When you click on the names below you will be taken to information about them. Clicking on their name in the information section will take you to the page where the recording of their talk is kept.
Sozen lived at Sogenji for seven years and returned to Europe due to a cancer diagnosis. His personal healing journey of the last ten years resulted in becoming a healer himself, sharing his discoveries and working as an emotional body therapist. Jan Sozen has gratefully been able to continue his Zen training with Taigen Shodo (Harada) Roshi in the European sesshins. This is his Belgian website.
Soko is an artist, writer and educator based in Dublin, Ireland with strong roots in Maine. She has exhibited nationally and internationally (United States, Japan and UK). She did the illustrations for the book about her sister, Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind: The Zen Journal and Letters of Maura Soshin O’Halloran . She also recently created a series of illustrations of the ten oxherding pictures to accompany the Roshi’s upcoming book (soon to be announced) and is editing a memoir comparing her Sogenji experience with the Covid lockdown. Beth has been a student of the Roshi's since 1995. She lived in Sogenji for three years 1995-1999. She is now a core member of The One Drop Zendo in Dublin. Beth's artwork, writing and teaching are all deeply informed by her zen practice. http://www.bethohalloran.com
Yusan's spiritual path was catalyzed by the illness and short life of his older brother who was born with muscular dystrophy. In 1985 Yusan booked a one way ticket to Japan where he studied Aikido, Shakuhachi and began serious Zazen practice. He “accidentally” discovered Sogen-ji Monastery in 1986 and began attending sesshins. Yusan moved to live at Sogenji Monastery in 1988 and ordained in 1992. He was sent to live on Whidbey Island in 1996 to help create Tahoma Monastery. In 2002, Yusan left on pilgrimage to India, Nepal and Thailand and now works in Germany as a social worker. He has translated 12 books including 10 for Master Mario Mantese as well as books on Yoga and Butoh. He teaches “Stillness and Movement” workshops in schools, hospitals and community centers and is married to Florentine who is a yoga teacher, shiatsu practitioner and social therapist.
Keishin began practicing Zen meditation at Green Gulch Zen Center in Marin, CA, in the mid-1980s where she also took lessons in Chado with Nakamura Sensei. In 1990, she moved with her husband to Oregon where she joined the Zen Community of Oregon. Keishin took Jukai with Chozen Bays in 1991, received a certificate of Chamei from the Urasenke School in Kyoto and taught Chado at the Wakai Tea Association in Portland. She is the author of Tea and Ceremony: Experiencing Tranquility (2004). After her husband’s death from Alzheimer’s, she published a duo-memoir featuring his essays and poems written during his struggle with the disease. In Wife, Just Let Go: Zen, Alzheimer’s, and Love (2017), Keishin describes how Zen and the Way of Tea were two pillars that held her up in her years of caregiving. At present, living in Hawaii, she continues to share Zen and Chado through the simple offering of “peacefulness in a bowl of tea.” Keishin first attended Taigen Shodo (Harada) Roshi’s sesshin at Bastyr University in WA in the mid-1990s and trains with Roshi and Chisan whenever possible.
Daiko was born in Denmark in 1964. He graduated as a yoga instructor in 1986 and practiced Kriya yoga for 7 years. He began Zen training after his encounter with Taigen Shodo Harada Roshi in Denmark in 1993. Daiko did monastic training at Sogenji between 1994-2010 and continues to visit for annual Rohatsu sesshins. During these years, Daiko also was a resident for two periods at Tahoma Sogenji monastery on Whidbey island. He is an active member of the European sangha, regularly joining sesshins at Hokuozan Sogenji monastery in Germany. In Denmark Daiko mentored and supervises zazen at One Drop Zendo Copenhagen. He currently resides in Copenhagen, doing carpentry as a full time job at Restaurant Noma.
