Author Archives: Rick McDaniel

Endless Path Zendo, Rochester, NY Rafe Martin’s Endless Path Zendo is located three blocks from the famous Rochester Zen Center established by Philip Kapleau. “You went toe-to-toe with the Kapleau people?” I ask, in surprise. “No,” he assures me. “My wife and Roshi Kapleau and I were very, very close. His daughter says we wereContinue reading “Rafe Martin”

Dharma Rain, Portland, Oregon Gyokuko Carlson is the retired abbot of the Dharma Rain Zen Center in Portland, Oregon, which she co-founded with her husband Kyogen Carlson, who died in 2014. The two met at Shasta Abbey, the primary teaching center of the Soto teacher, Jiyu Kennett. Although Gyokuko served as Kennett’s attendant for aContinue reading “Gyokuko Carlson”

Benevolent Zen Sangha, Providence James Córdova was a member of the Boundless Way community in New England, which – as he puts it – “sort of split apart, and then I was affiliated with Greater Boston Zen Center for a while, and then we sort of split apart from them, and now we’re doing anotherContinue reading “James Córdova”

When Karin Kempe was 17 years old, she walked into the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco and came upon a copy of Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects by Alexandra David-Neel. “Reading it, I absolutely recognized, ‘This is it! This is what reality is actually like. This is the way things operate.’ TheContinue reading “Karin Kempe”

Scott Thornton is an Assistant Teacher in the Sanbo Zen lineage. He is also married to Valerie Forstman, who recently moved to Santa Fe to share teaching responsibilities with Henry Shukman at Mountain Cloud. Scott’s introduction to meditation came through theatre. The school he attended staged the first college production of the musical Hair, andContinue reading “Scott Thornton”

Jean-Luc Foisy informs me that after the death of Albert Low, the Montreal Zen Centre went through an “inevitable period of confusion with regards to who was going to do what. A lot of people had relied on Albert’s presence. He was really the center of the Centre. He was the founder, as you know,Continue reading “Jean-Luc Foisy”

Judy Roitman is one of the primary voices in Further Zen Conversations. She and her husband, Stan Lombardo, are the founding teachers of the Kansas Zen Center in the Kwan Um School of Zen. Kwan Um is a Korean Linji (J: Rinzai) lineage established by Master Seung Sahn. Judy has the official title of ZenContinue reading “Judy Roitman”

When Jeff Shore was twelve years old, he was enrolled in a class to prepare him for baptism in the Presbyterian Church. “We were learning the catechism, and the teacher was a young girl, older than us, but a teenager. So she was trying to get us to memorize the catechism, and I would askContinue reading “Jeff Shore”

In 2023, Donna Kowal was appointed co-director of the Rochester Zen Center along with John Pulleyn. When I interviewed her in October of 2021, she was the Head of Zendo at the Center’s retreat house located at Chapin Mill, where I once practiced Tai Chi Chuan beside Philip Kapleau’s grave, then laid a stone onContinue reading “Donna (Dhara) Kowal”