Hōza: Reflective Group Sharing in Rissho Kosei-kai

February 2026 (In-Progress)

Kyohei Mikawa, PhD

In Rissho Kosei-kai, we practice a form of listening called Hōza, or reflective group listening and sharing. At the outset of each hoza, we can review what the hoza is and how we all can participate as a Buddhist practice:

The goal of Hōza is to create a safe environment where speakers can express to process their emotion and thoughts honestly, without fear of being judged. Whether sharing moments of joy or speaking about painful experiences, this process allows speakers to temporarily magnify their joy, unburden themselves, gain clarity, and find peace. -- In Buddhism, attaining awareness through reflection is at the heart of practice. In this sense, hoza is a modern form of meditation practiced in a group setting where the end of suffering begins.

When someone speaks in hoza, the rest of the group listens. In that moment, the speaker is in a sacred process of removing their own confusion, expressing their truths and understanding their true emotion and thoughts. After listening, hoza’s facilitator and those who gather are invited to ask gentle questions (but not offering feedback on what is being shared or not giving any advice) to the speaker out of curiosity about what is shared by the speaker. When offering a question, each listener is encouraged to be free from any intention, hope or expectation to steer the experience of the speaker. This is how each listener fully immerses them in the present moment of someone's emotion (joy, suffering etc) being shared and truly helps the speaker. For instance, we won't say to the speaker, while listening to suffering:

• "You can try seeing the positive side of the situation."

• "Oh, I had a similar experience. This is how it worked for me. How about trying this for yourself?"

• "Buddha taught that everything is impermanent. You dont have to worry about it."

Offering these words without sufficiently listening to a speaker is not effective in hoza. These words demonstrate the weakness of the person who says and is unable to remain in the discomfort of hearing someone's emotional pain without trying to fix it. Instead, when a hoza facilitator invites you, what you can do is to offer a gently question for more understanding. For example:

• "It sounds very hard. What feels like the most painful part of that situation for you?"

• "Do you feel comfortable with sharing an example of how that person hurts you at workplace?"

Whether a speaker answers your question is totally up to a speaker. Listeners calm their mind and notice what come to their heart and gently express them in a form of question.

Hoza is where listeners express and practice caring heart by keeping the following mindsets:

1.     Confidentiality – Any personal information shared during Hōza must remain within the group to protect each participant’s privacy.

2.     Hoza Is About Holding Space – Hoza provides a space where people can safely and comfortably express their truths without any fear of judgment.

3.     Meaning of Listening - When listening, we imagine the emotion of the speaker and become one with the speaker together. When this oneness is practiced, we are transforming ourself into compassion itself—your true self.

After Listening – Hoza is a listening training that helps you to make your everyday conversation with your loved ones more meaningful and peaceful. In Rissho Kosei-kai, we believe that World Peace starts with peace in our heart, and peace in our conversation. Test how your conversation will change by transforming the way you listen to people in your life.

(End of Hoza Instruction at the Outset of Hoza)

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How Does It Work In Reality?

Here is an example of how hoza helped me when I underwent a mental breakdown due to emotial difficulitis at work in Japan:

I remember the day I met one of my office supervisors. I often felt that he unfairly criticized my work, and over time, his repetitive and unkind communication traumatized me and left me emotionally drained. After a year, I began experiencing nausea and trembling whenever I sensed his presence. Fear and exhaustion followed me everywhere.

Recognizing this crisis, I reached out to a leader at the Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhist Center where I belonged at the time. With my permission, he invited two senior members, and together they met me weekly for hoza—our Dharma practice of reflective group sharing.

I still remember the relief I felt during the first hoza meeting. I poured out my struggles and my disappointment in myself for not coping with the situation. Rather than offering advice or trying to fix anything, they simply listened and asked me gentle questions:

“Can you describe how the pain feels when he criticizes or hurts you?”

“What feels most emotionally draining in your communication with him?”

As I spoke, something shifted inside me. My mind that had been stuck in pain as if it was a hell found comfort in the compassionate space they held, where I felt no shame and no fear of being judged. They became a stable mirror, helping me see myself clearly through gentle questions without foreseeing an answer or a motive to steer me in a certain way. They helped me give myself permission to simply be myself. Over the next few months, as they held caring hoza sessions, I gradually gained deeper awareness of what was happening within me and what I needed to do.

Eventually, I decided to speak directly to my supervisor. I expressed myself honestly and kindly, without accusation. I told him that I felt hurt and asked him to stop treating me that way.

He fell silent. Then he said he was shocked , as he had never intended to hurt me. My purpose was not to change him, but simply to speak my truth fearlessly and compassionately. Yet after I did, something extraordinary happened. The wounds of pain and resentment dissolved almost immediately. From the very next day, I could see him without any distress. To my surprise, he also began to change. His words and behavior toward me became noticeably kinder.

This experience taught me about the Buddha's teaching in the Lotus Sutra, "Mutual inclusion of the ten realms." The trembling I had felt from fear was a clear manifestation of the hell realm. Through it, I learned how it feels to be trapped in serious emotional suffering—and this cultivated empathy for the pain anyone may carry. At the same time, I learned the importance of longing for its opposite: the realm of Buddhahood embodied in the caring act of listening.

As a result of this experience, my heart became more empathetic, and I felt inspired to offer the same kind of care to others who are struggling with emotional pain. Although I was relieved when the difficult days with my supervisor ended, the greatest joy I felt was from the experience of being cared for, which made me find the absolute peace and relief that embraced me in the hoza sessions. In that space, I occasionally felt as if there was no sense of time. It revealed to me the eternal present that compassionate listening can open. This taught me that Rissho Kosei-kai’s hoza is a sacred space where suffering disappears and the heart awakens.

From the perspective of mutual inclusion, this transformative moment could not have come to me without my descent into the hell realm, without encountering my supervisor’s harshness. In this sense, the initial suffering was the seed for the ultimate awakening of my heart with an aid from a group of bodhisattvas who embodied a breathtaking level of care. This experience made me realize that sometimes the Buddha appears in unexpected forms, even as someone who seems mean or unfair, guiding us to grow into better bodhisattvas ourselves. In this way, the supervisor together with the compassionate leaders and my experience of emotional pain were all my bodhisattvas.