The Association Zen Internationale (AZI) was founded in 1970 by Taisen Deshimaru Roshi (1914–1982) in Paris, France, and brought to the United States in 1983 by Robert Livingston Roshi (b. 1933), who founded the American Zen Association, its U.S. affiliate. Born into an old Samurai family, Taisen Deshimaru rejected both the Shinshu Buddhism of his mother and the Christianity that had captured his attention as a youth. He eventually found his way to Zen and to the Soto Master Kodo Sawaki.

Kodo Sawaki was a wandering monk. As a teenager he had joined the army, and after almost dying as a result of a wound, he returned to Japan as a war casualty with neither family nor friends. He eventually found his way to Eiheiji monastery, where he stayed for several years. After leaving the monastery, he wandered the land and met Soto Master Koho Roshi, from whom he eventually received Dharma transmission. Over the years, a few disciples attached to him, including Taisen Deshimaru. They remained together until Deshimaru began his period of service in the Japanese Army during World War II. When the war was finally over, Deshimaru rejoined his master and remained by his side until the latter’s death. He received the monastic ordination shortly before the master fell ill, and he received the transmission (the Shiho) in 1965 while Kodo Sawaki was on his deathbed. The master also commissioned Deshimaru to go to the west “so that Buddhism may again flourish.”

Two years later Deshimaru entrusted the care of his family to his son, settled his business affairs, and took the Trans-Siberian rail to France, with no money and no knowledge of a single word of French. He was 53. He began sitting in the storage area of a food store. As the work grew he opened a dojo, founded other dojos throughout France, and eventually built the Gendronnire Temple, the biggest dojo in the west. In recognition of his accomplishment, he was recognized by the Soto authorities in Japan and named Kaikyosokan, responsible for Zen for all of Europe.

Deshimaru fell ill at the beginning of 1982 but continued teaching zazen each day. In the spring he left France for Japan, where he died on April 30.

Deshimaru’s lineage was brought to the United States by Robert Livingston Roshi, who had practiced with him in Europe for 10 years. Livingston had grown up in New York, California, and Texas, and graduated from Cornell University. He spent two years in Japan and Korea in the U.S. army in the early 1950s, and became a businessman in Europe. He retired in the early 1970s and began practicing Zen with Master Deshimaru in Paris. Deshimaru authorized Livingston to teach and asked him to go to the United States to spread the teachings of true Zen. So in 1983 Livingston Roshi opened the New Orleans Zen Temple.

The New Orleans Zen Temple continues the Soto Zen practices established in France. Members of the New Orleans community practice zazen and samu (work practice) together, and Livingston Roshi conducts sesshin (retreats) every month. From the initial efforts in New Orleans, centers have been opened in other cities.

AZI was brought to Canada by Philippe Duchesne, who opened work in Sutton, Quebec. Subsequently, centers were opened at several locations in Quebec and in New Brunswick.

Membership

In 2002 the association reported 328 members. In 2008 affiliated centers were operating in New Orleans; New York; Mt. Pleasant, Michigan; and Miami, Florida. AZI centers are found around the world in 36 countries.

Periodicals

Zen Magazine. • Here and Now.

Sources

Association Zen Internationale. www.zen-azi.org.

Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.

Atlanta Soto Zen Center (ASZC)

1167 C/D Zonolite Pl., Atlanta, GA 30306

The Atlanta Soto Zen Center (ASZC) was founded in the early 1970s under the leadership of Abbot Zenkai Taiun Michael Elliston, who was a disciple of Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka-Roshi (d. 1997) in Chicago during the 1960s. In 2008 Elliston Sensei was the Zen Center’s spiritual leader.

The ASZC provides a group (sangha) to sit with, a place to sit together with a full zazen schedule, a lending library, and experienced teachers to respond to any questions that arise. The Zen Center also operates a prison outreach program and offers meditation instruction to prisoners throughout the state of Georgia.

Membership

Not reported. In 2008 the ASZC had affiliated groups in Athens, Georgia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia; Huntsville, Alabama; Statesboro, Georgia; and Wichita, Kansas.

Sources

Atlanta Soto Zen Center. www.aszc.org.

Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.

Berkeley Zen Center

1931 Russell St., Berkeley, CA 94703

The Berkeley Zen Center is one of several organizations that originated in the Zen Center of San Francisco during the years of its leadership by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (1901–1971). The Berkeley center was founded in 1967 and was at one in belief and practice with its parent body. However, following Suzuki Roshi’s death, and the issues raised concerning the conduct of his successor, the Berkeley center became independent under Suzuki Roshi’s student, Sojun Mel Weitsman. Emphasis is on lay practice.

In September 1979 Berkeley Zen Center moved to its present location on Russell Street, where a new zendo was constructed and officially named Shogakuji, in honor of Shogaku Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. There is a small residential community living at the center that includes priests, lay students, and children. Its general membership numbers more than 100, most living in Berkeley and the surrounding area. It is supported by the dues, donations, and strong work practice of members and friends who come from all walks of life and different age groups.

Membership

There is one center.

Periodicals

Newsletter.

Sources

Berkeley Zen Center. www.berkeleyzencenter.org.

California Bosatsukai

5632 Green Oak Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90068

The California Bosatsukai shares the traditions of both Soen Nakagawa Roshi and Nyogen Senzaki (1876–1958), two Japanese Zen Buddhist pioneers in the United States. A Rinzai Zen monk, Senzaki came to California in 1905, and in 1928 established his own zendo in San Francisco. He started another in 1929 in Los Angeles. He was the Zen master of these two independent zendos until he died in 1958. The California Bosatsukai continues the tradition of Senzaki in Los Angeles.

In the early 1960s Hakuun Yasutani Roshi, who was a student of Soen Nakagawa Roshi and had been trained on both the Rinzai and Soto Zen traditions, came to the United States. Hakuun Yasutani accepted the role of Zen master for the California Bosatsukai along with his duties at other centers. He continued working with the California Bosatsukai until his death in 1973. Besides the Los Angeles center, there are branches in Hollywood, Del Mar, Los Gatos, and San Diego, California.

Membership

Not reported. There are approximately 100 members.

Sources

Nordstrom, Louis, ed. Namu Dai Bosa. New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1976.

Senzaki, Nyogen, and Ruth Stout McCandless, eds. Buddhism and Zen. New York: Philosophical Library, 1953.

Senzaki, Nyogen, and Salidin Reps, trans. Ten Bulls. Los Angeles: DeVorss, 1935.

Cambridge Buddhist Association

75 Sparks St., Cambridge, MA 02138

The Cambridge Buddhist Association (CBA), a nonsectarian center for lay Buddhist practice and studies, grew out of an interest in Zen Buddhism that developed in the 1950s at Harvard University. It first took shape during the 1957 visit to Cambridge, Massachusetts, of the noted Buddhist scholar Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870–1966) and Dr. Shinichi Hisamatsu, professor emeritus of Kyoto University, the first scholar to give a series of lectures on Buddhism at the Harvard Divinity School. A group headed by Mr. and Mrs. John Mitchell persuaded the two scholars to remain in Cambridge for a while to establish a western-style zendo (meditation center). Suzuki became the first president of the new association, a position he held until his death. For a period, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi of the Zen Center of San Francisco served as the spiritual advisor until the selection of a second president, the Rev. Chimyo Horioka, a Shingon Buddhist priest.

In 2008 the president and spiritual teacher of the association was Maurine Myoon Stuart, who received her permission to teach from the late Soen Nakagawa Roshi of Kyoto, Japan. Stuart is also a musician, an instructor in Buddhism at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, and a popular teacher at other Buddhist centers around the United States. Other directors and advisors of the association have included Dr. Masatoshi Nagatomi of Harvard University and the late Dr. Holmes Welch, author of a variety of books on Chinese Buddhism. Because the association was for many years the only Zen center in the Boston area, it served as a central locus for Buddhist-interfaith dialogue. The results of a particularly significant early Christian dialogue session were published as Conversations: Christian and Buddhist (1968).

The association’s zendo is in an old house in a residential neighborhood of Cambridge. Though the association does not publish a periodical or handbooks, it does have an extensive library of books and periodicals on Buddhism and related topics that it makes available to members. There is a daily (Thursdays excepted) meditation period open to the public, as well as monthly sesshin retreats, occasional lectures, and private interviews. There are no communal living facilities at the temple or any shared sangha dwellings nearby. A single resident, usually chosen from among the students, serves the temple for a short designated period. The emphasis of instruction at the temple is on zazen practice (sitting meditation). Local universities and other schools bring classes and groups to the center for instruction on Buddhism and zazen practice.

CBA’s house on Sparks Street is open for use by Buddhist groups in the Boston area. All groups wishing to use the space must be approved by and make arrangements with the board of trustees. Throughout the years, a number of Buddhist groups have met at the Cambridge Buddhist Association: Tibetan groups, a Sri Lankan Theravada group, Zen groups, the Sakya Institute, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, and Boston Old Path Sangha in the tradition of Thich Nhat Han, among others.

Membership

In 1988 the association reported approximately 150 members and include a group from the Vietnamese-American community.

Sources

“Cambridge Buddhist Association.”The Pluralism Project at Harvard University web site. www.pluralism.org/research/profiles/display.php?profile=74856.

Cambridge Buddhist Association. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Buddhist Association, 1960.

Fujimoto, Rindo. The Way of Zazen. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Buddhist Association, 1969.

Graham, Aelred. Conversations: Buddhist and Christian. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1968.

Renfrew, Sita Paulickpulle. A Buddhist Guide for Laymen. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Buddhist Association, 1963.

Suzuki, Daisetz T. The Chain of Compassion. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Buddhist Association, 1966.

Chozen-ji Kyudo

Daihonzan Chozen-ji/International Zen Dojo, 3565 Kalihi St., Honolulu, HI 96819

Alternate Address

Chozen-ji Betsuin/International Zen Dojo of Wisconsin, 301 S Bedford St., Ste. 219, Madison, WI 53703.

