Mission, vision, historySanshin Zen Community exists to enable the practice of shikantaza in the style of Uchiyama Roshi, deep study of Dogen Zenji’s teachings, and commitment to beneficial action. These three elements--zazen, study and work—are the foundation of Sanshin’s practice vision and calendar of activities.
Sanshin is an international sangha founded in 1996 by Shohaku Okumura, a Soto Zen priest and respected translator of the thirteenth-century Japanese Zen master, Eihei Dogen Zenji. We're based at Shobozan Sanshinji 正法山 三心寺 in Bloomington, IN, where we offer opportunities for daily practice, weekly dharma talks, sesshin and retreats, and a three-month ango (practice period). Activities are open to anyone with a sincere interest in the practice of Soto Zen. We're largely a lay sangha, with most regular activities happening on weekday and Sunday mornings as well as occasional evenings in order to accommodate lives of work and family. Sanshin was founded in 1996 in Iowa City, IA under the guidance of Shohaku Okumura and Taiken Yokoyama. Thanks to the efforts of sangha members, the land in Bloomington was purchased in 2001 and construction work began in winter of the next year. By August 2003, all community activity had moved to Bloomington. In 2005, Sanshin received approval from the Soto school of Buddhism as an overseas temple, and accordingly is now able to fulfill its role as an official center for annual practice retreats. Click here for Lion's Roar's profile of Sanshin Zen Community. 
First sesshin, 2004
Okumura Roshi on "Sanshin" as a founding principleIchiza, nigyou, sanshin 一坐, 二 行, 三心
One sitting, two practices (vow and repentance), three minds (magnanimous mind, nurturing mind, joyful mind) This is the expression Uchiyama Roshi used in his last lecture at Antaiji. He retired from Antaiji in 1975, many years ago. I was 26 or 27 years old, so it was more than 40 years ago. He said that what he has been keeping in mind while he was the teacher or abbot of Antaiji was that these three things are the most important, and he transmitted these three points to his disciples. After that, I had to come to this country and practice without my teacher, so this teaching has been my teacher. To me, sanshin is the conclusion of his teaching. Of course, most important is zazen, but sanshin is how our zazen works in our daily lives, whether we are living in a monastery or in society, with our families, in our workplaces or in society at large. When we live together with other people we need these three minds. For Dogen the three minds is a practical teaching for monks within the monastery, but Uchiyama Roshi said that this teaching is not only for monks in the monastery but for anyone who lives with others. Whether it’s a Buddhist sangha or whatever kind of community, we need these three minds. Likewise, the teachings in Dogen’s Eihei Shingi (Pure Standards for the Zen Community), according to Uchiyama Roshi, are an introduction to how our zazen practice can work outside the zendo in our daily lives. Originally these were instruction for monks in the monastery, but Uchiyama Roshi says they are not only for monks who live in the monastery but are important for anyone who lives in a community with other people. In the part of this text called Tenzo Kyokun (Instructions for the Cook), Dogen writes about the three minds. The tenzo, like all bodhisattvas, must keep these three minds as he or she prepares meals for the community. I taught at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center from 1993 to 1997 (to 1996 as head teacher). In 1996 I established Sanshin Zen Community and I used this word sanshin as the name of the community. Often American Zen centers use the name of a place as a part of their names, for instance San Francisco Zen Center, Minnesota Zen Center, and there are many more. But at that time we didn’t have a place; only four people got together and made the decision to create a Zen community. There was no way to put a place in our name. We were looking for a suitable place to locate this community and we didn’t know where we would be. That’s why I used this word sanshin to indicate a community in which the members practice together with three minds. To me, these three minds are really important and that’s why we studied the Eihei Shingi in the Wednesday dharma study group for the first few years after I established this temple in Bloomington in 2003. We read the entire Eihei Shingi. I knew that this is not a monastery; I didn’t intend to establish a monastery, so monastic regulations don’t make sense as a study topic. Still, in a monastery there is a structure—the abbot who has ultimate authority, the officers and teachers who can lead the practice and who can teach the training monks, experienced training monks, and young training monks. There is a hierarchy, and if it’s a good community, new monks are taught by the elders based on Dogen’s instructions. The teachings in the Eihei Shingi are actually transmitted within the monastic community, generation after generation. But because Sanshin is not a monastery, there were no such people in such a system. I was the only teacher and although there were several ordained people, basically this was a new community and people were not familiar with monastic structure or formal practice. Therefore I thought it was important that each person understand the spirit of monastic or community practice. That’s why I decided to study the Eihei Shingi at the very beginning of the history of this temple. I’m not sure whether it worked well or not, but at least that was my intention. |
