Dharma talks from Clouds In Water Zen Center

The Joy of Having Nothing to Attain by Rev. Kattō Laura Phillips

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.

Enter the Cave: How to bring resolve, courage, and sincerity to collective Buddhist practice by Rev. Keika Karín Aguilar- San Juan

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.

The Dharma of Genders by Rev. Myoshin Diane Benjamin

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.

Ancestral Herbalism and Gathas of Nature by Joanna Hill and Rev. Rin LaJoy

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 [https://www.shambhala.com/the-way-of-the-bodhisattva-1660.html?srsltid=AfmBOorMy5BxKdr1H8rXIH3mgzPRqzsxIkbaHaGtN0l940fBhZ_0z2sX] and Dhammapada [https://www.shambhala.com/dhammapada-480.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqnAiXadhQEZHjcTljrklMiojAuIMnkSc6ToZoZce5XxLGyU7L0] .

Practicing In The Moment With The Ingredients Of Our Lives: Talk For Buddha's Birthday by Rev. Sosan Flynn

Date: 2026/05/17. Speaker: Guiding Teacher Sosan Theresa Flynn. 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. She has a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and has worked in both community mental health and staff training.