The Chozen-ji lineage of Zen emphasizes the integration of traditional Rinzai Zen training with instruction in the martial and fine arts. It was developed by Omori Roshi (b. 1904), who in 1975 was recognized as a Dharma successor of the Tenryuji Zen lineage. That same year he established Seitaiji Monastery. Three years later he was named president of Hanazono University, where he had previously taught.

In 1972 Omori Roshi transmitted a new Zen lineage to the United States in 1972 with the establishment of Chozen-ji, International Zen Dojo in Hawaii. Subsequently a center was opened in Wisconsin. The U.S. centers place an emphasis on kyudo, Zen archery, the oldest of Japan’s traditional martial arts. Archery was neglected in the twentieth century with the new emphasis on firearms in the armed services. However, it was preserved by Honda Toshizane, a kyudo instructor at Tokyo Imperial University who developed an eclectic style known as the Honda Ryu. After the war, all other martial arts instruction was banned, but kyudo was allowed. The Zen Nihon Kyudo Federation (All Japan Kyudo Federation) was established in 1953. Omori Roshi is noted to have said, “Zen without the accompanying physical experience is nothing but empty discussion. Martial Ways without truly realizing the mind is nothing but beastly behavior.”

Chozen-ji developed in the years after Japan’s defeat in World War II, and the problems of war and peace weighed heavily on the consciousness of Omori Roshi. Out of that concern, in 1982 the Hawaiian members of Chozen-ji initiated the Institute of Zen Studies. It is their understanding there is an urgent need for Zen practitioners to introduce their perspective on human beings and the world to the west as part of the solution to ongoing international tensions.

Membership

Not reported. There are two centers in the United States, one in Hawaii and one in Wisconsin.

Periodicals

The Journal, Institute of Zen Studies.

Sources

Daihonzan Chozen-ji/International Zen Dojo. www.chozen-ji.org.

Chozen-ji Betsuin/International Zen Dojo of Wisconsin. www.cbizdw.org.

Dogen Hosokawa. Omori Sogen. London: Kegan Paul International, 1997.

The Institute of Zen Studies. institutezenstudies.com.

Sogen Omori. An Introduction to Zen Training. London: Kegan Paul International, 1996.

Veary, Nana. Change We Must. Honolulu, HI: Water Margin Press, 1989.

Dharma Rain Zen Center

2539 SE Madison, Portland, OR 97214

Dharma Rain Zen Center is a Soto Zen Temple established in 1973 for lay practice under the direction of Kyogen Carlson and Gyokuko Carlson, a married couple who are Zen priests formerly associated with the late Juyi Kennett Roshi (d. 1996) and the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. Subsequently, additional satellite centers have been formed. Meditation workshops are offered several times each month at no charge. One-day sittings and longer sesshins are held during the year.

During most of the year, the center operates a daily schedule of morning and evening meditation periods, as well as offering classes, workshops, and residential practice. The priests are available by appointment for counseling on spiritual matters.

Dharma Rain is nationally known for its children’s programs, especially the Dharma School. The manual “Sharing the Dharma with Children”explains in depth the history, philosophy, structure, and curriculum of the school. The center in Eugene, Oregon, has created SAFE (Stop All Female Excision), a project aimed at educating African females.

While Dharma Rain is primarily a temple for lay practice, several monks reside there and provide support to the work of the temple. There are also lay teachers who have been recognized as having achieved a high level of integrated practice.

An elected board of directors oversees the temple and keeps the center responsive to the community.

Membership

Not reported. Four related groups are found in Portland, Eugene, Salem, and Pendleton, Oregon.

Periodicals

Still Point Newsletter.

Sources

Dharma Rain Zen Center. www.dharma-rain.org.

Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.

Dharma Sangha

c/o Crestone Mountain Zen Center, 2000 Dreamway (PO Box 130), Crestone, CO 81131

After leaving the Zen Center of San Francisco, California, Richard Baker–Roshi continued to teach independently for several years. He retained the loyalty of some of his students from earlier days and gained a new following. In early 1985 he announced the formation of a new group, Dharma Sangha. The group purchased a building in San Francisco as a center and also opened a graduate seminary in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The San Francisco center contains a lecture and meditation hall. The Santa Fe center is for the training of senior students. Dharma Sangha is conceived as a lay-centered organization.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

“Baker Roshi Forms New Group.” Vajradhatu Sun (March 1985): 4.

Diamond Sangha

Honolulu Diamond Sangha, 2747 Waiomao Rd., Honolulu, HI 96816

Diamond Sangha is a Zen Buddhist society based in Hawaii and founded by Robert Aitken and his wife, Anne Aitken. It is part of the Sanbo Kyodan (Order of the Three Treasures), a lay stream of Soto Zen wthat includes aspects of Rinzai Zen (the two main schools of Japanese Zen). The Sanbo Kyodan, headquartered in Kamakura, Japan, is based on the teachings of Harada Dai’un Roshi and was founded by Harada Roshi’s successor, Hakuun Yasutani Roshi (1885–1973), in the mid-1950s.

In 1962 Yasutani Roshi began periodic visits to Hawaii to guide the Diamond Sangha in Zen practice. The current abbot of the Sanbo Kyodan, Yamada Ko’un Roshi, visited the Diamond Sangha annually during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Robert Aitken began his Zen practice in California with Nyogen Senzaki Sensei in 1947 and continued his training with Soen Nakagawa Roshi and other teachers in Japan before establishing a bond with Sanbo Kyodan. In 1974 Yamada Roshi authorized him to teach, and in 1984 gave him full transmission with the name Chotan Gyo’un Ken Roshi.

Robert Aiken Roshi retired in 1996 and was succeeded by Nelson Foster, who is also the teacher for the Ring of Bone community in Nevada City, California. Aitken lives near his son on the island of Hawaii and continues to write and consult with other Buddhist leaders. He has published eight books on Buddhism. Foster gladly bowed out so that Michael Kieran could serve the community. Kieran was authorized to teach by Foster in 1999, received transmission in 2004, and ascended the Mountain Seat in 2006.

The Honolulu Diamond Sangha has one center on the island of O’ahu. Palolo Zen Center (PZC) is nestled in a wooded 13-acre site at the back of Palolo Valley. The Palolo Zen Center comprises a zendo, teacher’s quarters, and a residential wing. Activities at Palolo Zen Center include daily zazen, samu, one- to eight-day sesshins (retreats), and opportunities for residential practice. Several sesshins are offered each year at the Palolo facility, and more extended residences are also available there. There are 20 practice groups around the world officially affiliated with Diamond Sangha.

Membership

Not reported. In 2008 the group listed 11 centers in the United States and 19 centers worldwide.

Periodicals

Blind Donkey. • California Diamond Sangha Newsletter.

Sources

Honolulu Diamond Sangha. www.diamondsangha.org.

Aitken, Robert. The Mind of Clover. San Francisco, CA: North Point Press, 1984.

———. A Zen Wave. New York: Weatherhill, 1978.

Not Mixing Up Buddhism: Essays on Women and Buddhist Practice. Fredonia, NY: White Pine Press, 1986.

Rawlinson, Andrew. The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Asian Traditions. Chicago: Open Court, 1997.

Tworkov, Helen. “Robert Aitken.”In Zen in America: Profiles of Five Teachers. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1989.

First Zen Institute of America

113 E 30th St., New York, NY 10016

The First Zen Institute of America was founded in New York in 1930 by Sokei-an Sasaki Roshi, who came to the United States in 1906 with a missionary group from Ryomokyo-kai Zen Institute of Tokyo. Their effort to establish a center in San Francisco, California, was not successful, and all the members returned to Japan in 1910. Sokei-an settled in New York in 1916 and founded the institute there in 1930. It was incorporated the following year under the name the Buddhist Society of America; it assumed its present name in 1944. Ever since its founding, regular meetings have been conducted. A periodical, Cat’s Yawn, was published from 1940 to 1941, and later was published in book form. Sokei-an, interned for a period after the beginning of World War II, in 1944 married Ruth Fuller Everett (d. 1967), one of the most active members of the institute and former editor of Cat’s Yawn. Sokeian died the following year.

Sokei-an left no successor, but his students continued to meet and practice what he had taught them. Ruth Fuller moved to Daitoku-ji to continue her study, and was the first woman to become a Zen priest at that temple. She also organized the First Zen Institute of America in Japan to receive American students who wished to study abroad.

In 1954 the institute began a second periodical, Zen Notes, which included the writings of Sokei-an and other Zen masters. In 1963 the institute moved into its present headquarters in Manhattan. A regular schedule of zazen meetings is held for members, and a weekly Wednesday evening session is open to newcomers. Still lay led, the institute periodically invites guest roshis to lead sesshins and extended meditation retreats.

Governance of the institute is by its members through a council drawn from its senior members.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Zen Notes.

Sources

Cat’s Yawn. New York: First Zen Institute in America, 1947.

Sasaki, Ruth Fuller. Zen, A Method for Religious Awakening. Kyoto, Japan: First Zen Institute of America in Japan, 1959.

Hazy Moon Zen Center

1651 S Gramercy Pl., Los Angeles, CA 90019

Alternate Address

Centro Zen Maezumi Kuroda in Mexico City, Fuente de Nezahualcoyotl 20B Casa 3, San Miguel Tecamachalco, Edo. De México.

The Hazy Moon Center is a Zen Buddhist congregation founded by William Nyogen Yeo Sensei, a Dharma successor of Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931–1995), the founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. The sangha encompasses two practice centers, the Hazy Moon Zen Center (also known as Koun-ji Soto Zen Temple) in Los Angeles and the Centro Zen de Maezumi-Kuroda in Mexico City. Each center offers a variety of programs supporting seasoned practitioners as well as beginners.

