Mondo Zen

Jun Po Kelly Roshi’s story is itself endlessly fascinating, and when coupled with his radiant personality and gilded sense of humor, would no doubt make for a wildly entertaining and enriching film.  More intriguing, his story echoes a narrative even greater than his own (as all great stories invariably do)—it is hard to think of anyone who better personifies the remarkable progression of American spirituality from the 1960’s until today, standing as he does with one foot firmly planted in the sixties counterculture, and the other in today’s Integral emergence. Pushing the essence of the tradition through the Integral framework, Jun Po is reinterpreting and reformatting ancient wisdom for today’s world, while retaining the fierce intensity and urgency of his Samurai precursors.  He is sitting in the heart of the integral impulse, reconciling the ceaseless throb of evolution with the empty clarity behind this and every moment—the gentle but explosive sound of an unstoppable force meeting an unmovable subject.