Monshin Albert Kutchins began practicing at San Francisco Zen Center in 1984. In the years following he completed several practice periods in Tassajara and one at Rinso-in in Japan, and received the precepts from Tenshin Reb Anderson Roshi and again from Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi. In addition to teaching and practicing the Dharma whenever he can, and serving on the Zen Center Board, he practices law in Berkeley, where he lives with his family and Satchel the dog.

Meido Barbara Anderson is the resident teacher and priest at O-An Zendo, one of Jikoji’s sister temples, in Central Pennsylvania. Retired from Penn State University, where she founded and served as the first Director of the Center for Sustainability, she taught courses in multidisciplinary studies in Science, Technology and Society and Green Design. She also served as the Director of Peace Studies. After more than 30 years of practice, Meido will be receiving Transmission from Shoho Michael Newhall this winter.

Meido Barbara Anderson is the resident teacher and priest at O-An Zendo, one of Jikoji’s sister temples, in Central Pennsylvania. Retired from Penn State University, where she founded and served as the first Director of the Center for Sustainability, she taught courses in multidisciplinary studies in Science, Technology and Society and Green Design. She also served as the Director of Peace Studies. After more than 30 years of practice, Meido will be receiving Transmission from Shoho Michael Newhall this winter.

Dan Zigmond was ordained as a priest by Kobun Chino Otagawa Roshi in 1998, and was Shuso with Michael Newhall in 2009. He has been a regular speaker at Jikoji over the years. In addition to his day job at Facebook as director of analytics, he is a Contributing Editor at Tricycle, and an occasional contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. His recent book is "Buddha's Diet".  He also started two wheelchair factories in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This talk will be posted on our “podcasts” page after Nov. 4th. Dan’s 8.19.18 talk can be found here.

Ryotan Cynthia Kear (Horyu Ryotan-Dharma Stream Completely Overflowing) has been practicing Soto Zen Buddhism for over 25 years. She received Jukai (lay ordination) from Zen Center Abbot Paul Haller in 2004. In 2008 she was given Shuke Tokudo (priest ordination) by Darlene Cohen, her heart teacher, from who she also received Dharma Transmission in December 2010. In 2009 Cynthia graduated from the Shogaku Zen Institute, a three-year Zen seminary training program. Cynthia has taught Mindfulness and Multi-tasking at the University of Washington as part of a National Science Foundation-funded research project based upon Darlene’s book The One Who Is Not Busy. A member of San Francisco Zen Center and Russian River Zendo, she leads workshops and gives Dharma talks throughout the Bay Area.  In 2004, she founded the Wild Geese Sangha, which explores daily practice in the non-monastic world. She leads the Upstairs Sangha, a group which meets bi-monthly to sit and study, and she co-leads a sangha for meditation and recovery. Additionally, Cynthia has 26 years of recovery. As a full-time employee, Cynthia considers the questions of practice in the “marketplace” to be of keen interest. Cynthia’s 10.27.18 talk can be found here.

Shoho Michael Newhall was ordained and transmitted by Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi. Prior to his installation as Jikoji’s Resident Teacher, he taught art and Buddhism at Naropa University, the Art Institute of Chicago, and other universities in the midwest. He leads sesshins and meditation workshops at Zen centers in the U.S. and Europe. Shoho has also practiced and studied with Keibun Otogawa in Japan, Dainin Katagiri Roshi, and Tenshin Reb Anderson.

Melissa Sutor is a mindfulness expert and mental health counselor and has been a resident at Jikoji Zen Center. She teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (qualified through training programs by Bob Stahl, Ph.D. and Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.), leads retreats, and speaks at organizations that are committed to well-being and excellence. Melissa was a software engineer and IT project manager in Silicon Valley then founded Dragonfly Healing Center to facilitate the healing and transformation of individuals and the planet. Her masters degree in Counseling Psychology from Santa Clara University focused on positive psychology and mindfulness. She also holds a masters degree in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. Melissa is a world traveler and greatly appreciates connecting heartfully with people of diverse cultures and backgrounds which informs her work in diversity and inclusion. She currently teaches at Kaiser Permanente in Maui and gives talks and leads meditation sessions at summits for Google and during retreats at Esalen Institute. Melissa is featured on the cover of the August 2018 issue of Mindful magazine. 