The sangha’s spiritual heritage is grounded in the Soto Zen tradition but also includes a thorough integration of koan practice (associated with Rinzai practice) introduced to the tradition by Maezumi Roshi’s teachers, Hakuun Yasutani Roshi and Koryu Osaka Roshi.

Nyogen Sensei received Dharma transmission (authorization to teach) from Taizan Maezumi Roshi in 1995 after 26 years of intense practice and study. Following the Japanese Soto Zen way, in 1996 Sensei did his zuise ceremonies at the training monasteries of Eiheiji and Sojiji in Japan and thus completed the traditional Soto rites of recognition as a Zen teacher (sensei). Following Maezumi Roshi’s death in 1995, Nyogen Sensei served for two years as the acting abbot of the Zen Center of Los Angeles before assuming his current role as the spiritual head of the Hazy Moon Sangha.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Hazy Moon Zen Center. www.hazymoon.com.

Centro Zen Maezumi Kuroda. www.centrozen.net.

Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.

International Zen Institute of America (IZIA)

1760 Pomona Ave., No. 35, Costa Mesa, CA 92627

The International Zen Institute of America was founded by the Ven. Roshi Gesshin Prabhasa Dharma (1931–1999). Gesshin Roshi was an artist and poet. In 1967 she met the Japanese Zen Master Joshu Kyozan Sasaki Roshi, with whom she studied for the next 15 years. In 1968 she was ordained in the Rinzai Zen lineage of Myoshin-ji, and among her duties was supervising the development of an affiliated center at Mt. Baldy, California. She was ordained a teacher in 1972 and spent the next year and a half in Japan studying Zen with Hirata Roshi at Tenryu-ji Monastery and learning Japanese and calligraphy.

Upon her return from Japan, Gesshin Roshi became head priest at Rinzai-ji Zen Center. She began to travel to Europe and teach independently of the Rinzai-ji Center, and in 1983 she formally resigned from the lineage altogether. During this period Gesshin Roshi started to associate with the growing Vietnamese community centered in the International Buddhist Meditation Center in Los Angeles. In 1985 she received the Dharma Mind Seal Transmission from the Ven. Thich Man Giac of the United Vietnamese Buddhist Churches of America. She founded the International Zen Institute of America as an organizational umbrella for her work. After her death in 1999 Prabhasa Dharma appointed her Dutch disciple Jiun Hogen as her successor.

Though she was headquartered in Los Angeles, Gesshin Roshi traveled widely and developed affiliated centers in Florida, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Membership

In 2002 the institute reported 250 members in the United States and 1,700 additional members at the centers in Europe.

Sources

Friedman, Lenore. Meetings with Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America. Boston: Shambhala, 1987.

Kanzeon Zen Center

1274 E South Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84102

Kanzeon Zen Center is a training center for both traditional Zen and Big Mind practice, under the guidance of Genpo Merzel Roshi. Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi (b. 1944) was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Long Beach, California. He attended California State University at Long Beach (B.A., 1966) and the University of Southern California (M.A., 1968). He taught school in Los Angeles and Long Beach from 1966 to 1971.

Genpo Roshi started formal Zen training under Taizan Maezumi Roshi at the Zen Center of Los Angeles in 1972. He was ordained by Maezumi Roshi in 1973 and given the title hoshi (Dharma holder) after completing koan study in 1979. In 1980 Genpo Roshi received shiho (Dharma transmission) from Maezumi Roshi, followed by zuisse (another step toward full recognition as a teacher) in Japan in 1981. In the following year he began to conduct sesshins in several European countries, and in 1984 he left Los Angeles to devote himself completely to the international community of students he named the Kanzeon Sangha.

In 1988 Genpo Roshi completed shinsanshiki (installation as abbot) at Hosshinji Temple in Bar Harbor, Maine. In 1991 he moved to Oregon, and in 1993, at the invitation of the Wasatch Zen Group, he relocated Hosshinji (Kanzeon Zen Center) to Salt Lake City, Utah. Genpo Roshi received the certificate of Dendokyoshi Kenshuso in 1995 at Green Gulch Farm in California. In October 1996 he received inka (formal recognition in the Rinzai Zen school) from his elder Dharma brother, Tetsugen Glassman Roshi, in New York City. Tetsugen Roshi had received inka from Maezumi Roshi shortly before the latter’s death in May 1995.

To date, Genpo Roshi has 12 Dharma successors: Catherine Genno Pages, John Shodo Flatt, Anton Tenkei Coppens, Malgosia Jiho Braunek, Daniel Doen Silberberg, Nico Sojun Tydeman, Nancy Genshin Gabrysch, Diane Musho Hamilton, Michael Mugaku Zimmerman, Richard Taido Christofferson, Michel Genko Dubois, and Tammy Myoho Gabrysch. Genpo Roshi has given inka to seven Zen teachers: John Daido Loori, Catherine Genno Pages, Anton Tenkei Coppens, Jan Chozen Bays, Charles Tenshin Fletcher, Nicolee Jikyo McMahon, and Susan Myoyu Andersen. For 10 years, until 2007, Genpo Roshi was the president of the White Plum Asanga, the worldwide community comprising all the Dharma heirs of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, their successors, and the many groups they lead.

The Kanzeon Center in Salt Lake City (named for the Buddhist embodiment of compassion, also known as Kwan Yin) provides an extensive training program that emphasizes the traditional combination of sitting meditation (zazen) and individual interviews with the teachers (dokusan and daisan). In addition to a daily schedule, full-time training sessions (sesshins) that last from three to nine days are held throughout the year. In 1999 Genpo Roshi created the Big Mind process, a more effective way to teach Zen to modern westerners. It blends western psychology and Zen tradition, enabling students to rapidly experience the many different aspects of the mind. Kanzeon offers both Big Mind practice and traditional Zen training methods such as zazen, koan study, and dharma talks. In 2008 the vice abbots were Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei and Michael Mugaku Zimmerman Sensei.

Membership

In 2008 the sangha had several thousand members in the United States and Europe. European centers were founded in France, England, Germany, Holland, Poland, Belgium, Portugal, England, and Malta.

Sources

Kazeon Zen Center. www.kanzeonzencenter.org.

Merzel Roshi, Dennis Genpo. Beyond Sanity and Madness—The Way of Zen Master Dogen. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1994.

———. Big Mind, Big Heart: Finding Your Way. Salt Lake City, UT: Big Mind Publishing, 2007.

———. The Eye Never Sleeps—Striking to the Heart of Zen. Boston: Shambhala, 1991.

———. The Path of the Human Being. Boston: Shambhala, 2003.

———. 24/7 Dharma. Boston: Tuttle Journey Editions, 2001.

Kanzeonji Non-Sectarian Buddhist Temple

951 Terrrace 49, Los Angeles, CA 90042

The Kanzeonji Non-Sectarian Buddhist Temple was founded in the 1980s by the Rev. Ryugen Watanabe, also known as Swami Premananda. Born in Japan, Reverend Watanabe was inspired by Kanzeon Bosatsu (also known as Bodhisattva Kannon or Kwan Yin), the Buddha of compassion, to bring Buddhism to the United States. He is the sixty-second patriarch (counting from Bodhidharma) in his line of transmission in the Soto Zen tradition. He is the abbot of Kanzeonji and founder of the Siva Ashram Yoga Center, where he holds the title swami.

The temple offers daily zazen meditation and chanting. Classes in hatha yoga are taught, and Rev. Watanabe offers his services as a practitioner of Zen energy healing (popularly called acupressure or shiatsu). Rev. Watanabe practiced shiatsu in Japan and began his work in the United States as an alternative to drug-oriented medicine.

Watanabe understands Zen as the form of meditation practiced by Gautama Buddha. It has as its object the forcing of the practitioner beyond the sphere of words to an immediate encounter with ultimate truth.

Membership

There is a single center in Los Angeles, which in 2002 served approximately 1,500 participants.

Sources

Kanzeonji Non-Sectarian Buddhist Temple. www.zenyoga.org.

Guideline to Kanzeonji. Los Angeles: Zen Center of Kanzeonji Non-Sectarian Buddhist Temple, n.d.

Living Dharma Centers

PO Box 9513, Bolton, CT 06043

Alternate Address

PO Box 304, Amherst, MA 01004

The Living Dharma Centers were founded by Richard Clarke (b. 1933), a psychotherapist who met Philip Kapleau (1912–2004) in 1967 and became his student at the Rochester Zen Center in New York. In 1980, he dropped his relationship with Kapleau after 14 years of intensive Zen training and founded a center in Bolton, Connecticut, and Amherst, Massachusetts. The stated goal of the centers is the awakening of the true self to be manifest in all of life. The teachings and practice of the centers combine elements from both the Soto and Rinzai traditions.

Membership

There are approximately 100 members.

Periodicals

Sangha News. • Living Dharma Center Journal.

Sources

Living Dharma Center: Zen Buddhist Training and Practice. www.livingdharmacenter.org/

Clark, Richard. Hsin Hsin Ming: Verse on the Faith-Mind by Sengtsan. Buffalo, NY: White Pine Press, 1984.

Rawlinson, Andrew. The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions. Chicago, IL: Open Court Press, 1997. 650 pp.

Middlebar Monastery

2503 Del Dio Dr., Stockton, CA 95204

One of the earliest Zen centers led by an American, Middlebar Monastery was founded with the expressed purpose of bringing traditional methods of Zen training to Americans without using Japanese or Chinese language and culture. The primate of Soto Zen in Japan, Rosen Takashina, certified the monastery in 1956 at Soto Zen headquarters. Middlebar was founded by Doki MacDonough, an American disciple of Hodo Tobase of the Sokoji Soto Mission of San Francisco. MacDonough was elevated to the rank of roshi by Rosen Takashina in 1962 and appointed to head Middlebar Monastery.

Abbot MacDonough follows a Soto approach to Zen Buddhism, using traditional methods that are modified to suit Americans. Soto Zen finds its expression through the humanities and arts, rather than through martial arts. Monks are trained to come to know themselves, recognize their own individual identity, and find their own expression for the benefit of society.

