On October 1st, Houston Zen Center abbot Konjin Gaelyn Godwin Roshi was appointed the new Director of the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center. She is both the first woman and the first Westerner to hold the position. Tenku Ruff, Osho, Soto Zen priest and president of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, explains the importance of this step for the world of Soto Zen. When [...]
Soto Zen priests discuss diversity and privilege at biennial gathering
“The SZBA conference we just completed represents a deep and significant shift in North American Soto Zen Buddhism,” writes SZBA board president Tenku Ruff. Seventy members of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA) met in Ulster County, New York, for the organization’s eighth biennial conference. At the four-day gathering, members of the SZBA — which is a professional [...]
Koan and Shikantaza: Escaping the Trap of Delusion
Jan Chozen Bays on shikantaza and koan study, Zen’s two primary practices. “What is the difference between Rinzai and Soto Zen,” an earnest student asks me, “and which is better?” My simple answer is that Rinzai practice is characterized by the study of koans, while Soto practice is founded upon the practice of shikantaza. Because my teacher, Taizan Maezumi Roshi, was [...]
What Is Zen Buddhism and How Do You Practice It?
Zen teacher Norman Fischer takes you through the principles and practices of the major schools of Zen. Includes specially selected articles for further reading. What does “Zen” mean? The word “Zen” is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese “Ch’an,” which means “meditation.” Ch’an came to Japan and became “Zen” around the eighth century. Today, the word “Zen” is in more [...]
Becoming the Mountains and Rivers
When we know something intimately, taught Dogen, it ceases to exist and so do we. John Daido Loori Roshi examines this quintessential teaching in Dogen’s Mountains and Rivers Sutra. Featured in the fifteenth anniversary issue of Buddhadharma, "The Best of 15 Years." Thirteenth-century Zen master Dogen is known to us as an outstanding poet, metaphysician, and one of Japan’s [...]
How to Practice Zazen
Jules Shuzen Harris teaches Zazen, the meditation practice at the heart of Zen Buddhism. There are many forms of meditation that offer you the opportunity to cultivate stillness and open up space in your life. One such form, zazen, has both outward and inward instructions in how to engage your awareness in the immediate, uninterpreted experience of the present moment. [...]
In Northern California, a Soto Zen Monastery takes shape
On June 13, on a hundred-acre plot of land not far from wine country in Northern California, priests and supporters from all over the world came together for the framework-raising ceremony of Tenpyozan, which is intended to be the first monastery in the West to offer Zen training of the same style and curriculum as that of traditional monasteries in Japan. About thirty Soto [...]
“Buddhism 3.0” in Japan
From the Japan Times comes a report on "Buddhism 3.0" and the two priests who came up with the idea. Using the book they wrote by the same name, Issho Fujita and Ryodo Yamashita are traveling and offering workshops across Japan, encouraging a conversation about the direction of Buddhism in the country and catching the attention of young Buddhist priests navigating a [...]
Commentary: I May Not Stay Here With You
As she receives ordination into the Soto Zen school of Buddhism, angel Kyodo williams reflects on her path to acceptance within this lineage. By the time this article reaches you, I will have been empowered as an independent teacher in the Zen tradition through a ceremony and process called dharma transmission. While Zen has flourished in the West long enough to bear witness [...]
Chikudo Lew Richmond names two dharma successors
Earlier this month, Kuzan Peter Schireson and Rinso Ed Sattizahn went through the dharma transmission ceremony with their teacher, Chikudo Lew Richmond, in the Soto Zen lineage of the late Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. In an article published at Sweeping Zen, Schireson said this about his teacher: "I’ve worked closely with Lew for about five years now, so there’s lots to thank him [...]
