Teachers

Frank Seisho Diaz, Sensei, is currently Director and Resident Teacher at Open Mind Zen Indiana. Seisho received dharma transmission from Roshi Fusho Rapaport in 2021. He is also a member of the Lay Zen Teachers Association. He began studying Zen at Tallahassee’s Cypress Tree Zen Center in 1994. Along with teaching Zen, he is also founder and former Director of the Institute for Mindfulness-Based Wellness and Pedagogy (MBWP), and leads mindfulness workshops for teachers, artists, and the general public across the United States. He is on the faculty at Indiana University, where he teaches and conducts research on mindfulness in performing arts and education.

Darla Ryushin McKeeman is an assistant teacher at Open Mind Zen Indiana, having received authorization to teach from Seisho Sensei in 2022. Darla works as a psychologist with a private practice in Columbus, Indiana. She has used mindfulness-based practices for over a decade with clients presenting with varied mental health issues. She became interested in Buddhism in the 90s which culminated in a Buddhist pilgrimage in 2012.  At that time she took vows and began to study Tibetan Buddhism more formally with Zachoeje Rinpoche of the Emaho Foundation. As a result of a trip to Africa in 2019 she became a board member of Ecosource Sustainability Initiatives, whose current focus is the Kitale Children’s Home in Kitale, Kenya. Darla grew up in Indiana and has also lived in Nevada, Arizona and Texas before returning to Indiana in 1999.  

Phil Daiku Ford is an assistant teacher at Open Mind Zen Indiana, having received authorization to teach from Seisho Sensei in 2022. He began his Zen practice at the Sanshin Zen Community in 2009 and has studied with Al Fusho Rapaport since 2019. He is a professor of musicology at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and co-hosts the podcast Weird Studies, which stages a dialogue between a Zen Buddhist (Phil) and a Roman Catholic (J.F. Martel) on ideas ranging across Western and Eastern traditions of philosophy, religion, and magic.