Please join Hokyoji each Sunday morning for a talk and discussion on Zoom featuring guest speakers from the Hokyoji community. All are welcome! LINK to join the live talk. Videos of past talks from Hokyoji are available here.
8:30 a.m. CST – Zazen
8:55 – Walking Meditation (Kinhin)
9:00 – Zazen
9:30 to 10:30 – Dharma Talk and Discussion
Feel free to join the program at any point in the schedule. We hope to see you there!
Your generosity sustains Hokyoji’s facilities and programs. We could not do this without you! Please consider making a donation online HERE. Your gift, of any amount, will be a great benefit, and we are deeply grateful for your support.
March 1, 2026 - Ryushin Jan Freier
Ryushin Jan Freier is a long-time practitioner who started practicing at MZMC in 1985. He received jukai there in 1988, and worked as tenzo and other mostly kitchen-related jobs until 1994. He attended Clouds-in-Water Zen Center for a couple of years starting in 2002. In 2016 he became a member of the Hokyoji practice community. He volunteers regularly at Open Arms and Second Harvest Heartland to feed those in need.
March 8, 2026 - Rev. Musho Podulke-Smith
Rev. Musho Podulke-Smith completed the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program in March of 2023. He took Tokudo under Rev. Onryu Kennedy later that year. He works with inmates at the Federal Medical Prison in Rochester and leads a sitting and study group in Rochester.
March 15, 2026 - Rev. Jushin Stephyn Butcher, Associate Teacher
Rev. Jushin Stephyn Butcher started his Buddhist journey nearly 35 years ago in the Tibetan tradition. He found his way to Hokyoji, where he became a student of Rev. Dokai Georgesen. Jushin received jukai in 2013, ordination in 2017, and dharma transmission in 2025. He lives in Cambridge, Maryland, along with his husband, dog, chickens, and garden. He is also Hokyoji’s Board VP & Treasurer.
March 22, 2026 - Tim Macejak
Tim Macejak has been involved in Zen practice for over 30 years. He began Zen practice at a teacher-less sangha led by a group of experienced practitioners, and then practiced with a teacher at the Cedar Rapids Zen Center, followed by some years with an at-home practice. He has done a yearly retreat at Hokyoji since the early 90s. He was formerly a Board President. He is the author of the book Zen Unleashed: Everyday Buddhist Wisdom from Man’s Best Friend, released in 2013.
March 29, 2026 - Rachel Seirin Vilsack
Rachel Seiren Vilsack received jukai from by Byakuren Judith Ragir in 2014. She did not grow up in a spiritual tradition and discovered Soto Zen Buddhism as an adult. Rachel is grateful to the Hokyoji community (and to her Zen brothers and sisters) for providing a space to practice and explore the present day application of the Buddha’s and Dogen Zenji’s teachings.
Rachel works for a Washington DC-based nonprofit that believes that everyone should have access to information to unlock opportunities for meaningful careers. She honors her family’s heritage (those that were here and those that immigrated here) as part of her practice. Her ancestors provide an anchor for her spirit and her 2- and 4-legged family in Minnesota.
April 5, 2026 - Rev. Genjo Conway
Rev. Genjo Sam Conway, MS, LPCC, is a Zen priest in the lineage of Dainin Katagiri Roshi, ordained by his teacher, Byakuren Judith Ragir, Roshi. His practice stands at the confluence of Zen and psychoanalysis, where stillness and speech, emptiness and form, reveal their shared demand for truth.
A psychoanalyst by vocation, Rev. Genjo’s work calls for an unflinching intimacy with the real — the courage to face what we most fear and what we most long for. His teaching joins the discipline of zazen with the fierce tenderness of inquiry, each a way of remembering what it means to be fully human.
Rooted also in his Irish ancestry, he walks an ancient path, honoring the old ways of land, weather, and kinship with all beings. This ancestral devotion infuses his Zen with earth and myth, wind and song — a reminder that awakening flowers not apart from the world, but intimately within it.
April 12, 2026 - Rev. Musho Podulke-Smith
Rev. Musho Podulke-Smith completed the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program in March of 2023. He took Tokudo under Rev. Onryu Kennedy later that year. He works with inmates at the Federal Medical Prison in Rochester and leads a sitting and study group in Rochester.
April 19, 2026 - Rev. Jushin Stephyn Butcher, Associate Teacher
Rev. Jushin Stephyn Butcher started his Buddhist journey nearly 35 years ago in the Tibetan tradition. He found his way to Hokyoji, where he became a student of Rev. Dokai Georgesen. Jushin received jukai in 2013, ordination in 2017, and dharma transmission in 2025. He lives in Cambridge, Maryland, along with his husband, dog, chickens, and garden. He is also Hokyoji’s Board VP & Treasurer.
April 26, 2026 - Rev. Onyru "GD" Kennedy, Associate Teacher
Rev. Onryu Kennedy has received transmission in both the Katagiri and Uchiyama Roshi lineages. In 2019 and 2020, she attended three month practice periods at Toshoji International Zen Center (Japan) and in 2017 at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center (California). In the Spring 2020 practice period at Toshoji she was Shuso, head monk for the practice period. She completed zuise in January 2023. And in February 2024 her application for Kokusaifukuyoshi was approved by the Japanese Sotochu.
Throughout her life she has valued social justice work as an expression of her vow. She is currently an Associate teacher at Hokyoji Zen Practice Community. She experiences great joy in the opportunity to learn and teach Buddhist practices.