Shapers of the Sanshin style
Sanshin's board of directorsVoting membersMark Fraley
Mark Fraley
President mark.fraley@sanshinji.org Mark has been practicing at Sanshin for several years, frequently participating in the Wednesday evening zazen/book group and the Sunday morning dharma talks. He's the associate director of IU's Political and Civic Engagement program. He has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Philosophy/Neuroscience/Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Public Administration from University of Washington’s Evans School of Policy and Governance. He has extensive experience in community organizing, political campaigning, legislative relations, strategic communications, and non-profit management. David Thompson
David Fukudō Thompson
Vice President, Director of the Dogen Institute david.thompson@sanshinji.org David joined the board of Sanshin in February 2012. He has been practicing with Hojo-san since 2004 – in Pittsburgh, North Carolina, and Bloomington. David has also practiced at other Zen Centers on the East Coast. He began sitting in 2001 with a student of Tenshin Reb Anderson Roshi and received the precepts from Reb in 2009. He is currently editing one of Hojo-san's books-in-progress. David is employed as an IT strategy consultant, and has Master’s degrees in American Civilization and in Organization Development, with particular interests in journaling, action research, creativity, and working with groups. He is thrilled to have been leading the Dogen Institute since 2012 and enjoys working and corresponding with its many volunteers across the world. David is a native of Philadelphia, PA, enjoys hiking, and is a student of Japanese. Gene Elias
Gene Elias
Treasurer Committees: Facilities (chair), Finance gene.elias@sanshinji.org Gene became a member of the board of directors in June of 2018. He holds a Masters degree in Finance and Quantitative Analysis, and is a retired chief information officer, having worked in the technology and apparel industries. He was also a senior executive at major firms in the consulting sector. Just prior to his retirement, Gene was the chief executive officer at a non-profit firm in southern California, where he helped several dozen other non-profits understand the complexities of technology and how best to utilize technology to expand their capacity and support their missions. Gene currently resides in southern Indiana, where he studies Soto Zen and practices zazen both at his home in the Yellow Wood State Forest and Sanshin. Dennis McCarty
Dennis McCarty
Secretary dennis.mccarty@sanshinji.org Visit his website here; news of his recent book is here. A great part of Rev. Dennis McCarty’s life has been dedicated to the beauty and subtlety of the English language. He has written well-reviewed novels and nonfiction books; plays; essays; magazine articles–and is a dedicated lyricist and songwriter. Over the years he has been a sailor, an electrician doing heavy construction, a teacher, a nationally published novelist—and of course, a minister. He first encountered the lean and lovely truths of Zen while teaching English in South Korea in the 1990's, and it has influenced his religious outlook ever since. He studies Sanshin style Zen, he says, not as a Buddhist, but to become a better, more thoughtful Unitarian Universalist (and person.) Zuiko Redding
Zuiko Redding
zuiko.redding@sanshinji.org Outside lineage director Zuiko Redding began practicing as a university student in Houston in the early 1960s. She has a Ph.D. in sociology/demography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and she was a university professor in the seventies and eighties. Zuiko received novice ordination from Rev. Tsugen Narasaki at Zuioji monastery in Japan in 1992. She trained in Japan under his direction, receiving final ordination in 1996 and returning to the United States in 1997. In the 1980s and 90s, Zuiko practiced with Rev. Tozen Akiyama in Milwaukee and with Rev. Dainin Katagiri. Zuiko is the resident pastor at Cedar Rapids Zen Center. Founded in April, 2000, the center has about seventy-five members. She's also active in the Association of Soto Zen Buddhists. In her spare time she hikes, reads and hangs out with her cats, San Bon and Roy. Jeff Alberts
Jeff Alberts
jeff.alberts@sanshinji.org Jeff is a professor of psychological and brain sciences at IU, where his particular areas of study include animal learning and behavior, behavioral neuroscience and developmental psychology. He's been practicing at Sanshin for several years, frequently participating in the Wednesday evening zazen/book group and the Sunday morning dharma talks. Non-voting membersShodo Spring
