living zen :: taking care
about us
Radiant Light Zen offers contemplative training for people interested in beginning or deepening their meditation practice. We host several geographically dispersed online communities, mentor students, and train caregivers in the arts of compassionate care.
Founded by longtime spiritual friends Michael Melancon and Jonathan Prescott, Radiant Light Zen draws from their spiritual practice in the Plum Village Zen tradition. They were ordained together by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2005, receiving the Dharma names True Recollection of Radiance and True Recollection of Light. Together, they are Radiant Light!
Founded by longtime spiritual friends Michael Melancon and Jonathan Prescott, Radiant Light Zen draws from their spiritual practice in the Plum Village Zen tradition. They were ordained together by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2005, receiving the Dharma names True Recollection of Radiance and True Recollection of Light. Together, they are Radiant Light!
RADIANT LIGHT ZEN CARETAKERS
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Jonathan Prescott, BCCC BCPC
Jonathan Prescott, BCC BCCC BCPC is a Board Certified Clinical Chaplain and Pastoral Counselor. As a long time ordained student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Jonathan’s practice is to support people experiencing illness and end of life, foster effective caregiving and reconnect people with their innate wisdom and compassion. Jonathan has studied with Dharmacharya Eileen Kiera and Jack Duffy Roshi at The Mountain Lamp Community and with Frank Ostaseski of the Metta Institute and Zen Hospice Project. He integrates the Buddhist psychology of Charlotte Joko Beck into his practice and teaching.
Jonathan offers workshops and retreats to help caregivers become more openhearted, effective, and joyful. He has served as Chaplain in hospice, cancer care, and hospital settings. During Jonathan’s 40-year spiritual practice, he’s led and served many organizations in the Buddhist, Quaker and non-profit realms. At home in the San Juan Islands of Washington, Jonathan relishes the peaceful solitude of his small farm. Jonathan is the author of The Road To Freedom: Learning To Drive With Joy And Kindness. |
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Rev. Michael Daiun Melancon
Michael Melancon, Chan Niem Quang, is an ordained member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. Michael serves as our primary practice leader for Two Palms Up Sangha. He came to Zen practice in 1990, after an extensive yearlong study of the world’s spiritual traditions. Michael says of that exploration, “Many of the world’s spiritual traditions seemed to be about having all the answers, inviting us to believe or believe in this or that doctrine or deity. My encounter with Zen was so refreshing, as Zen is the practice of literally sitting in the questions. Holding space, curiosity and inquiry; allowing truth to arise in this moment of awareness and awakening; exploring life’s big questions with curiosity and open heartedness.”
Michael’s primary teachers have been Thich Nhat Hanh and Dharmacharya Eileen Kiera, who together ordained him into the Order of Interbeing in 2005. He also owes a deep debt of gratitude to Roshi Jack Duffy, with whom he has practiced 21-day retreats, as well as sesshin and dokusan. Over the years Michael has learned the value of including other voices in his spiritual training. He is therefore also indebted to the many nuns, monks and Dharmacharya of the Plum Village tradition, who have offered light on the path. He is especially grateful for his long friendship with Dharmachrya Trish Thompson, founder of the Loving Work Foundation, with whom Michael offered meditation and work retreats in the homeland of Thay Thich Nhat Hanh, Viet Nam. Finally, he studied with his beloved teacher Roshi Joan Halifax and the broad faculty of Upaya Zen Institute’s Chaplaincy Program, where Michael was ordained as a Chaplain with a specialty in end of life care in 2011. He also enjoyed an extensive career as a human resource and organizational effectiveness strategist. Michael is meditation teacher and guiding practice leader for Two Palms Up Mindfulness Community in Palm Springs, as well as for daily online Morning Light Sangha. He is a board member, practice leader and meditation teacher for Radiant Light Zen and Wise Caregiving, though which he and Jonathan Prescott teach Zen practitioners and caregivers contemplative care techniques and tools. |
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Monica Kingsbury MEd., RCC
Monica Kingsbury is a student of Thich Nhat Hanh and was ordained into the Order of Interbeing in 2009. She was given the Dharma name True Sacred Mountain.
Monica has practiced on retreats with the Mountain Lamp Community since 2003. This is where her friendship Michael and Jonathan began. She studied under her teacher, Dharmacharya Eileen Kiera. Monica travelled from her home in Victoria BC to Washington State twice yearly to participate in retreats led by Eileen. She is one of the founding members and practice leaders of The Mindfulness Community of Victoria, established in 1999. In April 2020, she joined Jonathan and Michael in leading Morning Light Sangha, a daily online meditation practice that now represents several Sanghas and spans three countries on any given morning. Monica works as a therapist, practicing with a contemplative approach to emotional healing. She includes her experience and training in Buddhist psychology, relational based somatic psychotherapy, neuroscience and mindfulness. She is a meditation teacher, trained in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She helped develop a local program, the BC Association of Living Mindfully (BCALM). For 10 years she facilitated MBSR groups, offered trainings in mindfulness to organizations, health care professionals and medical students at the University of Victoria. She is trained in Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness, and looks deeply at this trauma informed body of work and its interface with our Plum Village Tradition. She participated in the first phase of Embodied Mindfulness Based Resilience to Awaken Community Empowerment (EMBRACE), an initiative of Plum Village practioners interested in integrating trauma informed practice into our tradition. She aspires to contribute to Radiant Light Zen’s precious work of creating a Mahasangha allowing individual Sanghas to connect in practice. |
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Rev. Karla Johnston
Rev. Karla Johnston, Chân Bi Trú (True Compassionate Dwelling), is an ordained member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. Karla came to the practice of meditation in 1995, founding Lake Tahoe Mindfulness Community (July 2014) and Lotuses in the Mud Recovery Family (February 2021). She’s a grateful part of Morning Light Sangha serviceship team.
She’s in private practice as a certified Heartmath practitioner with a degree in Social Work. Karla has worked as a college instructor since 1995 and has over 30 years experience working in healthcare as Department Head, Recreational Therapist, and Nationally Certified American Sign Language Interpreter. Her specialties include partnering with Deaf and Hearing families to skillfully support loved ones in recovery, addiction, and mental health challenges. She is a TEDx speaker, “Can Mindfulness Help Solve the Opioid Epidemic.” Karla earned her Mindfulness Facilitator Certification from Copper Beech Institute. One of her greatest joys is officiating weddings on the shores of Lake Tahoe as a minister colleague of Lake Tahoe Wedding Ministries. When not serving her communities, Karla writes poetry and little ditties for her blog and professionally. |