Chozen Roshi has studied and practiced Zen Buddhism since 1973. She received Jukai (lay precepts) in 1975 and Tokudo, Priest’s Ordination, in 1979 from Taizan Maezumi, Roshi. From 1978 to 1983 she lived at Zen Center of Los Angeles, studying with Maezumi, Roshi and directing the Zen Center’s non-profit Medical Clinic. She finished formal koan study in 1983 and was given Dharma transmission that same year. Following the death of Maezumi Roshi in 1995 she continued her training with Taigen Shodo (Harada) Roshi. Since 1985 Chozen Roshi has been the teacher for Zen Community of Oregon. In 2002 co-founded Great Vow Zen Monastery and in 2011 she co-founded Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple in Portland, Oregon. She has written books on mindfulness and mindful eating, and written articles published in Tricycle, Buddhadharma and Shambhala Sun. Her first book, Jizo Bodhisattva, Modern Healing and Traditional Buddhist Practice (Tuttle, 2002), has been re-issued in paperback as Jizo Bodhisattva, Guardian of Children, Women and Other Voyagers by Shambhala. She is the author of How to Train a Wild Elephant: And Other Adventures in Mindfulness (Shambhala, 2011), and Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food (Shambala 2011). Chozen Roshi is also a pediatrician, mother, and wife.
Hogen began practicing in 1968 with Philip Kapleau Roshi and was part of the residential staff at Zen Center of Rochester in Rochester, New York until 1975. He lived and trained at Zen Center of Los Angeles under the direction of Taizan Maezumi Roshi from 1980-1984. In 1990 he took priest’s ordination with Maezumi Roshi. After advice and consultation with Roshi and other Zen teachers, he received Dharma Transmission from Chozen Roshi in 2000. He continued his Zen studies with Taigen Shodo (Harada) Roshi in Japan and on Whidbey Island from 1990 – 2015. He has been a leader of Zen Community of Oregon since 1985 and works full-time for the sangha since 1997. He is co-abbot of Great Vow Zen Monastery. Hogen holds a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) and Master’s Degree (MS) in Psychology. He worked for the Oregon Department of Corrections for 15 years. Hogen is a lifelong and devoted student of the Dharma and continues to broaden his practice by studying with teachers outside the Zen tradition.
Dairyo met the Roshi and Chisan in 1991 and eventually led the fundraising effort for the purchase of the 60-acre land on Whidbey Island which is now the home of Tahoma Monastery. He also served as head monk at Tahoma for 19 months (2016-2017). He holds a Ph.D. in Chinese history from the University of Washington (1994) and has been studying Chinese history, literature, and thought since 1975. He is a translator and a teacher of Chinese language, history, Buddhism, Taoism, and Persian poetry. Dairyo has had his translations published by Yale University Press and Stanford’s Cantor Center for Visual Arts. A resident of Concord, Massachusetts, he is now working on translations from a seventh-century Chinese text called the Jin shu, The History of Jin Dynasty (266-420). He also teaches online courses based on Bill Porter's books including Zen Baggage, Tao-te ching, and The Heart Sutra. His website here.
Jirin was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1938. She explored various meditation practices from India from the early ’60’s until finding her home in Zen Buddhism in the mid 1980’s through the Diamond Sangha. She first met Taigan Shodo (Harada) Roshi in 2008 and has sat with Roshi at Sogenji or Tahoma Monastery most years since then. As an engaged Buddhist, Jirin founded Buddhist Peace Fellowship in Melbourne in 1993, and has been actively involved with the International Network of Engaged Buddhists over the last 25 years. Through this network, she has offered training in peace-building and conflict transformation in Myanmar/Burma and worked with Buddhist Dalits (former “Untouchables”) in India. Prior to this she was involved in humanitarian and development work in the Horn of Africa and southeast Asia.
Jeanette is group leader of Louisville (Kentucky) Zen Center. She was born in North Carolina in 1967, served in the United States Air Force for eight years, and earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Southern Illinois University. For nearly 15 years, Jeanette worked in engineering before leaving this vocation to raise a family and to dedicate herself to the Buddhadharma. Jeanette began practicing Zen in 1994. Since then she has been maintaining a daily personal practice and regularly attending group sittings, sesshin, and residential Zen training (including pilgrimages to Sogenji in 2015 and 2016). She works closely with her teacher, Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, Abbot of Rochester Zen Center. With his on-going guidance and support, Jeanette began instructing others in Zen meditation in 1999. In 2011, Jeanette Prince-Cherry became a lay novice in the Three Jewels Order (3JO) of Rochester Zen Center's Cloud-Water Sangha. After a comprehensive three-year period of Zen training, study, and service, she completed this novitiate and earned full investiture. In 2018, Jeanette was ordained a novice Zen Buddhist priest of the 3JO. She hopes to complete her novitiate for full ordination in 2021 (Covid-willing!). Jeanette feels honored to serve Zen sanghas (communities) in Louisville, KY, and Rochester, NY.