Applicants for admission must be unmarried, free of financial obligations, have graduated from high school, never been convicted of a felony, and be in good mental and physical health. There are no dietary practices for monks. Unlike their counterparts in Christian monastic life, the monks at Middlebar take no vows of any kind and maintain control of their assets. Some leave the monastery after a period of training to resume a worldly life, whereas others choose to remain and make a career of the religious life.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Rawlinson, Andrew. The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions. La Salle, IL: Open Court Press, 1997. 650 pp.

Minnesota Zen Meditation Center

3343 E Calhoun Pkwy., Minneapolis, MN 55408

The roots of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center (MZMC) can be traced back to the 1960s, when a group of people in Minneapolis, Minnesota, started to practice zazen, or Zen meditation. These practitioners developed an association with the San Francisco Zen Center and its assistant priest, Dainin Katagiri Roshi (1928–1990), who visited them on several occasions. In 1972, the group extended an invitation to Katagiri Roshi to become the leader of a new Zen center they were establishing. He accepted, and the Minnesota Zen Center was formed in January 1973.

Katagiri Roshi was born in Japan and became a Zen monk in 1946. He trained at Eiheji Monastery, the original center of the Soto Shu Sect. He came to the United States in 1963 to work with the Japanese-American Soto Buddhists and was assigned to their Los Angeles, California, temple. After five months, however, he was sent to San Francisco, California, to assist Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in both the San Francisco temple (Sokoji) and the independent Zen Center of San Francisco. While there, he assisted in the opening of the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.

After coming to Minneapolis, Katagiri Roshi attracted students throughout the Midwest, and affiliated centers emerged. In 1978 the center purchased 280 acres in southeastern Minnesota; it began construction of a year-round facility for intensive Zen practice. This developed into Hokyoji Zen Practice Community, which was incorporated as a self-sustaining entity in 2007.

The center is governed by a board of directors that is elected at the annual meeting of members.

Membership

In 2008 the center reported 100 members. The head teacher is Zentetsu Tim Burkett, an early student of Suzuki Roshi’s who was ordained by Katagiri Roshi in 1979 and later received dharma transmission from Karen Sunna (MZMC head teacher from 1995 to 2002). Seven ordained men and women study with Burkett and assist with teaching, lecturing, and other duties.

Periodicals

MZMC Newsletter.

Sources

Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. www.mnzencenter.org.

Morgan Bay Zendo

532 Morgan Bay Rd., Surry, ME 04684

One of the oldest existing Zen centers in the United States, what is today known as Morgan Bay Zendo, was founded in 1969 as the Moonspring Hermitage by Walter Nowick (b. 1922). A professional pianist, Nowick initially practiced Zen at the First Zen Institute of America in New York City, New York. Then, shortly after World War II (1939–1945), he went to Japan for further study with Zuigan Goto Roshi (1879–1965) at the Daitokuji temple in Kyoto, Japan (where Zen pioneer Ruth Fuller Sasaki [1892–1967] also traveled). Seventeen years of work led to his being named roshi, the first Westerner in the Rinzai lineage. He returned to the United States and founded the hermitage. He retired in 1985.

Since Nowick’s retirement, the hermitage reincorporated and has continued as the leaderless and independent Morgan Bay Zendo. Nowick and the hermitage were the subject of a book by a Dutch disciple of Goto Roshi, Janwillem van der Wetering (1931–2008).

The zendo offers meditation each Sunday throughout the year and Wednesday evenings during the summer. Retreats are frequently offered.

Zendo practice includes elements from Zen, Chan and vipassana schools of Buddhism.

Membership

About 100.

Periodicals

Morgan Bay Zendo.

Sources

Morgan Bay Zendo. www.morganbayzendo.org

Rawlinson, Andrew. The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions. Chicago, IL: Open Court Press, 1997. 650 pp.

Van der Wetering, Jan. A Glimpse of Nothingness: Experiences in an American Zen Community. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975. 184 pp.

Mountain Moon Sangha

No. 6, 939 Avenue Rd., Toronto, ON, Canada M5P 2K7

Mountain Moon Sangha is the name given to the students of Sei-un An Roselyn Stone, a teacher within the Sanbo Kyodan Buddhist lineage. In 1977, Stone went on sabbatical from the University of Toronto to Japan, where she spent most of the next 14 years in the San’un Zendo. The late Zen master Ko’un Yamada, of the San’un Zendo in Kamakura, confirmed her awakening in 1978. Seven years later, she became an authorized Zen master in the Sanbo Kyodan Zen lineage, with the teaching name of “Sei’un An”(“Clearing Away the Clouds”).

In 1992 Stone established zendos in both Toronto, Canada, and Brisbane, Australia, and she now divides her time between the two centers. Stone appointed Mervyn Lander Gô’un Ken, Cecilie Lander Gô’en An, Li-yea Bretz Sei’un An (II), Matthew Love, Garry Cam, and Jean Wilson as teachers in the Mountain Moon Sangha.

New students are invited to attend a set of introductory lectures, which include basic instruction in meditation, and are then invited to join the regular meditation program.

Membership

In 2002, thirty-three members were reported.

Sources

Mountain Moon Sangha. www.beruriahandrabia.com.

Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.

The Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO)

c/o Zen Mountain Monastery, PO Box 197, South Plank Rd., Mount Tremper, NY 12457

The Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO) is an organization of associated Zen Buddhist temples, practice centers, and sitting groups in the United States and abroad. Inspired by Zen Master Dogen’s thirteenth-century Mountains and Rivers Sutra, MRO was founded by Abbot John Daido Loori, a Dharma heir of Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931–1995), best known as the founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. Loori has received transmission in both the Rinzai and Soto lines of Zen Buddhism, from which he has developed a distinctive style, involving both monastic and lay practitioners in a program of study that embraces every aspect of daily life. Loori is also president of Dharma Communications, which is devoted to making Buddhist moral, ethical, and social teachings widely available through the production of videotapes, books, and meditation supplies.

MRO’s function is maintaining the practice integrity of its member organizations. The main house of the order is Zen Mountain Monastery, a residential retreat center in the Catskills of New York State. The order also operates Dharma Communications, a media company supplying resources for home practice. Through the Society of Mountains and Rivers, groups of students around the world are joined in the MRO training program.

Zen Mountain Monastery is an American Zen Buddhist monastery and training center for monastics and lay practitioners. Each month an introductory weekend of Zen training is offered, as well as a weeklong silent intensive meditation retreat (sesshin). Throughout the year, the regular daily schedule is supplemented with retreats focusing on the Zen arts, martial arts, Buddhist studies, and other areas thought to be relevant and helpful to practitioners. Students can pursue training through either full-time or part-time residencies or as nonresidents whose practice at home is fueled by periodic visits to the monastery. Nonresidents may also find support by joining together with others in one of the centers or groups affiliated with an international umbrella organization, the Society of Mountains and Rivers Order.

Practice in Zen Mountain Monastery is based in what is termed the Eight Gates. Loori observed that most Western practitioners come to Zen with virtually no background in Buddhism. Thus, he felt it necessary to employ a broader spectrum of skillful means than just the traditional meditation and teacher-student relationship. As a result, he developed the “Eight Gates”of training, each of which is pursued over 10 stages of spiritual development.

The first gate, zazen (meditation), is followed immediately by the development of a strong teacher-student relationship during the face-to-face teachings that comprise the second gate. The third gate, academic study, explores—in addition to the particularly Zen Buddhist sutras—other schools of Buddhism, along with Buddhist history, philosophy, and psychology. The remaining five gates include liturgy, the Precepts, art practice, body practice, and work.

The Zen Environmental Studies Institute is a not-for-profit religious corporation that provides training and education focused on Zen Buddhism’s relationship to the environment. It conducts and sponsors workshops, training, and research on the environment and the teachings of the insentient.

Membership

Not reported. The Mountains and Rivers Order includes the Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple; Providence Place Zendo, Albany, New York; Zen Affiliate of Vermont (ZAV), Burlington; and the Zen Institute of New Zealand (with sitting places at Auckland, Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington, and Manawatu). Prison affiliates and groups include Green Haven Correctional Facility, Shawangunk Correctional Facility, Woodbourne Correctional Facility, Great Meadow Correctional Facility, Elmira Correctional Facility, Wende Correctional Facility, Wallkill Correctional Facility, and Arthur Kill Correctional Facility.

Periodicals

Mountain Record.

Sources

Mountains and Rivers Order. www.mro.org/mro.html.

Loori, John Daido. The Eight Gates of Zen. Mt. Tremper, NY: Dharma Communications, 1992.

———. The Heart of Being. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1996.

———. Liturgy Manual. Mt. Tremper, NY: Dharma Communications, 1998.

———. Mountain Record of Zen Talks. Boston: Shambhala, 1988.

———. Still Point. Mt. Tremper, NY: Dharma Communications, 1995.

———. Two Arrows Meeting in Mid-Air: The Zen Koan. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1994.

One Drop Zendo

c/o Tahoma One Drop Zen Monastery, 6499 Wahl Rd., Freeland, WA 98249

One Drop Zendo was founded in 1989 in Seattle, Washington, by Shodo Harada Roshi (b. 1940), the abbot of Sogenji, a Rinzai Zen monastery in Okayama, Japan. Harada began his Zen training in 1962 when he entered Shofuku-ji monastery in Kobe, Japan, where he trained under Yamada Mumon Roshi for 20 years. He was then given dharma transmission and was made abbot of Sogenji monastery.

Since 1982 Sogenji has been one of those Japanese centers most open to students from the West. In the years since the zendo’s founding, Harada Roshi has made annual trips to Seattle to lecture and lead retreats. In 1996, the zendo purchased a tract of land on Whidbey Island and built a monastery. The monastery maintains a daily schedule of morning and evening meditation, monthly weekend retreats, and intensive meditation training twice a year. Members provide retreats for caregivers and operate Enso House, a home for people who are dying.

One Drop Zendo groups include three other monasteries (in Germany, India, and Japan), 17 sitting groups (including ones in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, Poland, and Switzerland), and three affiliated groups (in Oregon, New Mexico, and California).

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

One Drop Zendo. www.onedropzendo.org.

Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.

Open Gate Sangha

PO Box 112107, Campbell, CA 95011-2107

Open Gate Sangha was founded in 1996 by the Zen teacher Adyashanti (born Steven Gray, 1962). Attracted to meditation early in his life, Gray studied with Arvis Joen Justi, herself a student of Soto Zen Master Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931– 1995), a pioneer Zen instructor in the United States who taught for many years at the Zen Center of Los Angeles. When he was 25 Gray began experiencing a series of spiritual awakenings. In 1996 Arvis began to encourage Gray to start teaching, and Gray founded Open Gate Sangha in Cupertino. A short time later he took the name “Adyashanti,”a Sanskrit word meaning “primordial peace.”

Asyashanti’s teaching draws on the Soto Zen he was taught, but it has the distinct flavor of Adavaita Vedanta, a Hindu teaching that emphasizes the oneness of everything (nondualism). He calls it “a realization of the underlying connectedness and oneness of all beings.”One awakens “when s/he realizes that common awareness is nothing more than a dream, and moves on to a perception of the underlying unity of all things. Awakening at first tends to be temporary. Enlightenment is when the awakened state remains permanent.”

Open Gate Sangha supports Adyashanti’s teaching work based in talks, weekend intensives, and five-night silent retreats. He also travels widely, speaking and leading meditation at various locations around the United States. He has authored several books, and many of his talks have been put on tapes. As support for his work has grown, the Sangha has organized gatherings—groups that meet regularly to meditate, listen to the audio tapes of Adyashanti’s talks, and discuss his teachings.

Membership

Not reported. In 2008 the Sangha reported more than 50 gatherings taking place in 23 states and 4 countries.

Periodicals

Adyashanti.

Sources

Open Gate Sangha. www.adyashanti.org/.

Adyashanti. The Impact of Awakening: Excerpts from the Teachings of Adyashanti. Campbell, CA: Open Gate Sangha, 2002.

———. Emptiness Dancing. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2006.

———. True Meditation: Discover the Freedom of Pure Awareness. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2006.

Saunders, Luc, and Sy Safransky. “Who Hears This Sound: Adyashanti Speaks on Waking Up from the Dream of Me.” The Sun 384 (December 2007). Available from www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/384/who_hears_this_sound.

Order of Buddhist Contemplatives

c/o Shasta Abbey, 3724 Summit Dr., Mount Shasta, CA 96067-9102

The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives was founded by the Rev. Jiyu-Kennett Roshi (1924–1996), a British-born Buddhist who spent most of her early years studying Theravada Buddhism. She was a member of the council of the London Buddhist Society and gave lectures there. She began her study of Buddhism with Ven. Saddhatissa. In 1962, she was ordained in Malaysia in the Chinese Rinzai Zen tradition before traveling to Japan to study at Dai Hon Zan Soji-ji, one of the two main temples of the Soto Zen Church. She became the personal disciple of the Rev. Chisan Koho Zenji, the temple’s abbot, from whom she received her dharma transmission. After several years at the temple, she became head of its foreign guest department and was placed in charge of instructing Westerners who came to Japan to learn Zen. She eventually became abbess of Unpuku-ji Temple in Mie Prefecture. In 1969, after completing her studies and following the death of Zenji, she moved to San Francisco, California, and established the Zen Mission Society. In 1970, the society moved to Mount Shasta, California, where a monastery and seminary were created. The society has more recently taken its current name: the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives.

Jiyu-Kennett Roshi had a commission to train and ordain others, and the prime thrust of the order has been to train both women and men for the Soto Zen priest-hood. A Western environment is evident in the religious practice of the order. A complete course of study in Soto Zen Buddhism is offered, which includes religious music and temple administration skills. The order is among those Zen groups that place the most emphasis upon their Buddhist heritage. Along with zazen and the teachings of Soto Zen, a study is also undertaken in the teachings of the Buddha according to Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. Priest trainees live full-time at the Mount Shasta monastery. Celibacy is required for all priests.

The publication of Kennett Roshi’s several books, her lecture tours, and the development of trained teachers at Mount Shasta have contributed to the growth of several affiliated centers. Monasteries, priories (local temples), and affiliated meditation groups of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives are located in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and South Carolina; Alberta and British Columbia, Canada; the United Kingdom; the Netherlands; Germany; and the West Indies. Following the death of Rev. Jiyu-Kennett in 1996, Rev. Daizui MacPhillamy (1945–2003) was elected to succeed her as head of the order and Rev. Eko Little was elected to succeed her as abbot of Shasta Abbey. He was succeeded by the current head of the order, Rev. Master HaryoYoung (b. 1951).

Membership

As of January 2002, the order reports having 95 active priests and 150 lay ministers.

Educational Facilities

Shasta Abbey, Mount Shasta, California; Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, Northumberland, England.

Periodicals

The Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives.

Sources

Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. www.obcon.org/

Friedman, Lenore. Meetings with Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America. Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1987.

Jiyu-Kennet, P. T. N. H. How to Grow a Lotus Blossom, or, How a Zen Buddhist Prepares for Death. Mount Shasta, CA: Shasta Abbey, 1993.

———. The Wild, White Goose: The Diary of a Female Zen Priest. 2 vols. Mt. Shasta, CA: Shasta Abbey, 2002.

———. Zen is Eternal Life. Emeryville, CA: Dharma, 1976.

Jiyu-Kennett, P. T. N. H., and Daizui MacPhillamy, eds. Buddhist Writings on Meditation and Daily Practice: The Serene Reflection Meditation Tradition, trans. Hubert Nearman. Mount Shasta, CA: Shasta Abbey, 1994. 382 pp.

“Shasta Abbey, 1970—1995.”Special issue, The Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives 10, no. 3-4 (Autum/Winter, 1995).

Zenji, Keizan. The Denkoroku; or, The Record of the Transmission of the Light. Mount Shasta, CA: Shasta Abbey, 1993. 303 pp.

Order of the Prairie Wind

c/o Nebraska Zen Center, 3625 Lafayette Ave., Omaha, NE 68131

The Order of the Prairie Wind is a Soto Zen community founded by Rev. Nonin Chowaney, an American Zen master. He did his training at several Zen centers in the United States and Japan and was ordained in 1984 by Dainin Katagiri Roshi (1928–1990), the abbot of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis. He received formal dharma transmission from Katagiri and has been certified to teach by him and by the Soto Zen headquarters in Japan.

Chaowaney serves as abbot of the Nebraska Zen Center in Omaha. The center was established in 1975 but became independent of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in the 1990s after Katagiri Roshi’s death. Subsequently, other affiliated meditation centers have been created, including one in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (established in 1999), and another in Lincoln, Nebraska. There are also sitting groups in three Nebraska prisons, collectively known as the White Lotus Sangha.

Chowaney has emerged as a popular Zen leader nationally and is a frequent guest speaker at events throughout the United States. He is also active in both the American Zen Teachers Association and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.

Membership

Not reported. There are three centers and three sitting groups affiliated with the Order of the Prairie Wind.

Sources

Order of the Prairie Wind. www.prairiewindzen.org/.

Ordinary Mind Zen School

c/o Zen Center of San Diego, 2047 Felspar, San Diego, CA 92109

The Ordinary Mind Zen School was founded by Charlotte Joko Beck (b. 1917), who in the early 1980s had been named one of the four Dharma heirs of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. Since her separation from the Los Angeles center, Beck has become recognized as an important Soto Zen teacher in her own right and the author of several widely read books.

The Ordinary Mind Zen School manifests and supports practice in what has come to be called “the Awakened Way.”It is composed of Charlotte Joko Beck, her Dharma successors, and the teachers and successors they, as individuals, have formally authorized. There is no affiliation between the Ordinary Mind centers and other Zen groups or religious denominations; however, individual membership does not preclude individual affiliation with other groups.

The Awakened Way is thought of as universal; the medium and methods of realization vary according to circumstances. Each Dharma successor in the school may apply diverse practice approaches and determine the structure of any organization that he or she may develop to facilitate practice. Within the school there is no hierarchy of Dharma successors. The successors acknowledge that they are ongoing students, and that the quality of their teaching derives from the quality of their practice. As ongoing students, teachers are committed to an openness and fluidity of practice, whereby the wisdom of the absolute may be manifested in/as our life. An important function of this school is the ongoing examination and development of effective teaching approaches to ensure comprehensive practice in all aspects of living.

Dharma successors Elihu Genmyo Smith and Diane Eshin Rizzetto reside at the Prairie Zen Center in Champaign, Illinois, and the Bay Zen Center in Oakland, California, respectively. Beck is an active member of the White Plum Asanga.

Membership

Not reported. There are centers related to the school in San Diego and Oakland, California; Champaign, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; and New York City.

Sources

Beck, Charlotte Joko. Everyday Zen: Love and Work. San Francisco: Harper, 1989. 224 pp.

———. Nothing Special: Living Zen. Ed. Steve Smith. San Francisco: Harper, 1994. 288 pp.

Ordinary Mind Zendo. www.ordinarymind.com/biography_4.html.

