Celebrating the Release of Sharing the Dharma: A Practical Guide for Modern Sanghas

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Dear Friends,

I am deeply humbled and overjoyed to share a significant milestone in our collective practice. On June 5, 2026, our first book, Sharing the Dharma: 10-Minute Dharma Talks for American Zen Sanghas, will officially be released in both paperback and Kindle editions.

This collection of outlines and completed talks has been penned under my Dharma name, Min'ui Maitri. It represents not a finished personal attainment, but a living, ongoing vow to make the foundational teachings of Buddhism accessible, flexible, and deeply practical for everyday life.

The Story Behind the Book

Many of you know that my own journey with the Dharma began in a college history classroom back in 1992. At the time, the concepts of awakening and the cessation of suffering moved me deeply, but they remained intellectual theories. Life eventually took me down a path of diplomatic service, where I encountered the profound weight of human suffering, anxiety, and PTSD in the aftermath of the 2002 Bali bombings.

It was a search for true healing and mental stability that ultimately brought me to the meditation cushion. After studying multiple Buddhist traditions, I found my spiritual home in Zen in 2010. Walking this path eventually led to ordination as a Novice Priest, a reaffirmation of those vows, and finally my ordination as a Bodhisattva Zen Priest in 2023.

In 2024, I had the immense privilege of making a pilgrimage to the great Bodhi Tree at Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, India. Standing there with my family, looking at the very ground where the Buddha awakened, the urgency to share these life-saving tools with others became clearer than ever. Today, practicing and teaching from our home in Da Nang, Vietnam, those ancient lessons remain entirely inseparable from the ordinary rhythms of family life.

What's Inside Sharing the Dharma?

This book is offered as a dedicated companion for practitioners, teachers, and community groups seeking concise reflections rooted in an authentic American Zen framework. It is structured specifically to be flexible: each topic features a ready-to-use teaching outline alongside a fully elaborated talk text.

The volume maps out the anatomy of human experience across six comprehensive parts:

  • Part 1: Foundations of the Path – A human-centered look at the life of Buddha Gotama and the "diagnosis and cure" of the Four Noble Truths.

  • Part 2: The Anatomy of Experience – Breaking down the mechanics of perception via the Six Senses and the Five Skandhas.

  • Part 3: The Roots of Delusion & Karma – Reframing dukkha, the Three Poisons, and clarifying what karma actually means for Americans (hint: it’s choice, not fate!).

  • Part 4: The Heart of Mahāyāna & Zen – Diving into the profound freedom of Śūnyatā (Emptiness), the Heart Sutra, and the legendary Korean Seon "Don't-Know Mind".

  • Part 5: The Bodhisattva Vow in Action – Honoring the vital influence of the feminine archetypes in Zen, meeting the Five Great Bodhisattvas, and unpacking the radical alignment of the Great Vows.

  • Part 6: Zen and Our Modern World – Navigating our daily psychological states through the Six Realms of Existence and anchoring our lives in a beautifully unified Threefold Path.

The ultimate aim throughout these pages is not scholarly complexity for its own sake. Instead, it is clear, heartfelt language meant to be spoken aloud in a zendo or Zoom meeting, discussed in a living room, or reflected upon in the quiet corners of your personal practice.

How to Bring These Teachings Into Your Practice

Whether you are looking for structure to help facilitate your local meditation group, a study guide for your personal practice, or simple encouragement to soften around life's daily frictions, Sharing the Dharma is designed to meet you exactly where you are.

"The method is mindfulness, the expression is compassion, the essence is wisdom."

We take our vows not because we can fulfill them perfectly, but because they point us in the direction of the awakened heart. I hope this offering helps you look directly at reality without distortion, drop the heavy scoreboard of spiritual progress, and meet the world with a lighter, more compassionate grip.

Thank you all for your continuous dedication, your shared practice, and the endless ways you support the turning of the Dharma wheel.

Sharing the Dharma drops June 5, 2026. Keep an eye on our website for direct links to order your copy on paperback or Kindle.

Only go straight.

Only don't know.

Yours in the Dharma,

Min'ui Maitri

Bodhisattva Zen Priest

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