DoAn first met Taigen Shodo (Harada) Roshi in the mid-1990’s and has been his student ever since. Ansan lived full time at Sogenji Monastery in Japan for seven years and has now lived in Asia for over twenty years. He has also been a student of internal martial arts, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Mandarin Chinese language and, most recently, Italian language. Ansan currently lives in Taiwan where he works as a translator. He continues his Zen practice with Roshi at Sogenji Monastery several times a year.
He was born in 1943 and has practiced zazen for over 50 years. Wes began his Zen training in 1970 at the Rochester Zen Center with Philip Kapleau Roshi and has studied with Tangen Harada Roshi, Taigen Shodo (Harada) Roshi, Priscilla Daichi Zenni, and Bodhin Kjolhede Roshi. Since moving to Vashon Island in 2015, Wes has practiced Zen with the Puget Sound Zen Center on Vashon. During his 50-year career in chemistry, Wes published two books and over 300 peer-reviewed research papers, and he won several national awards for his research. Retiring from academia in 2018, Wes’s post-retirement activities include gardening, flower arranging, tea ceremony, and photography.
Shaku Kōjyu san came to Daishu-in West (located in Humboldt county, California) in 2007 and was ordained in Kyoto the following spring. He spent ten years in Japan as a training monk at Daitoku-ji and Kosho-ji before returning to America. In August 2018, Shaku Kōjyu san was installed as the abbot of Daishu-in West. Daishū-in West is one of three Myōshin-ji international branch temples in the United States. The original Daishū-in is a sub-temple of Myoshin-ji located at Ryōan-ji temple in Kyoto.
Kurt began practicing Zen in 1980, and trained at Ring of Bone Zendo with Gary Snyder and Nelson Foster, before beginning his training with Taigen Shodo (Harada) Roshi in 1995. He was active in the construction of Tahoma Zen Monastery on Whidbey Island. For the past twenty-five years he has led wilderness meditation retreats in Alaska through his kayaking outfitter-guide company Inside Passages, and has also trained with Jon Kabat-Zinn as a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher. Since 2006 he has taught MBSR to veterans with PTSD at Seattle’s VA Hospital. Kurt is the author of The Circumference of Home. He lives on Whidbey Island.
Cynthia and David almost met in 1974 through zen practice with a mutual friend, but didn't realize how close they had come until five years later. Cynthia grew up in a loving family that encouraged her to speak her mind about injustice in the world. She discovered a love of travel and adventure. David grew up with a science bent which led to a physics degree and a teaching career. They raised three children and have three grandchildren. In 2001, they set up the non-profit Tinyblue Foundation which has supported the formation of Enso House and its operation for the past 20 years. The book, Enso House: caring for each other at the end of life tells our story of how we met Shodo Harada and Chisan, and how Ann Cutcher and others from the sangha and the Whidbey community came together to give birth and nourishment to Enso House.
Josh Jitsudo Baran, former Zen priest and Soto Zen teacher, longtime practitioner of Tibetan Dzogchen, is a social activist and public relations/ communications professional including working closely with Dalai Lama, Karmapa, Mingyur Rinpoche, Goenka, Iyengar, and other spiritual leaders. He has worked for many non-profit efforts around human rights, AIDS, the environment, and social change movies. Dharma brother of Alan Gensho Florence from Shasta Abbey years (1970-77), he visited Shodo Harada Roshi and Daichi Zenni (Chisan) when writing an article on Zen and War, is the author of an anthology of spiritual quotations (currently reissued as Mindfulness Day by Day), and has expertise around excesses and abuses in spiritual communities. Baranstrategies.com
is a long time student of Harada Roshi and Daichi Zenni. She lives with her husband, Rozan, in Portland, Oregon. She is quasi-retired, and she volunteers raising produce for the Emergency Food Bank and at Tahoma sesshins, where she has served as Main Tenzo and currently as Sesshin Manager.
