Rev. Morris Sullivan, Volusia Buddhist Fellowship’s primary dharma teacher and spiritual head, received his Sensei credential in 2010 from Bright Dawn, a non-sectarian tradition based on Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. He ordained as a Soto Zen monk in 2018, so is ordained both as a monk and minister. In 2013, he received dharma transmission in the Lam Te Chuc Thanh Dharma Zen lineage at White Sands Buddhist Center from the monastery’s abbot, Ven. Khai Thien. With this acknowledgement came a new dharma name, Pháp Hương Nhất, which means Dharma Fragrance One. He earned a certificate in Japanese Psychology Methods in 2015.

Sensei Morris began leading Volusia Buddhist Fellowship meetings in 2004. In 2006, he began meeting weekly with Buddhist inmates at Tomoka Correctional Institution and spent a retreat as a Theravada monk, studying Vipassana meditation with Than Chaokhun Sunan Phra Vijitrdhammapani, the abbot of Wat Florida Dhammaram in Kissimmee,

His interest in Buddhism and Eastern Religion began in the 1960s while he was a teenager living in Texas. In the mid-1970s, he began reading about Zen Buddhism while studying philosophy and religion at a community college in Central Florida. His first formal Buddhist practice began around 1990, when a Unitarian minister in Orlando founded a meditation group that followed Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing practice tradition.

Until he moved to New England in late 2022, “Sensei Morris” led meetings in DeLand, at White Sands Buddhist Center and at Tomoka Correctional Institution. He also spoke regularly at Unitarian Universalist churches in Florida, and served from 2016-2022 as chaplain at Stetson University.

He now returns to Florida periodically to lead services and retreats at Volusia Buddhist Fellowship and White Sands Buddhist Center.