Teachers in the Rochester lineage
Philip Kapleau
Founding Teacher
Roshi Philip Kapleau, founder of the Rochester Zen Center, New York, was the author of numerous books on Zen, including the classic The Three Pillars of Zen, To Cherish All Life, The Zen of Living and Dying: A Practical Guide, Awakening to Zen. Philip Kapleau was born in 1912 and grew up in Connecticut, studying law in his youth and serving for many years as a court recorder in the state and federal courts of Connecticut. At the end of the war he was appointed chief reporter for the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, then was sent to cover the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo. In 1953 he gave up his business in America and left for Japan to seek the Dharma. He remained in Japan for thirteen years and trained under three masters, briefly with Nakagawa Soen-roshi (1907-1984), then extensively with Harada Daiun-roshi (1870-1961) and his Dharma heir Yasutani Hakuun-roshi (1885-1973). He was ordained by Yasutani-roshi and returned to the United States in 1966 after being given permission to teach there by Yasutani-roshi. Philip Kapleau retired in 1986 after 20 years as Abbot of the Rochester Zen Center. He died after a long illness on May 6th, 2004.
Bodhin Kjolhede
Rochester Zen Center
Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede was born in 1948 in Michigan and received a B.A. in Psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor prior to coming to the Rochester Zen Center in 1970. He was ordained in 1976, and completed twelve years of koan training under Roshi Philip Kapleau before beginning to teach in 1983. In 1986 Roshi Kjolhede was appointed by Roshi Kapleau as his Dharma-successor and Abbot of the Rochester Zen Center. This appointment marked the culmination of a sixteen-year teacher-student relationship, the last decade working intimately together. Since then Roshi Kjolhede has worked with students from all over the United States, and from Canada, Mexico, Europe and New Zealand, and has sanctioned several Dharma heirs (see below). In 2022 he handed the leadership of the Rochester Zen Centre over to two Co-Directors: Sensei Donna Kowal and Sensei John Pulleyn.
Amala Wrightson
Auckland Zen Centre
Roshi Amala Wrightson (right, with Jeanette Prince-Cherry) was born in Auckland in 1958, and worked in theatre before taking up full-time Zen training. She and her husband Richard von Sturmer began Zen practice in 1982 and in 1986 they became students of Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede. Amala-roshi began full-time residential training in Rochester in 1989, shortly after completing an M.A. in Italian at Auckland University. Ordained in 1999, she was the Center’s Head of Zendo (head priest in charge of training) working closely with Roshi Kjolhede from 1996 to 2003. In late 2003, upon completion of formal koan training under Roshi Kjolhede, Amala-roshi and Richard returned to resettle in New Zealand. She was given formal permission to teach by Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede in 2004, and in the same year she and Richard co-founded Auckland Zen Centre. Amala-roshi was sanctioned as a full Dharma heir in 2012.
Other Dharma heirs of Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede
Donna Kowai
Rochester Zen Centre
Sensei Donna Kowal was authorized as a Zen teacher by Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede in 2022 and serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn.
She was born and raised in Staten Island, New York, and first learned about Zen practice when she was training in martial arts. She became a member of the Center in 1998 after attending an introductory Zen meditation workshop, and was a local Sangha member for some 20 years before joining the Center’s staff in 2019.
Prior to joining staff, Donna-sensei committed herself to attending as many sesshins as possible and serving as an active volunteer, including Editor of Zen Bow for 14 years. During that time, she had a successful career in academia as an award-winning professor and author (Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Communication, University of Pittsburgh, 1996). She also traveled extensively as part of her leadership in study abroad programs.
Most recently, as a Zen Center staff member, she served as Head of Zendo at Chapin Mill, the Center’s country retreat facility, and Manager of the Sangha Programs Office, which offers educational and social programs tailored to Center members and the wider community.
Donna-sensei is currently a novitiate priest and splits her time between Chapin Mill and Arnold Park. During time off from the training program schedule, she enjoys hiking and birding.
John Pulleyn
Rochester Zen Centre
Sensei John Pulleyn is a Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center. Together with Sensei Donna Kowal, he provides Zen training and spiritual guidance to the Center’s members worldwide.
Born in St. Paul, Sensei Pulleyn was raised in Minnesota and Ohio, and graduated from Oberlin College with a BA in history. In 1968 he came to Rochester to join the Center’s staff and train under Roshi Philip Kapleau, at a time when the Arnold Park buildings were under reconstruction. Later, he worked as a painting contractor and a software developer while raising two children with his wife Chris.
A DWI arrest in 1990 inspired him to evaluate his life and resulted in an increased commitment to Zen practice. He also returned to school for a BS in nursing and worked as a pediatric nurse for 10 years.
In 2003, Sensei Pulleyn rejoined the Center’s staff as Head of Zendo, a position that he held for 15 subsequent years. During that time he gave numerous Dharma talks, provided private instruction, and regularly led meditation retreats (sesshins). On August 20, 2021, he was sanctioned as a Zen teacher by Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede.
