About
Nathan Jishin Michon is a postdoctoral research fellow at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan, focusing on Buddhist chaplaincy and the development of chaplaincy training programs. They trained in Zen and Thai Forest Tradition before ordaining as a Shingon Buddhist priest and interfaith minister. Michon previously worked in hospice and disaster care. They have edited or co-authored several works on Buddhist chaplaincy and community care, including Refuge in the Storm: Buddhist Voices in Crisis Care and an entry in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia on Buddhist Chaplaincy.
Teaching focus
Michon's core teaching draws on shikantaza (just sitting), breath-counting, koan introspection. The frame is the Zen tradition of seated meditation and direct pointing, but the language stays plain. Michon doesn't lecture from height. The talks tend to think alongside whatever's actually present in the room. Recurring themes include zazen, samu, and sangha. None of those get presented as abstract ideas. They're worked into the body, into ethics, into how a practitioner shows up in family life or at work, so that the dharma stops feeling like a separate compartment. There's a steady invitation in the talks to keep practice human-sized. Sit when you can, return when you've drifted, and trust that small consistent attention does more over the years than dramatic breakthroughs. Format-wise, Michon teaches in online, in-person, and the tone moves easily between guided sittings, dharma talks, and Q&A. Questions tend to get answered the way they were asked, without being reframed into something cleaner. That alone tells you a lot about how the room feels.
Background
Nathan Jishin Michon is a postdoctoral research fellow at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan, focusing on Buddhist chaplaincy and the development of chaplaincy training programs. They trained in Zen and Thai Forest Tradition before ordaining as a Shingon Buddhist priest and interfaith minister. Michon previously worked in hospice and disaster care. They have edited or co-authored several works on Buddhist chaplaincy and community care, including Refuge in the Storm: Buddhist Voices in Crisis Care and an entry in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia on Buddhist Chaplaincy. is a postdoctoral JSPS research fellow at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan focused on Buddhist chaplaincy. They especially focus on the development of Buddhist chaplaincy training programs around Japan. Jishin previously worked in hospice and disaster care. They previously trained in Zen and Thai Forest Tradition for a number of years, and then ordained both as a Shingon Buddhist priest and as an interfaith minister. Jishin is editor of works such as Refuge in the Storm: Buddhist Voices in Crisis Care, A Thousands Hands: A Guidebook to Caring for Your Buddhist Community, and co-author the Oxford Research Encyclopedia’s entry on Buddhist Chaplaincy, among other works. Michon teaches across several communities, including Insight Meditation Center, Insight Retreat Center. That work sits within the Zen tradition of seated meditation and direct pointing, and the recurring concerns of Michon's teaching, ethical foundation, steady attention, and the slow softening of habitual reactivity, echo the older texts without sounding distant from a 21st-century practitioner's life. What stands out across Michon's talks isn't a single technique but a steadying tone. Practice is treated as something built slowly, in ordinary life, with care. There's room for the difficulties practitioners actually bring into the room, grief, restlessness, the body's complaints, family obligations, and the encouragement is consistent without being pushy.
Lineage
Michon teaches within the Zen tradition of seated meditation and direct pointing. Current affiliations include Insight Meditation Center, Insight Retreat Center. The lineage shows up less in titles than in the way Michon talks about practice, with steady reference to the older Buddhist vocabulary while keeping the door open for people who've never read a sutra. Whether that framing lands as monastic or lay depends on the specific talk, but the consistent thread is care for the form without letting the form become the point.
What to expect
Sitting with Michon, you can expect grounded instruction in shikantaza (just sitting), with space to ask questions and bring whatever's actually showing up in your practice. Online sessions tend to keep the same shape, shorter sits, a talk, and time for Q&A, in a format that's accessible from home. The teaching voice is steady. Michon won't push you past your edge, and there's a clear preference for slow, sustainable practice over breakthrough chasing. Bring a notebook if you like, or don't. Either way, you'll be met where you are.