2/16/21
was born in 1966 in Basel, Switzerland. He works as a freelance photographer for many national and international newspapers and magazines covering projects in Eastern Europe, Asia and Switzerland. Many of his projects focus on the consequences of war. Jigen has studied with Shodo Harada Roshi since 1992. Many of the photos we know and cherish from Sogenji Monastery were captured by Jigen. Sun Face - Moon Face: Life in Sogenji / Japan. Rinzai-Zen training under Shodo Harada Roshi, 1995 - 2013
2/11/21
was born in Baltimore, MD, raised in New Haven, CT, and has lived in Japan since 1969. An ordained Zen monk in the Rinzai tradition, he has lived and trained in several Zen monasteries in Japan under Yamada Mumon Roshi and other Rinzai zen teachers. He currently resides at the small temple Nanpo-in on the Tenryuji monastery grounds and pursues his interests in organic gardening and shiatsu. His publications include Entangling Vines: Zen Koans of the Shūmon Kattōshū, The Record of Linji, Dialogues in a Dream: the Life and Zen Teachings of Musō Soseki, and How to Do Zazen by Shōdō Harada Roshi
2/2/21
began his formal training in 1973 at Karma Dzong, the meditation community founded by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Boulder, Colorado. He attended classes at Naropa Institute during its early years including a class on Zen, taught by Kobun Chino Sensei. In early 1979 Rozan moved to Missoula, Montana where he worked as a brakeman for Burlington Northern Railroad. While attending a Vajradhatu meditation retreat in the Russian River area of Northern California in the Spring of 1985, Rozan met his future wife Jiyu. He moved to Portland, Oregon later that year. Jiyu and Rozan took Jukai with Chozen Bays in 1991 and began their training with Shodo Harada at Cloud Mountain in 1995.
1/26/21
is a social worker who spent most of his career working in hospice and end of life care. He began his career as a hospice volunteer in 1992, the same year that he met Harada Roshi and attended his first osesshin. Ed is also a co-founder of Enso House [ www.ensohouse.org ], an end of life support and care home associated with Tahoma Monastery on Whidbey Island. Ed has served as Board President for Enso House from its beginning.
None of the books on Zen that he had read quite prepared him for the experience of his first sesshin. It was challenging in every sense of the word. But it was also life-changing and came at the precise moment he was beginning his work with the dying. He has always felt that zazen practice made him a better hospice worker, and that caring for the dying deepened his experience on the cushion.
1/19/21
Raised on Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands in Washington State, Tendo Zenji has always been most at home on these Islands. His passion in his youth was kite flying and, in his high school years, forensics. After graduating high school, he went to college in Olympia, Washington, where he studied a diverse array of subjects including Art Appreciation, Latin, Non-Euclidean Geometry and the History of American Film. Eventually leaving college with dual bachelor degrees, he lingered in Olympia before making his way inexorably north. Over the years he has held myriad jobs including bucking hay, cleaning carpets, inventory management, dishwashing, janitor, key cutting, logic tutor, prep cook, technical writer and paperboy. He enjoys spending time out of doors and has wiled away many hours along the backroads, beaches, forests and mountains of Washington State and beyond. Since 2018 he has resided at Tahoma Monastery as janitor, groundskeeper and general caretaker. [Note: And head monk!] Tendo san keeps a blog with archives of his hogo (dharma talks) at Drafty Mountain Hut.
