Dhammadīpā
Guiding Teacher

See the note from Dhammadipa about her shift away from the vinaya on the News page.

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

Dhammadīpā (center) is also known as Rev. Konin Melissa Cardenas. She is a Dharma teacher with a commitment to the bodhisattva vows.

She took up the practice of Zen Buddhism in 1987. 20 years later she was ordained in the Soto Zen tradition by Sekkei Harada Roshi, extending her commitment to the bodhisattva vows and the 16 precepts that she received from Rev. Shosan Victoria Austin in 2004.

Dhammadīpā has trained at Hosshinji senmon sodo in Japan, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center, an urban residential training temple. She received Dharma Transmission in the Shunryu Suzuki lineage from Rev. Shosan.

In addition, Dhammadīpā trained at Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery, a women's monastery in Northern California, USA. She was a nun in the Theravāda tradition, and therefore dual ordained, for five years.

Dhammadīpā's teachings have appeared in the national Buddhist magazines “Tricycle,” "Lion's Roar" and "Buddhadharma," and she was published in a compilation of American women Zen teachers titled "Zen Teachings in Challenging Times.” Her book is freely offered and is titled “Gifts Greater Than the Oceans.” In addition to English, Dhammadīpā teaches in Spanish, an expression of her Latin heritage.

Dhammadīpā is a member of the Board of Directors of Buddhist Global Relief, a non-profit that provides direct food assistance, aid for sustainable agriculture, and support for education, primarily for girls and women. Dhammadīpā is also the President of the Board of Directors of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.

She completed four units of Clinical Pastoral Education to become an interfaith chaplain, and has provided spiritual care in both hospital and hospice settings. She holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and worked in investment banking and mortgage finance for many years before becoming a full-time practitioner. Dhammadīpā greatly enjoys her relationship with her adult daughter, and watercolor painting and sewing.

Teaching

Dhammadīpā has taught at Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW), Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery, San Francisco Zen Center, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS), and numerous other Zen, Insight, and Theravāda sanghas.

She has also received Dharma Transmission, and is an Heir to the Soto Zen lineage, recognized in the US and Japan. In Zen, her title is Osho ( 和尚 ), and she has full authorization to teach. She became an authorized zazen (meditation) instructor at San Francisco Zen Center in 2005, and became a Practice Leader and Dharma Teacher in English and in Spanish in 2012.