Rinzai-Ji, Inc.

c/o Rinzai-Ji Zen Center, 2505 Cimarron St., Los Angeles, CA 90018

Rinzai-Ji, Inc., is an association of Zen centers in the Rinzai tradition that began in 1968 with the founding of the Cimarron Zen Center in Los Angeles by Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi (b. 1907). Sasaki Roshi had received his inka, or acknowledgment of his accomplishments as a student, from Joten Miura, later to become leader of the Myoshinji sect of Rinzai Zen in Japan. Sasaki Roshi left the monastery he headed in Japan to come to America in 1962. Rinzai-Ji began as a gathering of students who had responded to his several years of teaching in Southern California. In 1970 a second center was begun in Redondo Beach, California, and that same year the main training center was opened on Mt. Baldy, east of Los Angeles. Sasaki Roshi continued an active schedule of visiting centers, training students, and lecturing around the United States, and other centers developed in the East and in Puerto Rico (1983). A Canadian center in Vancouver can be traced to a group that formed in response to talks given by Sasaki Roshi in 1967. A set of lectures in Austria in 1979 led to the first European affiliated center being formed. Each Rinzai-Ji center offers an intensive program of zazen (“sitting with the master”) and periodic sesshin (“extended sitting meditations”). All are headed by individuals trained by Sasaki Roshi.

Membership

Not reported. In 2007 there were 20 Rinzai-Ji Zen centers in the United States, all managed by priests trained by Joshu Roshi. There also are centers in Puerto Rico, Canada, Austria, and Germany.

Sources

Rinzai-Ji, Inc. www.rinzaiji.org/.

Sasaki, Joshu. Buddha Is the Center of Gravity. San Cristobal, NM: Lama Foundation, 1974.

Rochester Zen Center

Seven Arnold Pk., Rochester, NY 14607-2082

The Rochester Zen Center grew out of the experience of Philip Kapleau. Kapleau had encountered Zen while in Japan as a war crimes trial court reporter. Further spurred by the lectures of lay scholar Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki at Columbia University, he returned to Japan and studied under Soen Nakagawa, Roshi, who assigned the “Mu” koan discussed elsewhere in this volume. Kapleau later trained for three years at the Soto monastery at Hosshinji under Daiun Harada Roshi. After five years in Japan, Kapleau experienced kensho or enlightenment under Hakuun Yasutani Roshi. This was followed by eight more years of training. In 1966 Yasutani Roshi sanctioned him as a teacher of Zen.

At this same time, Kapleau published one of the most influential English-language Zen books, The Three Pillars of Zen. This has a strong emphasis on koan work, as well as on the zazen meditation of his Rinzai training (enlarged by elements of Soto). Zazen means sitting still with a one-pointed, stabilized mind. The center in Rochester was founded in 1966 and under Kapleau’s leadership grew steadily. In 1968, Zen Bow began as a quarterly publication.

In 1987 Kapleau appointed one of his Dharma heirs, Sensei Bodhin Kjolhede, as the spiritual director of the Rochester Zen Center. Bodhin Kjolhede had trained under Kapleau for 16 years before being sanctioned by him to teach in 1986. Currently, the Rochester Zen Center has an affiliate group in Madison, Wisconsin. Sensei Kjolhede has sanctioned six teachers, who direct their own affiliated centers in Chicago; Stockholm, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland; Mexico City, Mexico; Berlin, Germany; and Auckland, New Zealand.

Membership

In 2008 there were approximately 411 members in the United States and an additional 41 members worldwide.

Periodicals

Zen Bow.

Sources

Zen Center. www.rzc.org/.

Kapleau, Philip. Three Pillars of Zen. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980.

———. To Cherish All Life. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982.

———, ed. The Wheel of Death. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

———. Zen: Dawn in the West. Author, 1981.

Low, Albert. The Iron Cow of Zen. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1985.

San Francisco Zen Center

300 Page St., San Francisco, CA 94102

The Zen Center of San Francisco dates to 1959, when students began to gather around the newly arrived Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (1904–1971), head of the Sokoji Temple, the Soto Zen Mission in San Francisco, at that time primarily a temple for the Japanese-American community. After Suzuki Roshi arrived, American students began to sit and study with him. Eventually, this group emerged as a distinct organization.

In 1967, the group purchased Tassajara Hot Springs outside of Carmel Valley, California, as the site for a mountain center more accommodating to traditional monastic Zen practice. Since this time the Tassajara Center has offered a monastic training period in the winter and a four-month guest season, as well as workshops and retreats in the summer. In 1969, a large building in San Francisco was purchased to serve as a city temple and a residence that also provides guest accommodations. The third practice place, Green Gulch Farm, was founded in 1972. Those who live at the farm follow the training schedule (as do residents at each of the other centers), as well as growing organic produce and caring for the many guests and retreatants who visit yearly.

Branching Streams, a network of Dharma centers in the tradition of Suzuki Roshi, are located in California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Montana, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. Numerous related groups are located across the country and in Canada, England, Germany, Italy, Northern Ireland, and Japan.

Suzuki Roshi was succeeded as abbot of Zen Center by his student Richard Baker Roshi (b. 1936). During the next decade the center prospered, adding members as well as developing several businesses (a bakery, a restaurant, etc.) as means of self-support. In 1983, Baker Roshi resigned. After a period of transition, Tenshin Reb Anderson (b. 1943) was installed as abbot of Zen Center, to be joined two years later by co-abbot Sojun Mel Weitsman (b.1929). Zoketsu Norman Fischer served as co-abbot of Zen Center from 1995 to 2000. Jiko Linda Cutts received Dharma transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1996 and was co-abbess of Zen Center from 2000 to 2007. Paul Haller became co-abbot of Zen Center in 2003, and Myogen Steve Stücky became co-abbot in February 2007.

The center’s outreach activities include food distribution to homeless people, street outreach, activities with children and families, mindfulness training in prisons and rehabilitation centers, Buddhist prison correspondence, and sitting and discussion group for people in recovery.

There are currently approximately 650 members of the San Francisco Zen Center, about half of whom are voting members. A voting member is one who has been a member for three years or more and is thus eligible to vote in the annual election for the center’s governing board of directors. Many non-members also join the community for meditation, workshops, classes, and retreats or in a hospice volunteer program and other forms of community outreach. All programs are open to the public.

Membership

In the 2002 approximately 650 people were associated with the city center in San Francisco. Approximately 50 lived at Green Gulch.

Sources

San Francisco Zen Center. www.sfzc.org/.

Brown, Edward Espe. The Tassajara Bread Book. Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 1970.

Butler, Katy. “Events Are the Teacher.” COEvolution 40 (Winter 1983): 112–123.

Suzuki, Shunryu. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. New York: Weatherhill, 1970.

Sonoma Mountain Zen Center

6367 Sonoma Mountain Rd., Santa Rosa, CA 95404

The Sonoma Mountain Zen Center was founded in 1973 by Jakusho Kwong Roshi (b. 1935), a student of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. A former commercial artist, Kwong Roshi began practicing at the Sokoji Temple, a Soto Zen temple serving the Japanese American community in San Francisco, and in 1970 was ordained by Suzuki Roshi (1904–1971). Kwong Roshi founded the Sonoma Center to honor his teacher and to perpetuate his Zen lineage. He also continued his study in Japan and in 1978 completed his Dharma transmission through Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi in Rinsoin, Japan. By this act he shared in a lineage that was traced back through 91 generations to Shakyamuni Buddha.

After relocating to Sonoma County, California, Kwong Roshi taught at Sonoma State University and laid plans for the development of a residential community for the practice of Zen. Within a short time, the center had a full program of zazen (meditation), sesshin (extended retreats), and one-day programs (seminars and sittings). Kwong Roshi has extended his teachings internationally and now oversees three centers in Poland and one in Iceland.

Membership

In 2008 there were 130 members in the single center in California. There were 60 members in Iceland and 123 members in three centers in Poland.

Periodicals

Mountain Wind.

Sources

Sonoma Mountain Zen Center. www.smzc.net/.

Kwong-roshi, Jakusho. No Beginning, No End: The Intimate Heart of Zen. Ed. Peter Levitt. New York: Harmony Books, 2003.

Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.

Soto Mission

c/o Zenshuji Soto Mission, 123 S Hewitt St., Los Angeles, CA 90012

Zenshuji Soto Mission was founded in July 15, 1922, by Rev. Hosen Isobe (b. 1874), and its first temple was built at the mission’s current location in October 1923. During World War II, the temple was closed due to the internment of American Japanese in relocation camps; afterward, Rev. Daito Suzuki (d. 1959) reestablished the temple upon his return from the camp. The Zenshuji as it exists today was built in 1969 by Rev. Reirin Yamada and Rev. Togen Sumi.

In 1932 the Zenshuji was appointed a subsidiary of the two main temples in Japan (Eiheiji and Sojiji), and in 1937 the general head office was established at the zenshuji in order to manage the administration of Soto Zen Buddhism in North America. From its inception, the Zenshuji has been the center of Zen Buddhism in America.

Although it has historically operated primarily among the Japanese-American community, Zenshuji Soto Mission is open to any person interested in Zen Buddhism and Japanese culture. The Mission’s education center, established in 1997, works to propagate true Zen Buddhism to the Western world; its activities extend to Europe and South America. In 2008, 53 Soto Zen temples and centers in the United States were registered by the head office. The head office and education center also publish and distribute material about Soto Zen Buddhism, including an English translation of the main sutras for daily reading.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Soto Zen Journal.

Sources

Soto Zen. www.sotozen-net.or.jp.

Zenshuji Soto Mission. www.zenshuji.org/.

Buddha’s Seeds Taking Firm Roots in North America. Los Angeles: Activity Committee of the Association of Soto Zen Buddhists, 1997.

Hunt, Ernest. Gleanings from Soto-Zen. Honolulu, HI: Author, 1953.

A Short Manual of Soto Zen Buddhism. Tokyo: Evangelization Department of the Soto Zen Sect, 1962.

