Hollow Bones Zen Blog
Updates and articles from our community

O-Bon
by Reishin Denise LeongZen River SanghaAppleton, Wisconsin Along this wayGoes no oneThis autumn evening -Basho On a mountain, in the woods overlooking a lake, a fire…

Dig Deep
by Monshin Kathy Mitchell Wind and Water ZenWoodruff, Wisconsin I’ve sat with a variety of groups, some secular, others Buddhist. In each, the conversation almost…

Can You Dance To It?
by Monshin Kathy Mitchell Wind and Water ZenWoodruff, Wisconsin As I reflect on Jun Po as a teacher, one of the things I am most grateful…

Monthly Message: June 2025
All the time I pray to BuddhaI keep onkilling mosquitoes.-Issa Summertime! Such abundance, and aliveness! Beyond words. And yet, and yet… we are blessed with…

Monthly Message: May 2025
Many thoughts arise as the start of sesshin at DBZ gets closer – one of my favorites being a beautiful tale, where acts of kindness…

Monthly Message: April 2025
If you are reading this now, you can thank Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi (1942-2021), founder of Hollow Bones Zen. In the decades of his Zen practice…

Monthly Message: March 2025
Awakening with the EarthThat magic moment… when we once again see a small bud begin to form on a tree branch. A green blade of…

Monthly Message: February 2025
When I was training in grief support, my instructor shared a story about a group of Tibetan monks who had come to study hospice programs in…

Monthly Message: January 2025
Every December, I share Barbara Crooker’s poem “Solstice” in a dharma talk. She speaks of the despair after 9/11, a despair that remains 23 years…

Monthly Message: December 2024
Dear Sangha, As we enter another year, may we continually see ways to realize our boundless joy and express eternal gratitude for this gift of…

HBZ Beginnings: Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi
This is part of a series on the HBZ lineage. Read Part One & Part Two. On April 14, 1942, Denis Kelly began an extraordinary…

HBZ Beginnings: Gempo Yamamoto, Soen Nakagawa, Eido Shimano
A look at some of the modern founders of our tradition.

HBZ Beginnings: Soyen Shaku, Nyogen Senzaki and D.T. Suzuki
Many synergistic steps, truly reflecting the interconnection, interpenetration, and interdependency we understand to be part of Zen took place to bring us HBZ today. These steps also included the faithful contributions of many others, including many women, who played a crucial role in facilitating the unfolding. This series of blogs will tell their story.