Date: 2026/02/08. Speaker: Koji Acquaviva. At Clouds and Water Zen Center.

Koji Acquaviva is a Soto Zen priest and teacher. He began practicing Zen at the age of twenty at the San Francisco Zen Center where he was a resident student for ten years. He co-founded the Mid City Zen Center of New Orleans, Louisiana and served regularly as visiting teacher at the Austin Zen Center in Texas. In addition to Soto Zen, he's studied Vedanta, Hatha Yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism in residential practice centers. Koji encourages meditators to feel empowered to develop their own syncretic practice paths, availing themselves to the most supportive methods for their temperaments and needs. Koji is a member of the teacher ryo at Clouds in Water and is a staff member of Tergar International, a community of Tibetan meditation teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. As a queer and neurodivergent person, Koji makes his best effort to identify and confront spiritual teachings which re-inscribe harm for members of marginalized communities.

Date: 2026/02/01. Speaker: Rev. MyoOn Susan Hagler. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Myo On Susan Hagler began her Zen practice in the autumn of 1980 at MZMC. She went there to find a place to meditate and hit the jackpot when encountering Katagiri-roshi and the MZMC sangha. From then to now Myo On has lived a life filled with the joys and sorrows one encounters on life’s journey. She has been married since 1986, has 3 adult children and 3 grandkids, who bring her great delight. She was ordained in 2003 by Tim Burkett and received dharma transmission from Dokai Georgesen in 2018. She has had the opportunity to practice at all the MN Zen centers as well as Green Gulch in CA. Attending the first unit of chaplaincy training at Gunderson hospital in LaCrosse informed her both personally and as a Zen teacher. Myo On joined the teacher-ryo at Clouds in early 2019 as a transmitted teacher. For Myo On, life’s experiences and the people she has crossed paths with have been her greatest teachers. The triple treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha have been her greatest resources for aspiring to live life Well.

Date: 2026/01/25. Speakers: Rev. Sosan Theresa Flynn, Rev. Jūken Zach Fehst, Rev. Keika Karín San Juan, Rev. Jinzu Minna Jain. At Clouds in Water Zen Center.

The panel is preceded by a guided meditation.

Sosan has studied and practiced Soto Zen Buddhism since 1992, receiving Dharma transmission (full teaching authority) from Joen Snyder O’Neal in 2012. Sosan's areas of teaching include body awareness in Zen, loving-kindness practices, and the intersection of Buddhist practice and racial justice. Sosan was raised Catholic and practiced Catholicism for many years before embracing Buddhism as her primary religion.

After first encountering the Dharma and beginning to meditate while living in South Korea in 2006, Jūken Zach Fehst entered the path of formal practice in 2014 as a member of Brooklyn Zen Center, and received jukai at Clouds in Water in 2022. He has worked as an actor and writer, and is now a public high school teacher and musical hobbyist. He has an abiding interest in all forms of spirituality and religion, and holds a Master in Theological Studies from Boston University. He is currently exploring the priest path at Clouds.

Keika Karín San Juan 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.

Jinzu Minna Jain (they/them) is an artist, writer, and racial & systemic equity educator. They identify as BIPOC, disabled, queer and trans/nonbinary. Jinzu has been practicing Sōtō Zen Buddhism for over twenty years and is a novice priest at Clouds in Water Zen Center. They are also the Director of Learning & Development with Real Transformation Today, a racial equity education and consulting group. Jinzu believes that Sōtō Zen teachings and practice help us cultivate the capacity for collective care and liberation. They are curious about how Zen practice can help us be human well, meet ourselves and one another complexly, and enjoy our little lives a little more. They wish to break down barriers to access caused by systems of oppression and provide gateways into Sōtō Zen for anyone who wishes to experience it.