Springwater Center

7179 Mill St., Springwater, NY 14560

Springwater Center came into being in 1981 as the Genesee Valley Zen Center when Toni Packer (b. 1927) and a group of friends left the Rochester Zen Center. Packer had been a student of Roshi Philip Kapleau there and became a teacher before leaving. As a teacher, Packer’s concern with the problems of tradition and authority led her to question her affiliation with formal Zen Buddhism: “Don’t all present and past influences have to stop interfering in order to attend fully, immediately, now?” The new center was founded out of this need to see through the raw material of our everyday lives rather than grapple with traditional koans and practices. The center acquired the Springwater property, built a facility, and since 1985 has held retreats, with no rituals or ceremonies of any kind. In 1986 it changed its name to Springwater Center. Packer is involved in exploring how thought constructs images of self and other, how authority is created, how separation and conflict come into being, and what happens when there is awareness and insight.

Born in Germany, Packer has lived most of her adult life in western New York. She has led retreats since 1976. Besides her work at Springwater, Packer travels to Europe and California to give retreats and talks each year. She is the author of several books, including The Work of This Moment, The Light of Discovery, and The Wonder of Presence. Packer no longer calls herself a teacher, and makes no special claim to authority. Her approach is at once simple, radical, and ordinary. She is open to meeting with those who wish to work with her.

Membership

The center has 255 members.

Sources

Springwater Center. www.springwatercenter.org.

Packer, Toni. Seeing without Knowing: Writings on Zen Work. New York: Genesee Valley Zen Center, 1983.

———. What Is Meditative Inquiry? Springwater, NY: Springwater Center, 1988.

———. The Work of This Moment. Boston: Shambhala, 1990.

Rawlinson, Andrew. The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions. La Salle, IL: Open Court Press, 1997. 650 pp.

Three Treasures Zen Community

PO Box 720896, San Diego, CA 92172

The Three Treasures Zen Community consists of a set of centers founded by Nicolee Jikyo McMahon Roshi, who had received her Dharma transmission from Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931–1995) of the Zen Center in Los Angeles. She and Barry Kaigen McMahon Sensei guide the North San Diego site. McMahon Roshi is a Zen priest and marriage and family therapist. She experiments with traditional Japanese Zen forms to find practices that resonate with Westerners. She developed the Practice of Immediacy (PI), which integrates the visual arts, writing, music, and movement into retreats. She also originated a Turning the Dharma Wheel Practice that is used in and outside of retreats. McMahon Roshi encourages students to deepen their practice by attending retreats offered throughout the year. She is certified in the Big Mind training developed by Genpo Merzel Roshi, head of the White Plum.

McMahon Roshi has Dharma successors at the Santa Monica Zen Center, the Zen Community of Oak Park in Illinois, the Vista Zen Center, and the Heart Circle Sangha in New Jersey.

Barry Kaigen McMahon Sensei is a Dharma successor of Charles Tenshin Fletcher Sensei. Both are part of the White Plum Sangha lineage.

The Three Treasures Zen Community strives to create an open and compassionate environment in which the Zen teaching can be transmitted to both lay and monastic students. A broad program includes both koan practice and sitting meditation, as well as art, sacred dance, the development of communication skills, and social concerns. There is a regular schedule of retreats.

Membership

Not reported. There are 19 sister and affiliated centers.

Sources

Three Treasures Zen Community. www.ttzc.org/.

Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.

Toronto Zen Centre

33 High Park Gardens, Toronto, ON, Canada M6R 1S8

The Toronto Zen Centre was established in 1968 by Philip Kapleau Roshi, the founder of the Zen Center of Rochester and a number of affiliated centers. The Toronto center remained tied to the Rochester center for 18 years but became autonomous in 1986. Though autonomous, the center follows the belief and practices of its parent body. The associated Vermont Zen Center in Shelburne was founded in 1988.

In 1996, the Toronto Zen Centre came under the direction of Sensei Sunyana Graef, the abbot of the Vermont Zen Center and a Dharma heir of Kapleau Roshi. Sensei Taigen, a disciples of Sensei Sunyana Graef, was ordained as a priest in 2004. The following June he was sanctioned as a Dharma heir of Sensei Graef and was installed as the abbot of the Toronto Zen Centre.

The center conducts daily zazen meditation periods and offers private instruction in the practices of Zen Buddhism. The center also offers sutra recitation, study groups, Buddhist ceremonies, all-day sittings, and talks by senior members. Intensive retreats two to seven days in duration are periodically conducted in both Toronto and Vermont.

Membership

The center reports 114 members. Casa Zen in Costa Rica is affiliated with it.

Sources

Toronto Zen Centre. www.torontozen.org/.

Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.

Udumbara Zen Center

501 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60202

The Udumbara Zen Center was founded in the 1980s as an outpost of the Zen Center of San Francisco but has subsequently become independent, even though a fraternal relationship continues. The Udumbara center has remained a Soto center but has incorporated elements of both Hinayana (Theravada) and Vajrayana (Tibetan) tradition into its practice.

Sojun Diane Martin started her training at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1970, studying with Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971). She began studying with Dainin Katagiri Roshi (1928–1990) in 1979 and was lay ordained in 1985. Yvonne Rand ordained her as a priest in 1995, and she received Dharma transmission from Karen Sunna, abbess of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, in 2001.

Udumbara chaplaincy programs focus on the areas of hospice care, prison work, social welfare, and mental health.

Udumbara Zen Center has affiliates in Waukegan, Illinois; Mequon, Milwaukee, and Palmyra, Wisconsin; Cleveland and Mansfield, Ohio; and Cupertino, California. It also runs a country retreat center in Ottawa, Illinois.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Central Flower.

Sources

Udumbara Zen Center. www.udumbarazen.org/.

Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.

Valley Zendo

263 Warner Hill Rd., Charlemont, MA 01339

The Valley Zendo started in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1970 as an outpost of Antaiji, a Soto Zen center in Japan. Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, then abbot at Antaiji, sent his students to serve as resident teachers. In 1975, the members moved the zendo to its current home in Charlemont, Massachusetts. They have maintained a strict schedule of zazen practice and retreats, following Uchiyama Roshi’s approach of sitting without chanting, talks, zendo monitors, or formalities. The resident teacher is Eishin Ikeda.

Membership

In 2008, the Valley Zendo had 20 members.

Sources

Valley Zendo. www.valleyzendo.org/home.htm.

Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.

Uchiyama, Kosho. Opening the Hand of Thought. Wisdom Publications, 2004.

White Wind Zen Community (WWZC)

c/o Zen Centre of Ottawa, 240 Daly Ave., Ottawa, ON, Canada K1N 6G2

The White Wind Zen Community (WWZC) is a Soto Zen organization founded by the Ven. Anzan Hoshin Roshi, a teacher who received his training at Hakukaze-ji Monastery in Japan. During the early 1980s Hoshin Roshi gathered a group of students in the Ottawa, Canada, area. In 1985 the original center was christened White Wind Zazenkai, after the name of the Soto Zen lineage stream that Hoshin Roshi had inherited. Zazenkai means “gathering together for zazen.”Two years later the center was relocated to larger facilities and was then able to provide morning and evening zazen, along with regular classes and monthly sesshin and residential training for a few students. In 1988 Joan Shikai Woodward became the first student to receive postulant vows as a monastic.

In 1989, the Zazenkai was renamed White Wind Zen Community and relocated to Ottawa’s Chinatown area. In 1990 two branch centers were formed, one in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and the other in Harrow, England. A sub-temple, Jomyo-in, was established in Ottawa in 1993; this allowed for residential training and provided an auxiliary practice space (dojo).

In September 1996 the WWZC purchased a 9,700-square-foot mansion previously owned by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart (a Roman Catholic order) to serve as its permanent training monastery. It was given the temple name Honzan (meaning “root mountain” or “main center”) Dainen-ji (“great mindfulness” or “vast mind moment”) in honor of Hoshin’s late master, Yasuda Joshu Dainen daiosho.

The WWZC transmits the practice and teachings of Hakukaze Soto Zen, and provides a formal environment and intensive schedule for monastic and lay training.

Membership

Not reported. There are three centers in Canada and one in England.

Periodicals

An electronic newsletter, eMirror, is sent out weekly.

Sources

White Wind Zen Community. www.wwzc.org/.

Lorie, Peter, and Julie Foakes. The Buddhist Directory. Rutland, VT: Chares E. Tuttle Co., 1997. 424 pp.

World Zen Fellowship

c/o Potomac Zen Sangha, 1014 King St., Ste. #2, Alexandria, VA 22314

Alternate Address

PO Box 2739, Alexandria, VA 22301

The World Zen Fellowship was founded in 1994 by Korean Ven. Zen Master Pohwa Sunim. He teaches what is termed “lineage Zen,” a special transmission from Buddha to lineage masters that occurs outside of doctrinal teachings. Zen Master Pohwa Sunim received this mind-to-mind teaching from lineage holders in Korea and brought it to the United States.

Originally settling in New York City, Pohwa Sunin founded what became the Patriarchal Zen Society. He later relocated to the Washington, D.C., area and founded the Potomac Zen Sangha, which now functions as the headquarters for the fellowship. Over the years, Pohwa Sunin trained teachers who now head the various centers associated with the fellowship.

The fellowship sponsors a television show, Zen Dharma Exchange, which appears on a community-access channel in Virginia.

Membership

Not reported. There are four Zen centers affiliated with the World Zen Fellowship.

Sources

World Zen Fellowship. www.worldzen.org/index.php.

Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago

PO Box 176, Northbrook, IL 60065-0176

Alternate Address

Street Address: 608 Dempster St., Evanston, IL, 60202.

The largest Zen center in the Midwest is the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago, a Soto center established by Soyu Matsuoka Roshi (1912–1997) in the late 1950s. The major activity of the group is its meditation service, which includes a lecture by one of the priests. Matsuoka Roshi was sent to the United States from Japan and served as a priest in California before coming to Chicago. Matsuoka Roshi passed the leadership of the temple to Kongo Langlois Roshi (born Richard Valentine Langlois, 1935–1999). Since Langlois Roshi’s untimely death from complications of an operation, the work has been led collectively by the Revs. Zenku Jerry Smyers, Suirin Ray Witham, Tessen Stuart Ericksen, and Kozan Jim Matson. Small groups associated with the Chicago Temple can be found in the states surrounding Lake Michigan. Matsuoka Roshi opened a center in Detroit, Michigan, in 1973. Other temples founded by students of his include the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and the Zen Center of Las Cruces (New Mexico), both now independent of the Chicago temple.

