Oregon, where it was legal to do this. When Ming Po and I began meeting regularly, I realized how helpful Mondo can be to integrate non-ordinary states of experience like I had in Oregon. It was very powerful. I thought, this makes a lot of sense.
I wanted to get back into Mondo work and offering Mondo. I wanted to finish what I started. I was calling myself a lay priest, because that's what Jun Po, early on, was talking about, lay priests. Now, I wanted to be a real, Zen priest, not just because I knew who Jun Po was, but to go through a formal training. He did not offer that training early on. At the end of my time with Ming Po, it seemed to be yes, the right time, right place, right people.
Ekai: Yes, just so people know, I've been in that involved as one of the trainers. How are you feeling about it now?
Hosho: I'm feeling joyous, grateful and right. Nice. It was a good experience to go through. Yeah.
Ekai: What's next on the horizon? Where do you see yourself?
Hosho: Well, I'll continue to lead this integral Zen group in Richmond. Turns out that a lot of my work is already doing priest work. I work with people to help relieve suffering in their lives. But also, I've always said I'm an expander, not a shrink. I’m about expanding consciousness and being a consciousness coach, and that's really a meditation and mindfulness coach, so it fits very well. When I add that psychedelic piece to it, because that too can be expanding of mind, deepening and opening, people have some openings, and not just psychologically, but spiritually.
Ekai: It makes lots of sense. If you go back to the beginning, MKP is a very big opening for a lot of men, getting in touch with their feelings. Fast forward, and today, psychedelics is a big opening, and being able to provide people with a spiritual guidance and map, it’s not just psychological.
Hosho: The practice isn't psychedelics. The practice is Zazen. It's the sitting practice that becomes more and more important. The psychedelic experiences become less and less significant because you're already experiencing that expanded consciousness and altered states from the practice itself.
Ekai: This is very consistent with what Jun Po Roshi’s message was.
Hosho: I think it is. I could say he'd be proud.
Ekai: Well, Hosho, thank you for spending time today.
Hosho: Thank you for having me.