John was born and raised in Fort Worth TX. He got into Buddhist meditation while he was in college at Vassar (1991-1995). He learned the practice of counting the breath in the belly from John Daido Loori Roshi at Zen Mountain Monastery. During that time he also did body-centered trauma therapy with Dr. Stephanie Mines in Boulder.
The summer after college he had Darshan with Mother Meera in Germany. He had an opening to the spiritual ground of being in her presence. This eventually led him to ordain as a Buddhist monk with Thich Nhat Hanh in 1998. He trained at his monasteries in France and California for six years. Then he spent six more years training with different Buddhist and Hindu teachers in Europe and Asia. This included three years in Tiruvannamali in Tamil Nadu India with Sri Laksmana Swami and Sri Saradamma, two Gurus in the lineage of Ramana Maharishi.
In addition to counting the breath while focusing on the belly, the three other main meditation practice John does are the bodyscan, resting in open awareness, and exploring the source of awareness.
After being a monk for 12 years John transitioned back to lay life. He moved to Los Angeles and did 10 years of graduate school. He earned a Master of Divinity at University of the West and a PhD in practical theology at Claremont School of Theology. His research is focused on integrating Buddhist meditation with trauma therapy. He has also focused on early Buddhist and Daoist yogic teachings. Based on his research he developed a Buddhist model of spiritual care and counseling called Buddhist ACT in which he has correlated the six processes of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with early Buddhist teachings from the Samyutta Nikaya.
John is the founder of the Dhamma Vinaya Order, a lay order of Buddhist ministers. The DVO online temple is www.muktivihara.org He is a professor of Buddhist counseling at Sakya Buddha University in Santa Ana California. He is the host of Down with the Dharma podcast and editor of The New Order on SubStack.
Down with the Dharma 