Shodo Spring
shodo.spring@sanshinji.org Inside lineage director Shodo Spring is a Soto Zen priest and dharma heir of Shohaku Okumura. Before encountering Zen in 1983 she had studied physics and social work, and practiced as a psychotherapist. She met the Dharma through Dainin Katagiri in Minnesota, studied at San Francisco Zen Center, and finally trained with Okumura Roshi. She was interim priest at Anchorage Zen Community in 2010-11 and volunteered with Brahmavihara Cambodia in 2014 In 2004 Shodo organized public sitting outside the political conventions and joined a group walking between them, from Boston to New York. In 2006 she walked the Texas-Mexico border with Claude Anshin Thomas in the American Zen Pilgrimage. After receiving Dharma Transmission, she organized and led the 2013 Compassionate Earth Walk, a 3-month spiritual walk along the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route in the Great Plains. That walk began with a vision and has shaped her whole life since. Shodo sits monthly Antaiji-style sesshins in the tradition of her lineage, leads an informal study group, and occasionally gives talks and retreats at other temples. She founded Mountains and Waters Alliance to work together with all beings for the welfare of the whole earth. She lives on a farm, apprenticing herself to the plants, waters, animals and earth, learning to be human. She spends time with her children and grandchildren. Mark Pfaff
Mark Pfaff
Past President mark.pfaff@sanshinji.org Mark was a voting member of the board from 2009 to 2019 and now serves in an advisory capacity for development. He received the precepts from Okumura Roshi in 2001. From 2001 to 2004, he served on the board of Stillpoint, a Soto Zen practice community in Pittsburgh, PA, where he was the leader of the gardening crew, a member of the outreach community, and webmaster. When he first joined Sanshin's board of directors, Mark focused on our communication and technology resources supporting the local and global Sanshin community. He served as board secretary from 2010 until serving as president from 2017 to 2019. Over his career, Mark has worked in many different fields, including photography, music, and media production. Since 2008, he has worked as a researcher of the human experience of using complex technology. Shohaku Okumura
Shōhaku Okumura
Founder and Abbot Shohaku Okumura, founder and abbot of Sanshin Zen Community, was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1948. In 1970, he was ordained by the late Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, one of the foremost Zen masters of the twentieth-century. He received Dharma transmission from his teacher in 1975 and, shortly after, became one of the founding members of Pioneer Valley Zendo in Massachusetts. He returned to Japan in 1981 and began translating the works of Dogen Zenji, Uchiyama Roshi and other Soto masters from Japanese into English. In 1993, he moved back to the United States with his wife, Yuko, and their two children. He has previously served as teacher at the Kyoto Soto Zen Center in Japan and at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, and was Director of the Soto Zen International Center in San Francisco for thirteen years. Today, Okumura Roshi is recognized for his unique perspective on the life and teachings of Dogen Zenji derived from his experience as both practitioner and translator, and as a teacher in both Japanese and Western practice communities. He gives frequent lectures on the Shobogenzo and other foundational texts; transcriptions have appeared in Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, Dharma Eye, and Buddhism Now. He has also written or contributed to a number of books; the complete publication list is available from our Dogen Institute. Hoko Karnegis
Hōkō Karnegis
Vice Abbot Hōkō was ordained as a novice by Shohaku Okumura in 2005, and she completed her shuso hossen that same year at Kogetsu-an in Shiga, Japan. She received dharma transmission in September, 2012 and completed zuise at Eiheiji and Sojiji in November of that year. In January, 2016 Hōkō was named vice-abbot and successor at Sanshin. She previously served as communications director at Hokyoji Zen Practice Community in southern Minnesota from 2013 to 2016 and as interim practice director at Milwaukee Zen Center from 2011 to 2013. She has served as an adjunct instructor at Lakeland College in Sheboygan, WI, where she taught Eastern Religious Traditions in the classroom and online, and now teaches Zen through Ivy Tech Community College's lifelong learning program. She is recognized by Sotoshu as nito kyoushi (second-rank teacher) and as a practitioner of baika, a type of Japanese Buddhist hymn created by Sotoshu in 1952. She is serving her second four-year appointment from Sotoshu as kokusai fukyoushi, or international teacher. Practice leadership(See abbot and founder Shohaku Okumura and vice abbot Hoko Karnegis above.)
Hosshin Shoaf
Hōsshin Shoaf
Shussui (work leader), Wednesday morning jikido/doan, Thursday morning doshi. Hosshin Michael Shoaf found his way to meditation in his senior year in high school but didn’t really come to Zen practice until 1990 after reading Zen Mind, Beginners Mind. He moved to Bloomington in January of 1981 to enter Indiana University to study painting, sculpture and art history, finishing his studies in 1985. In 1986 he started a construction company that focused mainly on remodeling and renovation. Six years later Hosshin met Myoyu Andersen Roshi and began a 17-year practice with her that blended Soto and Rinzai Zen. At the same time he was part of a sitting group in Bloomington that later encouraged Okumura Roshi to consider that city as his base of operations. In 2009 he officially became a student of Okumura Roshi's at Sanshin. He ordained in 2013 and was shuso during the 2018 ango (practice period). These days, along with temple duties as work leader, Hosshin considers himself a cabinet and furniture maker, thoroughly enjoying the design process, finding it as satisfying as painting or sculpture. He lives in the woods in a 100 year old log cabin on the outskirts of town and is in the process of renovating it until he dies. Seigen Hartkemeyer
Seigen Hartkemeyer
Getting Started in Zen Practice facilitator, Wednesday and Friday morning jikido/doan Having first met Okumura Roshi at the “Many Faces of Dogen” conference at Zen Mountain Monastery in July 2004, Seigen moved to Bloomington in 2008 to practice with the Sanshin community. As a young man, he developed an interest in Taoism in college in the early 1970s and then shifted over to reading extensively on Zen Buddhism in the mid-1970s, taking up regular zazen practice following a first visit to the Paris Zen Temple in 1978. Through 1978-79 he would sit regularly Sunday mornings with a small, informal group of practitioners in Madrid, Spain, and he did his first summer sesshin with the sangha of the International Zen Association in the French Alps in August 1979. Having received precepts and the dharma name “Seigen” from Taisen Deshimaru in 1981, he was ordained two years later in that sangha. Throughout the 1980s and early 2000s, he did a number of sesshins at the Temple of La Gendronnière (including a five-month residence there in 1983) and in Quebec. Academically, he pursued grad studies in Spanish in Cincinnati and linguistics in Illinois and worked teaching (mainly) Spanish, including at the university level and in a local high school in Bloomington. Before moving to Indiana, he directed the Central Michigan Sangha, a sitting and dharma-study group on the Central Michigan University campus. He has recently retired from professional teaching. Ritoku Robinson
Ritoku Robinson
Wednesday evening jikido Ritoku is a Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy and Religion having received said degree in 1993 from the California Institute of Integral Studies. From Indiana University he has earned a B.A. in Philosophy and a M.S. in Philosophy of Education. His undergraduate interest was Non-Western perspectives on Western Thought, those perspectives being Eastern Thought and indigenous philosophies such as may be found among Native Americans. He is of Cherokee descent and grew up with an interest in Native American culture. He has been active in the Native American Church, and has been educated in several forms of Native American religions. In 1988 he taught at the Rough Rock Demonstration School in the Navajo Nation. This school was the first Native-American-run school with a cross-cultural curriculum that included Navajo culture, language and religion. After this he served in the Peace Corps teaching philosophy and social science at the National University of Samoa. When living in San Francisco Ritoku entered Zen practice at the Zen Center of San Francisco. He became a member of the Hartford Street