Jun Po Denis Kelly is a man of many things—Zen Buddhist Roshi, Ashtanga yogi, psychedelic pioneer, former federal prisoner, cancer survivor, and noted modernizer of the famed Rinzai tradition of samurai-era Japan. He began his Buddhist practice at Zen Center San Francisco in the early ’70s, later becoming a student of Eido Shimano Roshi in New York and subsequently a monk. He received his Zen Master recognition in 1992. Interested in bringing his Zen lineage into American culture without the Japanese cultural bindings, Jun Po left the monastery and founded the lay Buddhist Hollow Bones order, of which he is abbot. His contemporary Rinzai path, known as Mondo Zen, updates the traditional Zen koan study with a new dialectic “ego deconstruction/reconstruction” dialogue process born of an innovative blend of East and West. A yoga instructor as well, he traces his lineage to BKS Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois. Jun Po has been practicing, studying and teaching Zen and Yoga for over twenty-five years.
