Anne Hopkins Aitken was born in Illinois in 1911 to a family of some means, and was able to travel during her early years, and also to study. She had a BA in English from Scripps College, and a MA in sociology
from Northwestern. She was interested in poetry and art and literature. She traveled a lot, did volunteer work during the war, and enjoyed life, She was living with a group of friends in Mexico when she decided that it was time to begin her adult life. She moved to California and took a job as assistant to the headmaster at the Happy Valley School in Ojai. Anne always thought of herself as a person who enabled others to do great things. Her position as assistant to the headmaster put her in the place she felt she had the most skills. She was happiest being in the background. It was at the Happy Valley School that she met Robert Aitken - she hired him to teach English.
After their wedding, her new husband Bob Aitken whisked her away to Japan on their honeymoon - he, to pursue Zen training at Ryutakuji, and she - well, she wasn't sure what she was getting into. Anne's mother had pursued many spiritual paths and exposed her daughter to numerology, Krishnamurti, and other spiritual pursuits that she had come across. But Zen was new to Anne. At that first sesshin she was not a participant. She stayed in her room in the temple, wondering at the monks who hit others with a stick, the bell that rang intermittently outside her door as sesshin participants sat waiting
their turn for dokusan, and the serious expressions on their faces she saw when she peeked out at them. At the second sesshin, when her husband abandoned her yet again, putting her in the care of an elderly woman who lived across the fields from the zendo, she decided to see what it was all about. She couldn't bear to let the 80-year old woman traipse across the field to the temple at such an early hour by herself, and so Anne went with her.
By then, Anne realized that Zen was a serious pursuit, and she tried her best. The celebrations around the fe practitioners who attained kensho at the end of sesshin made her realize that there might be something that mattered here. In her story, "In Spite of Myself", published in Kahawai, Anne talked about the 12 years she practiced before she was able to realize her own kensho. Her discouragement and disillusionment parallels many of our own experiences, and through writing about them, she encouraged us to persist. Although she enjoyed her koan study, she did not want to teach. She wrote about her joy in beginning her koan practice all over again in her later years.
Through this time, she and Bob were.active in Hawaii, on Oahu and Maui, starting and nurturing a growing community of folks in their own Zen practice. Anne led work parties, supervised young undisciplined and idealistic hippies in building and maintaining temples on both islands, and forged ahead with her own practice. She inherited some money, and used it to support both her husband's Zen practice, and the fledgling Zen centers on Maui and Oahu. The Maui and Koko An Zendos were both purchased by Anne, and eventually donated to the sangha.
Anne was an inspiration to the members of the sangha. Her lightness of being, her strong enthusiasm for the practice, and her conviction about the potential of every person she came in contact with elevated her beyond the support person she envisioned herself to be. She particularly supported the women by listening, paying attention, and communicating her certainty that everything would work out just fine. When she invited you to tea you felt special.
Anne died of heart failure in 1994. She had been marshalling her energies carefully for several years before her death, but the end came swiftly, in just a few days. The last thing I heard her say, in a breathless and soundless utterance at her hospital bedside was whispered into Aitken Roshi's ear as he bent down to her. She said, 'I love you.’
The Kahawai editor's comment introducing Anne's article, "In Spite of Myself," said, "This sangha would not live without the love and dedication of Anne Aitken." What a legacy for this beatific woman who liked to stand behind others. In spite of herself, indeed.
Ratliff, Kathy (2009). "Founding the Diamond Sangha Robert Aitken Roshi & Anne Hopkins Aiken" (PDF). http://szc.org.au/uploads/szc_mmc_winter_2009.pdf ''Mind Moon Circle: Journal of the Sydney Zen Centre'' (Winter). pp. 1–3. Retrieved 01 Dec 2019: