This week Jikoji offers a special Sunday program featuring the Voices of Women in Zen, who will speak about the Soto Zen ritual and ceremony they have been creating and nurturing with the guidance of Paula Arai, author of Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Heart of Japanese Women's Rituals and Women Living Zen: Japanese Soto Buddhist Nuns. Speakers will include Carolyn Hoshin Jikai Dille, Judy Gyokuho Reyes, Monica Darsana Reede, and Pamela Chōbun Nenzen Brown ..read more

Carolyn Jikai Dille has been a dedicated student of Buddhist practices for 30 years in the Soto Zen and the Early Buddhist Insight traditions. She began teaching in dharma communities in 1998 and has studied with a variety of teachers in the United States and Asia. She holds dharma transmission from Angie Enji Boissevain in the Phoenix Cloud lineage and graduated from Spirit Rock’s CDL program. Carolyn is a poet, writer, and founding editor of Leaping Clear, www.leapingclear.org, a digital magazine of the arts featuring artists with meditative and contemplative practices. On occasion, she offe ..read more

Shoho Michael Newhall began practicing and studying with Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi in the early seventies, and was ordained by Kobun in the mid-eighties. In the early nineties he was director at Jikoji Zen Center. Throughout this time he taught visual arts at various schools and universities, including Naropa University, where he also taught meditation and Buddhism. Since that time, Mike has been the Resident Teacher and chief priest at Jikoji ..read more

This week’s talk is by Robert Yanasak. Robert (Seiko Taikan) is retired as a Mechanical Design Draftsman/Supervisor at Perkin-Elmer, Leica and other Bay Area companies. Robert began sitting in the Fall of 1966 in San Francisco, sitting his first Rinzai sesshin with his first teacher Soen Nakagawa Roshi in the spring of 1967. He continued to sit alone but sat sesshins with Soen Roshi when he came in once a year. Eventually he sat with Eido Shimano Roshi at Dai Bosatsu for their first and second practice periods in the fall of 75 and spring of 76. Returning to Berkeley, he began to study with Ko ..read more

Dan Zigmond is a Zen priest ordained by Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi in 1998. He is also a writer, father, and data scientist. He has practiced at San Francisco Zen Center and Jikoji Zen Center, and studied a range of Dharma traditions. He is currently the Director of Data Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and previously led teams at Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Google, and Microsoft. He is a contributing editor at Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, author of the new book Buddha's Office: The Ancient Art of Waking Up While Working Well, and co-author of Buddha’s Diet: the Ancient Art of Los ..read more

Chuck Hutchcraft teaches from the confluence of Buddhist and Western psychologies. He is particularly interested in the impact trauma has on dharma practice. Chuck began Zen practice in 1991 and was ordained in the Katigiri Roshi lineage in 2005 by Sojun Diane Martin, abbess of the Udumbara Zen Center in Evanston, IL. He received dharma transmission in the Kobun Chino lineage from Sensei Dean Williams in 2019. Chuck is the guiding teacher of Zen communities in northern and central Illinois and leads on-going mindfulness meditation groups. A licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist ..read more

Doug Jacobson began practicing Zen in Minneapolis in 1974 with Dainin Katagiri Roshi, and had Jukai in 1977. He was a householder, father, contractor, and civil engineer in Southern California for 25 years. Doug came to Jikoji in 2008, and received priest ordination in 2010, and transmission in 2015, from Shoho Michael Newhall. He currently serves as one of Jikoji’s Guiding Teachers ..read more

Eric Remington was an early student of Kobun, Jikoji's Founder, in the early 1970s. After years spent studying with Kobun and founding a school for children, Eric was ordained and subsequently trained at Tassajara Monastery for a year. He became a biologist and naturalist before living for several years in the desert, and for several years was a Jikoji resident ..read more

Allison was priest-ordained in 2016 in the Suzuki Roshi lineage, by Myoan Grace Schireson, and continues an established meditation practice of many years. After a 30-year career as a marketing executive, Allison began a multi-year journey to become a professional healthcare chaplain. In this role, she finds Right Livelihood that integrates her priest vows with engaged Buddhist intention to be of service in the world. Rev. Allison is board certified with the Association of Professional Chaplains and Advanced Practice Board Certified in Hospice and Palliative Care. She is a graduate of Upaya Bud ..read more

Dan Zigmond is a Zen priest ordained by Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi in 1998. He is also a writer, father, and data scientist. He has practiced at San Francisco Zen Center and Jikoji Zen Center, and studied a range of Dharma traditions. He is currently the Director of Data Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and previously led teams at Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Google, and Microsoft. He is a contributing editor at Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, author of the new book Buddha's Office: The Ancient Art of Waking Up While Working Well, and co-author of Buddha’s Diet: the Ancient Art of Los ..read more