Robert Goldmann
Berlin Zen Group, Germany
Sensei Robert Goldmann leads the Berlin Zen Group. He has been practicing Zen since 1975, and since 1981, he has been practicing in the tradition of Roshi Philip Kapleau and his Dharma-heir Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede. He assisted Roshi Kjolhede in the USA, Sweden and Mexico and organized regular sesshin in Germany. In August 2007, he was sanctioned by Roshi Kjolhede in a public ceremony in Berlin as a full Zen teacher. He is a physician and studied Chinese and Far Eastern Buddhism at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
Gerardo Gally
Casa Zen, México
Sensei Gerardo Gally is the teacher at Casa Zen. Gerardo-sensei was introduced to Zen at a 1980 sesshin led by Roshi Philip Kapleau in Mexico. After completing Rochester Zen Center's koan curriculum, Gerardo was sanctioned by Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede as an independent teacher and leader of the Mexico Sangha. Gerardo holds degrees in architecture and worked in housing design before starting his own architecture firm. Later, Gerardo assumed responsibility for the the family publishing-house. More recently he has devoted his full time and energy to Zen teaching at Casa. Over the years, Gerardo-sensei has been an active member of organisations such as the Buddhist Community of Mexico and Oxfam Mexico, an organisation that works to alleviate hunger and poverty.
Kanja Odland and Sante Poromaa
Zenbuddhistiska Samfundet, Sweden
Roshi Sante Poromaa and Roshi Kanja Odland both teach at Zenbuddhistiska Samfundet, which was founded in 1982, in conjunction with Roshi Philip Kapleau’s first visit to Sweden.
Roshi Sante Poromaa has been practising Zen since 1983 and teaching full time since 1998. He started practice as a student of Roshi Philip Kapleau, and he later became a student of Kapleau's successor, Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede.
Roshi Kanja Odland started Zen training in 1984, as a student of both Roshi Kapleau and Roshi Kjolhede. She has been teaching full time since 2001.
Other Dharma heirs of Roshi Philip Kapleau
Sunyana Graef
Vermont Zen Center, USA
Roshi Sunyana Graef is the founder of the Vermont Zen Center. She began her practice of Zen Buddhism in 1969 as a disciple of Roshi Philip Kapleau. Sunyana-roshi was born in Boston in 1948 and grew up in New York. In the sixties, she studied religion and philosophy at Bard College, until beginning her Zen training at the Rochester Zen Center.
Sunyana-roshi spent over nine years on the staff of the Rochester Zen Center as Head Cook, secretary and attendant to Roshi Kapleau, and as the Center's administrator. She was ordained as a priest in 1986 and sanctioned as a Dharma Heir of Roshi Kapleau a year later. With her husband, Jed, and two daughters, Kaila and Dana, she moved to Vermont in June of 1988 to establish the Zen Center in Shelburne.
Sunyana-roshi also teaches at the Casa Zen in Santo Tomas de Heredia, Costa Rica which she visits six times a year. Sunyana-roshi was also the teacher of the Toronto Zen Centre in Canada for ten years until, in 2004, sanctioning her first Dharma Heir, Roshi Taigen Henderson, who is now the teacher of the Toronto Centre.
Sunya Kjolhede and Lawson Sachter
Windhorse Zen Community, USA
Roshi Sunya Kjolhede and Roshi Lawson Sachter, ordained Dharma heirs of Roshi Philip Kapleau, are the co-founders and teachers of Windhorse Zen Community.
Sunya-roshi, along with her other teaching activities, travels regularly to Poland, where she serves as spiritual director of the Bodhidharma Zen Center, a Polish Zen community founded by Roshi Kapleau in 1975. She has trained in Clinical Pastoral Education, working for a period of time as hospital chaplain, and she has also worked as a professional storyteller.
Lawson-roshi is spiritual director of the Clear Water Zen Center in Florida, and conducts several sesshins there each year. He is also a licensed psychotherapist with a private practice in Asheville, North Carolina. Much of his personal and professional work has centered on the integration of Eastern and Western approaches to intrapsychic change.
Sunya-roshi and Lawson-roshi are married and have four grown children and four grandchildren.
Mitra Bishop
Mountain Gate-Sanmonji, USA
Roshi Mitra Bishop is the founder of Mountain Gate-Sanmonji. 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 with Roshi Philip Kapleau. Mitra-roshi received a B.A. from Indiana University, and worked in graphic, interior, and architectural design for many years. She has two children, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
In 1986 Mitra-roshi was ordained by Roshi Kapleau. In 1992, after completing her formal training in Rochester, she went to Okayama, Japan, where she continued to deepen and broaden her practice at Sogen-ji, a Rinzai Zen temple, under the guidance of the Ven. Harada Shodo-roshi. When Mitra-roshi returned to the United States in 1996, she was formally sanctioned to teach by Roshi Kapleau as a Dharma Heir. In that same year she was asked to come to Hidden Valley Zen Center in San Marcos, California to guide the Sangha there. Concurrently, she established Mountain Gate as a monastic practice center in the mountains of northern New Mexico.
Michael Danan Henry
Zen Center of Denver, USA
Roshi Michael Danan Henry (right, with Sensei Rafe Martin) is the founding teacher of the Zen Center of Denver. He received Dharma transmission from Roshi Philip Kapleau Roshi in 1989 and was subsequently recognized as a teacher and Diamond Sangha master by Roshi Robert Aitken. Danan Roshi created and implemented the Monastery Without Walls training program; the Lotus in the Flame Lay Order; and the "Every Minute Zen" mindfulness practice as abbot and spiritual director of the Zen Center of Denver.
In 2010, Danan Roshi conferred Dharma transmission and appointment of abbacy to Karin Kempe, Ken Morgareidge, and Peggy Sheehan, and stepped aside as abbot of the Zen Center of Denver. Danan Roshi has since been serving as the teacher of the Old Bones Sangha. In 2016, Danan Roshi conferred Dharma transmission on Sensei Rafe Martin, teacher at Endless Path Zendo, a Lay Buddhist Community in Rochester, NY