Membership

Not reported.

Periodicals

Diamond Sword.

Sources

Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago. www.zbtc.org/.

Zen Center of Los Angeles

923 S Normandie Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90006-1301

The Zen Center of Los Angeles was formed in 1967 by a group of students under the leadership of Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931–1995), a Zen master formerly with the Zenshuji Soto Mission in Los Angeles. Maezumi Roshi was a seminal figure in the development of Zen Buddhism in the West and the teacher of many who went on to found new (and independent) Zen centers across the United States. In the years since his death, many of these teachers have formally associated in the White Plum Sangha, an organizational acknowledgement of their shared origin and the essential sameness of their practice.

The inspiration for the Los Angeles center came from Hakuun Yasutani Roshi’s visits in the early 1960s. The Los Angeles center supports a variety of activities, including daily zazen, weekly lectures, and beginning classes. Center members also attend dokusan (master/student interviews) and monthly sesshin (extended “sitting” meditations). A residence program allows a few students to live at the center.

During the 1970s, the center developed a vigorous publishing program and Maezumi Roshi built a following across the United States. In 2008 there were five affiliated groups, four in California and one in New Jersey. The Kuroda Institute develops programs aimed at the academic community. Internationally, affiliated centers have emerged in England, Mexico, and the Netherlands.

Wendy Egyoku Nakao Roshi has served as abbot and head teacher since 1999, when she succeeded Abbot Emeritus Bernie Glassman Roshi.

Membership

In 1988, there were approximately 1,000 members in more than 20 centers in the United States. Affiliated centers with an additional 1,000 members are located in England, Holland, Poland, and Mexico. There are approximately 20 members in Canada, but no center has yet been organized.

Educational Facilities

Kuroda Institute, Los Angeles, California.

Periodicals

The Waterwheel.

Sources

Zen Center of Los Angeles. www.zencenter.org/.

Buksbazen, John Daishin. To Forget the Self. Los Angeles: Zen Center of California, 1977.

Maezumi, Hakuyu Taizan, and Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, eds. The Hazy Moon of Enlightenment. Los Angeles: Zen Center of Los Angeles,1977.

———. On Zen Practice. 2 vols. Los Angeles: Zen Center of Los Angeles, 1976.

Zen Center of Oak Park

163 N Humphrey Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302

The Zen Center of Oak Park, Illinois, follows the lineage of Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931–1995), best known as the founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. Their Zen practice includes zazen, samu work practice, study, koans, classes, workshops, and sesshins (retreats). They practice in both Soto and Rinzai traditions.

Sensei Robert Joshin Althouse, abott of the Zen Community of Oak Park Empty Sound Temple, established the center in 2004. He received his transmission from Roshi Jikyo Nicolee McMahon in 1999 and is an ordained priest and fully empowered Zen teacher in the White Plum lineage.

His teacher, Taizan Maezumi Roshi, is best known as the founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. Althouse was ordained as a Soto Zen Buddhist priest by Maezumi Roshi in 1973 and spent 12 years working as an artist in Los Angeles. Besides Zen, he has also studied in the Tibetan tantric tradition with Trungpa Rinpoche and Gyaltrul Rinpoche. As of 2008, he teaches “inner disarmament” workshops, which integrate nonviolent communication skills with Zen practice. He is a member of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship Board of Directors.

The center has an affiliate group on the island of Hawaii in Holualoa, which offers weekly zazen. Weekly hula classes are offered at the Oak Park center.

Membership

Not reported.

Sources

Zen Center of Oak Park. www.zencommunity.org/

Morreale, Don, ed. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1998.

Zen Community of New York

Greyston Foundation, 21 Park Ave., Yonkers, NY 10703

The Zen Community of New York was founded in 1979 by Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, who had been named a dharma heir of Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931–1995), founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. Over the years, the community became independent of the work in California. It has also developed into one of the more unique Zen communities in America by developing an outward-looking program that views its ministry primarily in terms of social work. For example, members hold retreats on the street with the local homeless community or in such locations in the local community as to bear witness to the social and economic problems of society.

Glassman developed the Greyston Mandala, a network of for-profit and nonprofit organizations that improve the lives of people in southwest Yonkers. The Greyston Mandala provides jobs, workforce development, low-income housing, supportive services, child care, after-school programs, community gardens, and a bakery facility that supplies the ice cream industry with brownie chips. The Maitri Center, opened in 1997, serves 150 people with AIDS-related illnesses. Several additional centers are associated with the community, and Glassman is an active leader in the White Plum Asanga.

As of 2007, the Greyston Mandala hired 175 people and served at least 1,200 people annually. Glassman left it in 1996. He had also founded the Zen Peacemaker Order in 1980 to promote initiatives for social change that are grounded in Buddhist teaching and practice. In 2004, Glassman began developing a training campus to teach people the skills of spiritually based social enterprise and peacemaking called the Maezumi Institute, located in Montague, Massachusetts.

Membership

Not reported. Affiliated centers are found in New York City, Brooklyn, East Hampton, and Sagaponack, New York; and Boca Raton, Florida.

Sources

Greyston Foundation. www.greyston.org/

Glassman, Bernard, and Rick Fields. Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Living a Life That Matters. New York: Bell Tower, 1996.

Maezumi Institute. www.zenpeacemakers.org/mi/

Morreale, Don, ed. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1998.

Zen Community of Oregon

PO Box 188, Clatskanie, OR 97016

The Zen Community of Oregon was founded in 1975 by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931–1995), who also founded the Zen Center of Los Angeles. The Oregon community has been led by Jan Chozen Bays Roshi (b. 1945) and her husband, Zen Teacher Hogen Bays, since 1984.

Chozen Bays was ordained by Maezumi Roshi in 1979 and was named his fourth Dharma heir in 1984. She is a mother and pediatrician, but most of her time is devoted to teaching and writing about Zen Buddhism.

Hogen Bays began practice in 1968 with Philip Kapleau Roshi, and was ordained by Maezumi Roshi in 1990. He has a doctorate in naturopathic medicine and a master’s degree in psychology and works full time for the Zen Community of Oregon. Both Chozen and Hogen have continued their advanced Zen training with Shodo Harada Roshi (b. 1940), abbot of Sogenji Monastery in Japan.

The Zen Community of Oregon sponsors urban meditation and classes in Portland, Oregon. It has founded Great Vow Monastery, which holds meditation retreats (sesshin) monthly and a wide variety of classes for both ordained and lay Buddhists, along with about 70 days of intensive meditation per year. Great Vow Monastery also sponsors Buddhist speakers and offers workshops. There is a core program leading to ordination as a Zen Buddhist priest available for those who meet the criteria. Great Vow Monastery is located in the country near Portland.

Membership

In 2008, the community reported approximately 110 active members. In residence at the monastery are the two teachers, two ordained priests, and three ordained novice priests, as well as a number of lay people. It also has many visitors from all areas of the United States, who participate in their events.

Educational Facilities

Great Vow Zen Monastery.

Periodicals

Ink on the Cat.

Sources

Zen Community of Oregon. www.zendust.org/.

Rawlinson, Andrew. The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions. La Salle, IL: Open Court Press, 1997. 650 pp.

Sidor, Ellen, ed. A Gathering of Spirit: Women Teaching in American Buddhism. Cumberland, RI: Primary Point Press, 1987.

Zen Studies Society

c/o Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-Ji, 223 Beecher Lake Rd., Livingston Manor, NY 12758-6000

The Zen Studies Society was founded in 1956 to assist the work of Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870–1966). Suzuki came to the United States in 1949 and settled at Columbia University in 1951. His lectures at Columbia lay behind much of the public interest in Zen in the United States, one visible result being the establishment of the Zen Studies Society. When Suzuki moved on to Harvard in 1957, the group continued its studies without the presence of a Zen master. Then in 1965 Eido Tai Shimano, formerly a monk at the Ryutaku-ji (Dragon Temple) headed by Soen Nakagawa Roshi (1907–1984), moved to New York. He assumed leadership of the Zen Studies Society and shifted it from its more intellectual study to the practice of zazen (Zen meditation). He established the New York Zendo Shobo Ji (Temple of True Dharma) in Manhattan in 1968 and then turned his attention toward the establishment of a rural Zen monastery. In 1971 land was purchased in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York for the International Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo Ji (Diamond Temple), dedicated in 1976. In 1972 Eido Shimano Roshi received inka—Rinzai Zen Dharma transmission in the Hakuin/Torei lineage—from Nakagawa Roshi. Shimano Roshi serves as abbot of the Zen Studies Society and as the spiritual teacher at it two centers.

The New York Zendo Shobo Ji provides a place for Zen practice to residents of New York City. Beginners are invited to Thursday evening meetings. Otherwise, the Zendo is open at various times each week for zazen. There are weekend sesshin (zazen intensives) five times annually and periodic all-day zazen sessions. Monthly Dharma studies sessions are held. After a period of regular attendance and practice, one may apply for full membership.

Dai Bosatsu Zendo was dedicated on July 4, 1976, partially to commemorate America’s bicentennial. Here, twice annually in the spring and fall, a three-month traditional monastic training is held, which attracts students from around the world. Students follow a rigorous schedule that includes zazen, chanting, and physical labor. They also follow a vegetarian diet. A monthly sesshin is also held, during which time the zazen retreat population at the monastery swells.

Membership

In 1996 the society reported a constituency community of 5,000, though there are only several hundred members and students regularly engaged in zazen. There are related Zen centers in Syracuse, New York; Jacksonville, Florida; and Zurich, Switzerland.