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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.

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. 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.

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

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. He writes: “My attraction to Buddhism wasn’t to be a Buddhist but rather to follow the Buddha’s advice that if I wanted to know what was going on around me I needed to turn my attention inwards and look there. The rest evolved circumstantially. I love my practice more then anything and I know I’ve never been a very good buddhist based on the standards of what that might look like.”

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.

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.

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.

Allison was priest-ordained in 2016 in the Suzuki Roshi lineage, by Myoan Grace Schireson, and continues an established meditation practice of many years. She lives in Campbell with her husband Jeff and enjoys playing tennis, baking pies and spending time with her three young adult children when they return home to visit.

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.

Ōshin Jennings is the founder and leader of No Barriers Zen, a Zen Buddhist community in Washington, DC. Ōshin is the first known Deaf Buddhist priest, and he has made it his mission to use his experiences as a Deaf and disabled practitioner to help make meditation practice and the Buddhist teachings accessible to all people, especially those with historically limited access. Ōshin is also a psychotherapist and artist, and he really wants you to meet his dog, Scout. https://nobarrierszen.org

Denko-e Sesshin is part of a cycle of four traditional sesshins initiated by Kobun, Jikoji's founder, and is our traditional fall teaching sesshin, with a lighter zazen schedule and an emphasis on dharma study. Denko-e means "Gathering of Light."

Chuck Hutchcraft teaches from the confluence of Buddhist and Western psychologies. He is particularly interested in the impact trauma has on dharma practice. A licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist, Chuck was trained and certified as a mindfulness teacher by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.