1/15/21
college dropout, civil rights activist, began practicing with Shunryu Suzuki in 1966 at the age of twenty-one at the San Francisco Zen Center and was ordained by Suzuki Roshi in 1971. He helped start the first Zen monastery outside of Asia, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He is the author of Thank You And OK!: an American Zen Failure in Japan (1994), which chronicles his years in Japan and Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki. He now lives a simple life in Bali with his wife. “To me the essential step of spiritual practice is to drop belief and forget teachings. Just taking the next step, the next breath, and doing my duty.” See his website: cuke.com
1/7/21
(Okayama’s unofficial Mayor!) is Sogenji’s closest neighbor, in distance and in affinity. Her family’s affiliation with Sogenji dates back to 1860, when medical doctor Yotei Kuyama, her ancestor from five generations back, built a house on Sogenji’s property under the permission of the Lord Ikeda (owner of Sogenji) and at the suggestion of Gisan Zenji, then Abbot of Sogenji. Ever since then, for six generations, Sogenji has been the spiritual home of the Kuyama family, and in return this family of a long line of doctors has been providing the residents of Sogenji with medical services, as well as, in the words of Kunitomi san, “playing the role of their parents.” Historically, when a new Head Abbot would be installed in Sogenji, the first half of the Installation Ceremony took place at her parents’ house, with her family playing the role of the new Abbot’s parents. As Kunitomi san says, “I have inherited the family tradition of the blessed relationship with Sogenji over the years and hopefully our children will hand it down to their children.” She also was responsible for our beloved connection with Don Sampson, Chief of the Walla Walla, and his family. Over the years Kunitomi san has performed countless favors for Sogenji sangha members from all over the world, navigating them through the mysterious ways of Japanese society and culture, and helped more sangha members get and stay out of trouble than Harada Roshi will (hopefully) ever learn about. We collectively owe a huge debt of gratitude to her!
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12/29/20
and her late husband Tim Jundo Williams first met Shodo Harada in the early 1990s and trained with him, separately and together, both at Sogenji and at Tahoma. At Shodo Harada's request, Tim did the drawings for the Roshi's first book, Morning Dewdrops of the Mind (North Atlantic Books, 1993). A book editor by profession, Jane was involved with the publication of three books by Shodo Harada: The Path to Bodhidharma (Tuttle Publishing, 2000); Moon by the Window (Wisdom Publications, 2011, with Jundo); and Not One Single Thing (Wisdom Publications, 2018). The Missouri One
Drop group continues to meet several times a week. For three years, they have sponsored a sitting group inside the local men's prison, which is now on hiatus due to Covid. (See Jundo’s artwork and Roshi's books at Wisdom)
12/15/20
Born to a nuclear physicist and a potter in a family of Gurdjieff practitioners, Jessica Sokei Leon was first introduced to Sogenji in the late 1980s by her mother Josephine (dharma name Jisho), who first met "Ho-Jo San" (Harada Roshi) and Chi san through mutual friends while Jisho was living in Kyoto in the mid-1980’s. Encouraged by Jisho, Sokei did her first sesshin at Sogenji in October 1989. Sokei returned to train at Sogenji from 1996-2001. On one of her visits home, Sokei attended the ceremony led by Don Sampson to open the Tahoma land in September 1996. After leaving Sogenji in 2001, Sokei returned to the USA to reside at Tahoma and Enso House until 2003. Sokei was fortunate to be part of a great Tahoma team during sesshins, to continue her friendship with Chisan and Roshi, and to give back to the sangha in gratitude for so much she has received. In recent years, Sokei has focused much of her energy exploring how zen practice intersects with addiction and recovery work. Sokei lives on Whidbey Island with her husband Simon Leon and considers herself to be a something of a zen weirdo.
12/8/20
was born and raised in México City. In 2000, she became a resident of Sogenji Monastery in Japan. In 2009 Shodo Harada Roshi held the opening ceremony for One Drop Zen Mexico ( onedropmexico.org ). ENen has led the Zendo since: translating sutras, teachings and making Roshi’s strict retreats available for Spanish speakers. Weekly Zazen, sutra chanting practice, and monthly retreats are held at the Merida Yucatan temple.
12/1/20
trained at Sogenji for much of his twenties, and was ordained in 2005 under Shodo Harada Roshi. He now lives with his partner, Shojun, and three daughters on Whidbey Island, where he writes the popular Zen Embodiment blog, teaches workshops on movement and meditation, and sees clients in person for healing and Embodiment sessions. You can follow him on his blog: https://zenembodiment.com or check out his YouTube videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWri5Swe_oxRvGg60UO88og
11/24/20
is the abbot of Korinji, a Rinzai Zen monastery near Madison, Wisconsin. He began Zen training in 1988, practicing under three teachers in the line of Omori Sogen Roshi. He received inka shomei in 2008 and began serving as Korinji's abbot upon the monastery's dedication in 2013. Like other teachers in this lineage Meido emphasizes the embodied nature of genuine Zen training, and in particular has stressed the internal energetic cultivation practices handed down in Rinzai Zen. Meido is the author of The Rinzai Zen Way: A Guide to Practice (Shambhala, 2018) and Hidden Zen: Practices for Sudden Awakening and Embodied Realization (Shambhala, 2020). Before his ordination he traveled internationally for many years as a professional martial art teacher. He is additionally ordained as a Shugendo priest.
