The Buddhist Faith Fellowship is blessed in having committed, experienced, and competent dharma teachers and other volunteers in sharing the Buddhist teachings. Together, they are committed to spiritually lead, teach, and equip others on their journey into awareness, compassion, and understanding.
Visiting Teachers
Rev. Daishin Senpai Sensei – B.B.A., M.A.
Rev. Senpai, M.A., is the founder and guiding teacher (Acharya) of the Buddhist Faith Fellowship of Connecticut. With over 30 years of experience in Buddhism, he brings deep spiritual insight, compassionate action, and boundless enthusiasm to all of the Fellowship’s activities.
Earning a B.S. in Business and a M.A. in Spanish from Central Connecticut State University, Rev. Senpai also received an extensive international education, studying in Spain, Costa Rica, Brazil, and Quebec, Canada, and traveled to over 15 countries. After several years of formal seminary study and practice, he received lamp transmission and ordination in the Dharma Teacher Order, in the year 2000, under his original dharma-name, Source of Wisdom/Bodhikara, from the Venerable Thich Tri Hoang of the Lieu Quàn Lineage who is also a 43rd generation member of the Thièn Lâm Te (Linji) school. Through the guidance of the Venerable, he studied Theravada and Mahayana traditions focusing on Thièn (Vietnamese Zen) and Pure Land Buddhism. Later, he attended teachings and workshops of the renowned Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche of the Tibetan Karma Kagyu Tradition, and completed the extensive 3-year Northampton Shin Sangha’s Lay Teachers Program under North America’s foremost Shin Buddhist teacher, Rev. Taitetsu Unno.
Over the years, Rev. Senpai has been an incessant community organizer, in which he established a variety of leading-edge organizations and groups, both online and local groups, in order to promote the Buddhist teachings in the contemporary American context. While some of these organizations and groups no longer exist, others are still vibrantly active; they included the New England Institute for Buddhist Studies with its Sangha leadership program to train new teachers, the North American Shin Buddhist Association (NASBA), the Connecticut Buddhist Film Festival, the mindful environmental group called Buddha Gaia, and the Shin Buddhist Prison Ministry, and the 12 Step Buddhist Sangha, and the Stoa Buddhist Philosophy Group .
In addition to being Connecticut’s most recognized Buddhist teacher and mindfulness instructor, he is also regarded as one of the state’s most influential Hispanic religious leaders. After nearly 30 years of service in public education, he has retired from his roles as a World Language teacher and an adjunct professor with the University of Connecticut’s Early College Experience Program. Despite these achievements, Rev. Senpai considers his most important roles to be those of a loving and devoted father, husband, and son.
Ikuse (“nourishing Life”), RN BSN CHPN
Known for her compassionate and warm personality, Ikuse brings into the Fellowship a depth of experience in Zen and end of life practices. While studying at Boston University in the mid-1990s, she encountered Buddhism and meditation practice for the first time, and consequently dedicated herself to learning Zen and Body/Mind practices while in residence with Founding Teacher, Patricia Shelton (Zenma), of the Clear Light Zen Meditation Center in Florida. There, she helped minister to the terminally ill/dying and their families using these beautiful, dynamic practices including the Clear Light Meditation as described in the book, Ten Thousand Joys, Ten Thousand Sorrows. While in Florida, she studied nursing at Barry University and later became a certified holistic & hospice nurse. Among her many roles, she once served as our Director of our Buddhist Family Practice Group and Mindful Kids programs. Currently, she leads seasonal retreats, Emotional Mastery Body Mind workshops, Clear Light Meditation for Partners, and End of Life training. Ikuse has received formal transmission from her Teacher, Zenma, to become the present-day lineage holder of the Clear Light Society. She is honored to be part of our spiritual family’s journey in planting seeds of insight, joy, and compassion.
In Remembrance
Tribute to Harry Simonsen (Kisen) 
Our beloved and wise Associate Dharma Teacher Kisen suddenly passed away on April 26, 2020 at the age of 71. As Kisen used to say, he was a long time “bookstore Buddhist” before joining the Fellowship in 2006. At his first Sunday morning gathering, the fellowship recited the Five Remembrances which captivated him with their frankness, honesty, and acknowledgment of reality-as-it-is. Eagerly enrolling in all the available Fellowship’s courses, and enrolling in the Lay Ministerial track, he finally became an Associate Dharma Teacher in 2008. Kisen sought out the Dharma in everyday life and his quest was to develop a modern interpretation of the core Dharma, unconstrained by mythology and cultural influences. He was a retired software developer and earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Connecticut. Also, Harry was a licensed Emergency Medical Technician, a certified NRA Pistol Instructor, and a Motorcycle Safety Instructor. He was great person, a wonderful teacher, and a good friend (kalyamitra) along the path. Namu Amida Butsu.
Tribute to Patricia Shelton (Zenma)
Our beloved meditation and end of life teacher, Patricia Shelton, passed away peacefully at the age of 91 years old in November of 2022. Originally from Maine and a meditation teacher since 1970, Ms. Shelton began her spiritual journey as a student of the famous Tibetan teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and engaged in intensive koan study and meditation practice with Zen Master Seung Sahn. In her extensive career, she founded The Clear Light Society in 1977 and taught an accredited course in zen meditation at Boston University from 1985 to 2000. For many years she divided her time between Florida and New England as well as giving teachings in other locations by invitation. She has been a great blessing for our community.
Namu Amida Butsu.
Past Visiting Teachers
Gordon Bermant, Phd.
Gordon is a lecturer in Psychology and the Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, he teaches a seminar in Buddhist psychology for graduate students at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, through the Institute of Buddhist Studies. He has spent way too much time in school, getting a Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard University and a J.D. from George Mason University. Wherever his head is from time to time, his heart is in the truths of Shin Buddhism known in Japanese as Jodo Shinshu. He became a student of Kenryu Tsuji (1914-2004) in 1986 and never looked back. He was greatly honored to be the President of the Buddhist Churches of America in 2006-2007.
Dr. Sean Ross (Ryozan) 
Sean’s spiritual journey includes growing up a Mormon in Oregon and as part of that experience participated in a mission to Peru. After 30 years as an active Mormon, he radically changed spiritual directions and began a search to understand universal compassion that eventually lead him to Shin Buddhism. Currently, he also practices martial arts, plays classical guitar, gardens and studies the ‘great books’. Sean is an instructor in our Distance Learning Program and our Non-violent Communication workshops.
Gary E. Link 
(Tinh Tán)
Gary first became involved in Buddhism in 1999. He began studying Buddhism in 2000 under the Venerable Thich Tri Hoang of the of the Lieu Quàn Lineage. In 2002, he devoted his time to Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, New York. In 2005, Gary began studying both Japanese and Chinese forms of Pure Land Buddhism and from 2005 to the present he has devoted his practice to Jodo Shu Buddhism under his teacher Rev. Kosen Ishikawa. Currently Gary teaches Buddhism at Chuang Yen Monastery and the New England Institute for Buddhist Studies, as well as being a member and serving on the Board of Trustees for the Buddhist Association of the United States (BAUS).
Lori Rugle, Ph.D. (Dojin)
Lori is a clinical psychologist whose work has focused on the treatment of addictive disorders and is an internationally recognized teacher in the field of gambling addiction. She is particularly interested in the integration of spirituality and mindfulness into clinical practice. She has been a dedicated student of Buddhism for the past 20 years with a practice that largely focused on vipassana and metta meditation. She has been an active member of the Buddhist Faith Fellowship since she moved from Ohio in 2008. She is also one of the founding members of the 12- Step Buddhist Group. She is currently lives out of the state.