Al Fusho Rapaport, Sensei 

has practiced and taught Zen and Kundalini Meditation for 40 years. He studied with Kozan Roshi, Maezumi Roshi, and Genpo Roshi until moving to Florida in 2001 and received Dharma Transmission within the Soto Zen Lineage from Shuzen Sensei in 2008.

As President of Open Mind Productions, Al produced the landmark Buddhism in America Conferences in Boston, San Diego, Denver and New York City.

He is author of Open Mind Zen: A Guide to Meditation, and editor of Buddhism in America. Al currently serves as  Director of Open Mind Zen Meditation Center in Melbourne, Florida. He is a member of the White Plum Asangha, the American Zen Teachers Association and the Lay Zen Teachers Association. 

Read Sensei Al's interview on Sweeping Zen.

Linda Myoki Lehrhaupt, Ph.D., Hoshi

has been practicing Zen since 1979. She is an Assistant Teacher who has received Hoshi from Fusho Sensei.

She was ordained as a Zen priest in 1992 and served as Shuso, or Head Priest in 1998. She has also studied with Genpo Merzel Roshi and Nico Tydeman Sensei.

In her work life she is the Founder and Director of the Institute for Mindfulness-Based Approaches based in Germany. She has been teaching in adult education since 1971 and has degrees in Education and Performance Studies, where she specialized in religious ritual and traditions.

She has been practicing Tai Chi and Chi Kung since 1978, and for twenty years directed teacher-training programs in both arts. She is the author of Tai Chi as a Path of Wisdom (Shambhala Publications, 2001) and Co-Author of Reducing Stress through Mindfulness (in German, 2010).

Laurie Kido Lyons

has practiced Zen since 2003.  She is an Assistant Teacher and Lay Monk in the Open Mind Zen School and leads the affiliate group in Naples, FL.  She has been practicing yoga since 2001 and currently teaches Ashtanga Yoga and Zen at Love Yoga Center in Naples, FL. Laurie also brings her practice into her work as an orchestral musician and percussionist with the Naples Philharmonic since 1999.

John Daisan Nickerson

is an Assistant Teacher in the Open Mind Zen School and has practiced Zen since 1994. He came to Open Mind Zen in 2005 and led the affiliate group in Vero Beach, FL from 2006 to 2007. In 2010 he received Lay Monk Precepts from Sensei Rapaport.

Ely Kugo DesJardins

has practiced Zen since 2004 and is an Assistant Teacher and a Lay Monk in the Open Mind Zen School. As leader of Open Mind Zen Tulsa he brings his practice into the writing of his blog, Raw Mind Zen, and his work as a Construction Manager for a refrigeration company.