11/17/20
was born in Germany and, after receiving a Master’s degree in architecture, went to Japan in 1990 in search of an authentic Zen master. She began full time monastic training at Sogen-ji Monastery, receiving full ordination in 1995. Having trained with Roshi for 30+ years, she currently serves as teacher in residence, under Mitra Roshi, at Yuukoku-ji (Hidden Valley Zen Center) in California where she leads daily sitting, offers private instruction, sesshin, Dharma talks, ceremonies and residential monastic training. She also writes for “The Oak Tree in the Garden,” a journal published by HVZC. She continues to train intensively with her ordaining teacher, Shodo Harada Roshi, whenever possible.
11/3/20
was certified to teach Soto Zen by Houn Jiyu Roshi. He received Dharma transmission (Shiho) with Kennett Roshi in 1972, training at Shasta Abbey until 1976 and has been training with Shodo Harada Roshi since 1997, often living at Tahoma Monastery as head monk. He has been editing the One Drop newsletter since 1999 and has assisted with numerous Roshi book projects over the decades. Gensho has practiced meditation and yoga for well over forty years. Gensho is an accomplished yoga teacher, and posts Youtube videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/mentalblocks/videos .
10/20/20
scholar of Asian religion, culture, and Buddhist philosophy, completed a PhD in Western philosophy at Stanford University in 1976, and that year was ordained as a Zen monk at Daitoku-ji in Kyoto. He formally entered the monastery in 1977 and for the following thirteen years trained there in Rinzai Zen kōan practice. In 1990 Sōgen returned to his home country of Canada, and became professor of Japanese Religion at McGill University (Montreal) in 1994. Sōgen was a member of the McGill Centre for East Asian Research and the McGill Centre for Medicine Ethics and Law. He was on the Advisory Council of Enpuku-ji Montreal and presently serves on the ODZA board of directors. He is the author, editor or translator of several books, including Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Kōan Practice. In 2015, he retired from McGill University and now lives in Victoria, BC.
10/6/20
grew up in Los Angeles and graduated with a BFA from Art Center College of Design in 1989. After art school, he worked as an Art Director on music videos. In 1996, Taigan started sitting zen meditation under the guidance of Shodo Harada Roshi and lived at Sogenji for 16 months starting in 2000. He was then asked to live at Tahoma Zen Monastery to help start Enso House, a home for end of life care. Tim became a care giver and cared for the first patients at Enso House. This experience inspired him to go back to school to become a nurse. He graduated with a BSN from the University of Washington in 2008. After nursing school, Tim returned to Los Angeles and worked for seven years as an oncology nurse at Cedar’s Sinai Medical Center. Taigan currently works as a Hospice RN in Los Angeles.
9/29/20
is the founder of Mountain Gate-Sanmonji [www.sanmonjizen.org] in New Mexico. She first encountered the practice of Buddhism while living in Asia and began practicing Zen in 1974 while living in Turkey. Later she trained at the Rochester Zen Center and was ordained in 1986 by Roshi Philip Kapleau. She has been training with Shodo Harada Roshi since 1992. Mitra-roshi also travels to Mountain Gate’s sister temple, the Hidden Valley Zen Center in southern California to offer guidance in sanzen and lead sesshin and other Dharma events. In recent years she has focused on Zen for American female veterans. Mitra Roshi is an accomplished calligrapher, and posts Youtube videos on American Rinzai Zen.
