Kensho Hannya Len Silverston
Colorado
Kensho Len Silverston has studied various forms of meditation and spiritual practices for over twenty-three years. After exploring many styles, he began practicing with Hollow Bones in 2004, took Jukai in 2007, and was fully ordained in 2011. He has attended and staffed many Hollow Bones Zen retreats and has found this to be one of the most effective practices, resulting in a huge shift in the quality of his life and transforming troubled relationships into wonderfully positive ones.
In his studies of various meditation disciplines, he has attended over thirty retreats that were seven days or greater in length and many shorter retreats and workshops. In addition to Hollow Bones retreats, he has attended retreats in other forms of Zen at the Upaya Zen Center and the Great Mountain Zen Center, Vipassana meditation (taught by S. N. Goenka), Vipassana (taught by the Insight Meditation Society) at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and the Wilderness Fast retreat. His spiritual studies also include The Hoffman Institute process, The Breakthrough Process from Dr. John DeMartini, Colorado Youth At-Risk Steps Ahead program, Mile Hi Church “Science of Mind and Spirit,” Judaism study programs, and the practice of Kouk Sun Do in Korea. Kensho is a brown belt (3rd Kyu) in Aikido and practices at Castle Rock Aikido. He is a voice dialogue practitioner and student of Dr. Martha-Lou Cohen.
Kensho provides ongoing ”Zen With Len” meditation sessions and spiritual teaching/coaching. He works one-on-one with people using a variety of transformational processes including Mondo Zen, voice dialogue, and spiritual coaching. Kensho has given many spiritual talks for various organizations – for instance, giving the sermon for the High Holiday services at the National Jewish Hospital congregation, a service that has taken place for over 100 years.
In his business life, he is an author, consultant, and speaker in the field of data management and human dynamics and has integrated his Zen practice into his work. He lectures on the behavioral aspects of integrating information, combining Zen and data management in presentations such as “Zen and the Art of Database Maintenance” and “What to Do When Data Professionals Disagree.” He provides training, facilitation, and consulting to organizations on conflict resolution, change management, visioning, trust, motivation, and governance.
He is well known in his field for his work on “Universal Data Models” and is the author of The Data Model Resource Book series, which was rated #12 on the Computer Literacy Best Seller List and has been translated into Chinese. He has published many articles, been a keynote speaker at many international conferences, and has won international achievement awards such as the DAMA (Data Administration Management Association) International Professional Achievement Award in 2004 and the DAMA International Community Award in 2006. He holds a master’s degree in computer science with a specialization in database management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
One of the results of his Zen practice is that his family has seen the change in him and thus followed suit. His wife, Annette Quintana, has attended numerous Hollow Bone retreats; his daughter Danielle Silverston has attended meditation classes with him; and his 16 year old daughter Michaela Silverston has attended numerous week-long Zen retreats. When asked why she sat through these retreats, Michaela said, ‘It worked for my Dad!”