A Heart Blown Open: The Life and Practice of Zen Master Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi

I must start by explaining that I've known the central character in this story for 38 years. I found myself riveted by his presence the first night I met him at "Johnny's" house when I was a mere twenty years old. He continues to guide and challenge me and all who know him these many years later.Readers should judge the value of my remarks with the knowledge that I will do my friend the courtesy of writing nothing here that is less than an honest appraisal of both the story and the quality of the story telling. That said, it pleases me to say that I found this to be an excellent story written near perfectly.From the beginning pages readers are reminded of the rigidity that was the American experience in the nineteen fifties and sixty's. A man holding the intuition that real freedom was not to be had without a fight - was in for a fight. And so the story of Denis Kelly begins.The majority of us didn't get to Woodstock or live the street scene that was The Haight in San Fransisco, 1967. But these and other highlights are our heritage as members of the Boomer generation just as much as "Abraham, Martin and John", Vietnam and Watergate.However, in "A Heart Blown Open" we ride with an insider. We see a man - who for reasons that cannot be easily explained - a guy who was at the right place at the right time with the right mix of the "mean streets," savoir faire and nascent transcendental intuition, such that he begins to look like more than just a clever opportunist - more like a gift we gave ourselves - Conscious Creativity knowing just what it would take to push the American experience off it's static pedestal, tipping it back into the crucible of transformation.I give this book four, instead of five stars because the dialogue is at times written in a way that made it less than transparent - occasionally, I lost the story because of the words. This said, I think that overall, Keith Martin-Smith, (who I do not know), has done a great job as a writer and entrepreneur - moving this book from it's initial inspiration all the way to the hands of readers like myself. Not an easy job. Thank you Keith!JunPo Denis Kelly is the most dangerous man I've ever known. And this, because he is free - unbounded by cultural conditioning. At the same time this is a man who embodies unselfish love and integrity such that I would not hesitate to place my money or my loved ones in his hands.The value, the purpose of including words like these in a book review is to indicate for potential readers, the quality of the teaching that radiates from the book - from it's beginning pages where we see echoes of our own experience and our worst nightmares - to the end where like a well composed sonata, all melodic, in this case, plot and thematic tensions are resolved with credibility and satisfaction.I knew Frank - Denis Kelly, the wild man. Now I know JunPo Roshi - Denis, the wiser man. I love them both. Readers will be introduced to a friend they have been waiting to meet as they turn the pages or even find themselves drawn to sit Sesshin at one of his retreats. Either way, all receive an introduction to the man and 21st Century Zen - the Mondo Process JunPo has molded with deep respect for tradition and realism.If you are "spiritually inclined," read this book and you may find yourself inspired to actually Awaken! If you simply want to read a Really Great Story - read this book! And you too, may find yourself inspired... to Awaken.

Can a lad sometimes regarded as bad by his father, by a Catholic priest, by the Army, and by the Drug Enforcement Administration transform in the middle of life's path into a Zen roshi and reinvent his tradition in ways that impress the brainy Ken Wilber, Mr. Integral? A Heart Blown Open by Keith Martin-Smith shows how it happened as it follows the life of Denis Kelly from a small Wisconsin city to the Bay Area in its glory years to a Buddhist monastery in upstate New York, with a stop in Federal prison. Why prison? On the West Coast, Kelly was head of a "family" that manufactured "window pane" LSD, an adventure that allowed him to live the high life and to blow minds with well-refined molecules before he learned to help people blow open on the meditation zafu. The biography reads less like the result of interviewing colleagues and examining documents than like the tales of a natural raconteur, with a good listener shaping a narrative and filling in some details. After a bout with cancer, Kelly is very much alive, founder of a Buddhist order called Hollow Bones. He spent an intense fortnight with the author who then drafted material and reviewed at least some of it with the primary source. However, the result contains stringent judgments about the hero, many of them from Kelly's own lips. He apparently has a rep to keep, not only as a "bad boy," but also as a Buddhist observer of himself and others. A few of the stories seem a bit truncated, but the bio offers more lively material than many books twice as long. (Disclosure: at the age of 60, on the hunt not for any "ism" but a sort of mind training, I was introduced to Kelly. He invited me to sit with his sangha, a circle of meditators that met almost daily around dawn and that included individual talks with him, in a form known as "dokusan." While remaining ignorant of the stories in this bio, I realized in the initial interview that Kelly had the air of a rogue, which was paradoxically attractive to me, because I wanted a teacher who exuded not piety but engagement with life.) Kelly came to regard LSD less as a mountain top, and like some authors in Allan Badiner's Zigzag Zen, more as a gate. Then he encountered limits in the practice he adopted, noticing that people who had "awakened" were sometimes limited or held back by their emotional bodies. For example, a person's behavior could be warped by unresolved anger While mastering the traditional koans (such as the sound of one hand clapping), Kelly integrated yoga into the practice, pioneered what he called "emotional koans," and championed an ecological vision. For many people, his work followed the "training adventure" conducted by the Mankind Project, which teaches emotional literacy and awareness of personal mission. Martin-Smith's nourishing bio lays out food for thought about how experiences one might never chose can, with luck and hard work, lead to valuable psychological or social inventions. For example, what is the relation between dissociation caused by childhood trauma and beneficial witness consciousness? Between the rebel's view of life and the ability to lead people beyond the ordinary mind? Between seeing that "realized" masters can act badly and developing a broader basis for personal development? And what is the deeper wisdom in Dylan's seemingly paradoxical line, "to live outside the law you must be honest"?

Jun Po has been one of the more inspiring spiritual leaders in my life, especially after reading Heart of Zen. This biography takes it to another level. This is one of the first books in a long time where I consistently, authentically looked forward to reading it every morning. Jun Po lived an incredible life. From broken family in Wisconsin to escaping to San Francisco, becoming a countercultural icon, living a wild lifestyle, furthering the LSD movement, India, being on the run, and easily a dozen more stories of his life that evoke the feeling of “Wow, this is unbelievable,” this is a riveting (and well-written) read.

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and very informative into the mind of a rebel who was also a devotional seeker. His story is wonderful 🙏💕

The book is in part a paean to LSD and in part a hagiography of Junpo Kelly. The author has, to be fair, indicated that he has had to “fill in” a number of details, but it is only possible to assume that really rather a lot of things have been invented for the sake of making a readable story. We see, for example, what visual impression Kelly makes when he is sitting alone in a “full lotus” posture while wearing Levi’s. I dare say it’s possible for some people to get into that posture while wearing Levi’s, but anybody who does it knows they are probably the last clothing any sensible yogi would choose. A tiny point, of course, but an example of the way the story is a quasi-fictional reconstruction.The story is a peculiarly American one of a life moving from the gutter to a kind of respectability, and I suspect gives some insight into the characters involved, even if a few of the details might be questioned.

One of the best books I've ever read. Not just because of the subject matter and the story, which are both fascinating and inspiring, but because it is beautifully written. Simplicity in writing, whilst also stirring the imagination, is not an easy thing to do. And it's a style that fits this particular journey perfectly. Truly wonderful.

Part of me loved and hated the book. His life at times felt like a fiction novel . Yet truth seeped from its pores angering and soothing me in equel measure. A life story through the paths of wisdom, delusion, heart and love. As I read my own judgement, contraction, and disappointment was never far from the surface. His life often a mirror to my own shadows and light. It's honesty is refreshing but also uncomfortable. This is a warts and all book, therefore because of its honesty I give it 5 stars . Read at your peril, don't read at your peril.

A book that is not just a good read, and an amazing life story but an inspiration to anyone who is thinking that one can never find inner peace or change their own lives.