Zen Center, which is affiliated with the Zen Center of San Francisco. The Hartford Street Zen Center is both a Zen Temple and a hospice, and as part of his Zen training he worked with issues of death and dying. After he received his Ph.D, he became a resident scholar at the Zen Center of Los Angeles studying under Maezumi Roshi. He lived two years there after which Okumura Roshi ordained him as a novice. Ritoku's current interests include cross-cultural philosophies, philosophical psychology of religion, Asian and American Indian philosophies and religions. He is on the associate faculty in the Philosophy Department and the Native American and Indigenous Studies program at Indiana University School of Liberal Arts. He has taught: Introduction to Philosophy, Ethics, Environmental Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, Buddhist Philosophy, Philosophies of China, American Indian Philosophies, and a variety of courses on Non-Western Philosophies. He has a book published: Primal Way and the Pathology of Civilization. Doju Layton
Dōju Layton
Practice leader on the IU campus, Getting Started in Zen Practice facilitator, Monday morning jikido/doan Dōju grew up in the Washington D.C. area. He received a Bachelor of Arts in German studies from the College of William and Mary and a Master of Science in evolutionary biology from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. While pursuing a Ph.D in biology, he began to feel dissatisfied with his direction and panicked at the thought of having no viable alternative. In 2011 he found himself at the Missouri Zen Center in St. Louis in the process of figuring out how to cope with this problem. There he practiced with Rosan Yoshida and found that through his zazen practice he was content to go with the flow and not worry so much about the future. Upon reading Kōshō Uchiyama’s Opening the Hand of Thought and finding its presentation of Zen to be the most clear and straightforward he had encountered, in 2015 he moved to Sanshinji in Bloomington, with the aim of becoming a priest under Uchiyama’s disciple, Okumura Rōshi. Dōju was ordained as a novice priest in 2017. Unable to fully abandon academia, the following year he accepted an offer to begin a master’s program in religious studies (Japanese Buddhism) at Indiana University. Yuko Okumura
Yuko Okumura
Sewing teacher Yuko started to practice zazen when she was 16 and later went to Komazawa University to study Buddhism. During her time there, she had an opportunity to learn nyoho-e style sewing. She received lay precepts from Kin-ei Otogawa Zenji at Sojiji in Japan in 1977. After being married to Shohaku Okumura in 1983, she lived at Antaiji for one year to study okesa sewing. Since Sanshinji's establishment in Bloomington, she has been helping lay people to sew their rakusu and ordained people to sew their okesa. In 2018 she led an online kesa study group where she shared the English translation of the book Study of Kesa by Kyuma Echu. Mark Myogen Ahlstrom
Mark Myōgen Ahlstrom
Getting Started in Zen Practice facilitator, Tuesday evening jikido In traditional American fashion, Mark came to Buddhism through a book, The Razor's Edge. He couldn't let go of the question of why Larry burned his books on the mountain top. He took refuge at the Karna Thegsum Choling Dallas with Lama Dudjom Dorjee under the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism in 2006. In 2007 he moved to his native home of Bloomington-Normal Illinois and joined the Bloomington-Normal Zen Group (The Dharma Wind Zen Center), which he eventually ran for about five years. There he met and took precepts with Zuiko Redding at Jikyouji in Cedar Rapids (2010). He took a job with IU as a Database Administrator in 2015, and started practicing at Sanshinji. There he tries to balance work-life and and zen-life and usually laughs at the idea -- as if there is a difference! Policies and guidelines |
