about us
Open Mind Zen Louisville is an affiliate group of Open Mind Zen, run by Angie Reed Garner under the auspices of Al Fusho Rapaport, Roshi.
Angie Reed Shinho Garner began practice in the early 90s—and training in 2010—working with Gil Fronsdal and Dosho Port before coming to Roshi Al Rapaport and Open Mind Zen.
Angie Reed is an artist, activist and founding member of the Buddhist Justice Collective. Angie Reed studied Moral Injury Recovery with the Shay Moral Injury Center, with an eye to supporting community activists/organizers, health care professionals and educators suffering from trauma and burnout in the aftermath of the 2020 Uprising and the pandemic. Angie Reed has lived on four continents, collaborated on anthropological research into veteran-civilian relations, taught drawing to sheikhas, and sustained a personal art practice which expanded into two art spaces in Louisville, Kentucky (garner narrative, garner LARGE).
Angie Reed offers Zen training that is trauma-informed and inclusive with regards to race, gender, age, disability, and neurodiversity. In 2022 Roshi Al recognized Angie Reed Shinho as an Assistant Teacher in Open Mind Zen.
Al Fusho Rapaport Roshi has studied meditation since 1970 with a variety of teachers, including Kozan Roshi, Maezumi Roshi and Genpo Roshi and received Dharma Transmission from Shuzen Sensei in 2008. During this time he was trained in both Soto (Shikantaza) and Rinzai (Koan) methods of Zen, and has maintained this dual focus in training his students. Until 2007 he worked as a layperson in business, and now devotes himself totally to teaching in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
In 1996 Al produced the first Buddhism in America Conference in Boston. This landmark event brought together Buddhist meditation teachers from all schools for the first time in the U.S. This was followed by a conference in San Diego, Estes Park, CO (with Naropa Institute) and New York (with Tricycle Magazine). During this same time he worked with Yoga Journal producing the Yoga Journal Conferences.
He currently is director of Open Mind Zen Meditation Center in Melbourne, FL, where he integrates traditional Zen techniques with methods such as Energetic Yoga, Zen Dialogue and Zen Breathwork.