Victor Legge has been practicing Soto and Rinzai Zen (mostly Soto) for the last 45 years.  He has attended many sesshins and has had various periods of full time residence in various zen centers in the UK and the states.  He has also worked extensively with Landmark Education, a corporation extremely interested in how the mind functions.  He holds a masters in mathematics and currently teaches at De Anza College.  He is married with a 17 year old daughter. Victor’s talk can be found HERE.

Hobu Beata Chapman has practiced Zen with chronic nerve pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for 23 years. She studied with Katherine Thanas at Santa Cruz Zen Center and with Darlene Cohen until her untimely death, and received Dharma transmission from Tony Patchell in 2013. Beata continues the Suffering & Delight groups for people with chronic pain that Darlene founded around 15 years ago, and teaches an online S&D group she began for people not able to attend in person. For more information about Beata's work with chronic pain, you can see sufferinganddelight.net. Beata is an organizational consultant currently doing corporate leadership training and assisting health care organizations to develop compliance systems. She recently started a zazen group in San Mateo (PenZen.net). Click HERE for Beata’s talk.

Paula Jones was an early student of Jikoji founder Kobun, and decades later was ordained and given dharma transmission by Angie Boissevain. She is a co-founder and teacher of Floating Zendo San Diego. After years teaching writing and literature in colleges and universities, Paula continues to write poems, create hand-bound chapbooks of her work, and lead poetry workshops.

Max Erdstein teaches at the Insight Meditation Center and the Insight Retreat Center. He is trained as a teacher by Gil Fronsdal. Max has practiced Vipassana and Zen in America, Japan, Thailand, and Burma. He completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Dharma teacher training program and trained in Buddhist chaplaincy with the Sati Center. With Gil he taught the first weeklong retreat at IRC in November 2012. Max holds an AB degree from Stanford and worked at Google for five years. He is a husband and father of two girls.

My path in Zen began in earnest in 1989 with the winter residential practice period at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center and my first teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, who set me on this ~30 year path. In 2009 I received the Jukai precepts and lay ordination from Eiko Carolyn Atkinson, a dharma heir of Kobun. And here/now at Jikoji, my dharma teacher Shoho Michael Newhall is guiding me on the path to priest ordination. My talk will be on “Wild country zen, the peaceful mountain and subtle way leading to the tiger’s cave.” 

Shoho Michael Newhall was ordained and transmitted by Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi. Prior to his installation as Jikoji’s Resident Teacher, he taught art and Buddhism at Naropa University, the Art Institute of Chicago, and other universities in the midwest. He leads sesshins and meditation workshops at Zen centers in the U.S. and Europe. Shoho has also practiced and studied with Keibun Otogawa in Japan, Dainin Katagiri Roshi, and Tenshin Reb Anderson.

David Shapiro became a student of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche in 1973, and studied with him until his death in 1987. David was the founding director of the Milwaukee Dharma Study Group, now the Shambhala Center, and was a practicing internist for over 3 decades. Currently he is involved with the Light of Berotsana Translation Group and continues to practice within the context of Tibetan Buddhism. His talk will discuss the practice of Mind Training, known as Lojong, brought to Tibet from India by the sage Atisha in the 9th century. The practice centers on slogans that tease the mind from its usual foundations. David’s talk can be found HERE.

At 18, Ying arrived in the U.S from China.  Now she leads design efforts for emerging markets at LinkedIn. She’s also a translator and interpreter, and an experiential and outdoor educator. She has traveled to five continents and 30 countries, always affirmed by people's relationship with the environment they live in--their creativity and spirituality in everyday life. At a young age she envisioned a world without borders and is constantly inspired by the next generation of global citizens and their steady movement toward connection. Ying’s talk can be listened to HERE.

Reirin Alheidis Gumbel is currently the Resident Priest and Teacher at the Milwaukee Zen Center in Wisconsin. After many years of being a lay practitioner, she was trained at the San Francisco Zen Center, where she lived as a monastic for almost 12 years. She was ordained as a Soto Zen Priest by Furyu Nancy Schroeder in 2007, served as shuso in 2012, and is in the process of Dharma Transmission.  To listen to her talk, click HERE.