Doctor of Humanistic Depth Psychology Master Zen Teacher, Trainer, Counselor
Personal & Professional Profile
A Life of Continuous Practice
"Living the path of awakened faith and enlightened life, I dance playfully on the true horizon beneath my feet. Teaching this 'Only Moment Body' of the liberated Ancients and the authentic Buddha seal, my heart smiles with the glow of moonlight and my eyes shine with the first light of dawn."
— Dr. Bonnici, January 2008
I am a Master Zen Teacher, Trainer, and Counselor with a Doctorate in Humanistic Depth Psychology. I emphasizes the therapeutic embodiment of Applied Meditation Psychology, Applied Meditation Therapy, and Applied Core-Self Mindfulness in everyday life and relationships. I am also an internationally published author on Zen Meditation and the practice of living enlightenment.
I have been married for over 60 years to my wife Diana. We have been blessed with two wonderful sons, a daughter-in-heart, and four precious grandchildren. We live on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.
Education & Academic Formation
A few weeks after my marriage in 1966, I was in a serious motorcycle accident. After recovering from six surgeries, I became increasingly interested in the application of Western Depth Psychology and the Asian Zen psychology of embodied mindfulness and meditation.
I received my Bachelor's and Master's degrees from San Francisco State University. My Master's degree focused on the client-centered therapy of Carl Rogers, the Self-Actualization Psychology of Abraham Maslow, and the General Semantics Psychology of Alfred Korzybski. My Master's thesis examined "ego-self ideal discrepancy" and its impact on objective and openhearted interpersonal listening.
In 1978, I received my Doctoral Degree in Humanistic Depth Psychology from Saybrook University in San Francisco. My doctoral dissertation emphasized zazen meditation as a valid scientific methodology for investigating the quantum depth nature of physical reality and the embodied experience of being human in this only moment body.
Zen Training & Ordination
During 15 years of solo zazen practice, I sought to clarify the great matter of life and death and investigate the true nature of humanness. My practice was deeply influenced by Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi, a Soto Zen Master and founding teacher of San Francisco Zen Center.
From 1976 to 1987, I studied at Genjo-Ji Temple under the guidance of Jakusho Kwong-Roshi, a Soto Zen priest in the lineage of Suzuki-Roshi. During my practice at Genjo-Ji, I was ordained as a lay-monastic practitioner of Soto Zen.
In 1988, my wife and I left Genjo-Ji and founded Jotoku-Ji Zen Training Temple in Rohnert Park, California. There, in the early dawn, I officiated my formal Tokudo ordination ceremony as a Zen priest with my family as witnesses. At Jotoku-Ji, I educated, trained, and counseled Zen beginners and veteran practitioners in the Way of Living Enlightenment for over thirty-five years. I also founded four other Zen Temple Dojos in Long Beach, Santa Rosa, Sonoma (all in California), and Kamuela, Hawaiʻi.
Applied Meditation Therapy® — A Life's Work
Applied Meditation Therapy® (AMT) evolved over forty-four years of my own study, practice, and training in Zen meditation and my professional psychological research into higher states of human consciousness, peak states of experiencing, and the farther reaches of living everyday life and relationships with compassion, boundless intimacy, and bright wisdoming.
I founded and publicly extended AMT as an empowering therapeutic modality in 1996 and established its official trademark in 2002. In 1996, I also taught myself website coding to extend my teaching and counseling practice to the global Internet community — establishing ZenDoctor.Com.
I publish a newsletter to 21,500 subscribers and share my Zen teachings on LinkedIn with 30,000 followers and 50 groups with over 600,000 people. Recently, I have created a new website for my two life changing books "Peaceful Light" and "Boundless Intimacy". You can view them at zendoctor.net