9/22/20
9/8/20
Celia is 75 years old, and lives in Seattle, WA, with her husband, Gordon. She started practicing with One Drop in Seattle, and Shodo Harada Roshi and Chisan in the early 2000's. She has also practiced with Cheri Huber's Living Compassion, Byron Katie's "Work of Inquiry", and A Course In Miracles. She likes to restore old fruit trees, paint and sculpt, play with her daughters, and vacation in Hawaii. She feels that practicing and taking on responsibilities with Tahoma One Drop and Water Moon Dojo gave her a place to grow up.
9/1/20
Born and lived in Uruguay through high school. Degrees in Physics from Bowdoin College, Visual Design from M.I.T, a year in a Fine Arts program, Social Work from the U. of Washington, training in psychodrama, Zen practices learned from Philip Kapleau in 1971, martial arts, adaptive leadership, business management, and retired from a career in software development.
8/18/20
is a longtime student of Advaita Vedanta, Daoism and Zen. She is a certified Feldenkrais practitioner and Craniosacral therapist. She has taught Yoga and various awareness based movement classes and workshops for decades locally and internationally. In 1996 she co-founded The Moving Space, a movement arts and alternative bodywork studio in Seattle. In 2013 she received an ALS diagnosis which was a radical impetus to re-evaluate her life’s meaning. Currently she spends her time walking with her pup, designing and making jewelry and writing about her life living with a terminal diagnosis. In her writing she explores how her spiritual practices sustains her through her journey. Here is one of her haiku:
My impermanence
a hazy apparition
taps my shoulder, smiles
8/4/20
is a scientific researcher whose research path has taken unexpected turns, from neurobiology to ccupuncture and, in his ‘retirement,’ to Biofield Physiology. He currently explores the biofield perspective as an Institute Scholar of The Institute for Integrative Health (Baltimore, MD) and as Co-Director of Research and Innovation for the Consciousness and Healing Initiative (San Diego, CA). He will share with the Zen & Tea group a recently initiated program he calls “I don’t end here”, investigating our interconnectedness and its relation to consciousness. The Consciousness and Healing Initiative (CHI: www.chi.is) is a nonprofit collaborative of scientists, practitioners, educators, innovators and artists that encourages humanity to examine the multiple levels and means available to heal ourselves.
7/28/20
is Vice Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. As a socially engaged Buddhist activist, Hozan Roshi was the former Executive Director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and has worked with the International Network of Engaged Buddhists since 1991. In 2007 he founded Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change in Asia and the U.S. He is the author of many books, essays and articles. Hozan san is also an accomplished musician. His musical credits include two albums Everything is Broken: Songs About Things As They Are and Wooden Man: Old Notes from the Southern School.
7/21/20
holds a Ph.D. in Reichian Psychology and is the creator and founding chair of the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute Ph.D. Program in Somatic Psychology. She taught at the California Institute of Integral Studies (San Francisco, CA) for 25 years and at other graduate schools in the S.F. Bay area as well as being founding faculty at Naropa Institute, now Naropa University, (Boulder, CO) in the 1970’s, creating it’s T’ai Chi Ch’uan program. She lived in Japan 1965-1968 which included studying at Shofukuji, a traditional Rinzai Zen Buddhist monastery, under Yamada Mumon Roshi.
7/7/20
is hereditary Chief of the Walla Walla nation, part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). The CTUIR is the government of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla Tribes — a confederation formed by Treaty in 1855. CTUIR is part of the 57 Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, ATNI. Mr. Sampson was former Executive Director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and served as Watershed Manager at CRITFC. In 2002, the Ford Foundation named Mr. Sampson as a recipient of the Leadership for a Changing World award (2002-04), a program that recognizes up to 20 community leaders throughout the nation. He is a leader in climate change responses based on indigenous wisdom. Don and his family have traveled for years to Sogenji and they gave the blessings for the land on which Tahoma Monastery on Whidbey Island was built. We are fortunate to have this time with him.
6/30/20
is a translator of Chinese texts, primarily Taoist and Buddhist, including poetry and sutras. He is the author of many books including:
The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-neng; The Lankavatara Sutra: Translation and Commentary; The Diamond Sutra; The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse; The Zen Works of Stonehouse: Poems and Talks of a 14th Century Chinese Hermit; the Collected Songs of Cold Mountain (Han Shan); Lao-tzu’s Taoteching; P’u Ming’s Oxherding Pictures & Verses; Zen Baggage, and many others.