Shinge Roko Sherry Chayat Roshi
Shinge Roshi, our abbot, began formal Zen practice in 1967 at the Zen Studies Society’s first location on the Upper West Side of New York City. She was co-director and a resident at Dai Bosatsu Zendo from 1974 to 1976 during its pioneer years, and then became the spiritual director of the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji, where she was appointed abbot in 1996. In 1998, she received Dharma Transmission from Eido Shimano Roshi, and in 2008 was authorized as a roshi, or Zen Master, and given the name Shinge, meaning “heart-mind flowering.” On January 1, 2011, she was installed as abbot of the Zen Studies Society by the founding abbot, Eido Shimano Roshi. In addition to her work as a Zen teacher, Shinge Roshi is an award-winning writer. She compiled and edited Eloquent Silence: Nyogen Senzaki’s Gateless Gate and Other Previously Unpublished Teachings and Letters; Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa, with Eido Shimano Roshi and Kazuaki Tanahashi; and Subtle Sound: The Zen Teachings of Maurine Stuart. She is the author of Life Lessons: the Art of Jerome Witkin, and her articles and reviews have appeared in Buddhadharma, Tricycle, Tikkun, ARTNews, Sculpture Magazine and American Ceramics, among others. She is a graduate of Vassar College.
Dokuro Roland Jaeckel Osho
Dokuro Osho was given Dharma Transmission by Shinge Roshi November 25, 2017. They met in 2010 at Cambridge Buddhist Association, where one of Shinge Roshi’s teachers, MyoOn Maurine Stuart Zenni, was spiritual director until her death in 1990. He formally became Shinge Roshi’s disciple when Joshu Roshi retired from teaching. A native of Austria, Dokuro began his formal Zen training in 1982 under Genro Seiun Osho, a student of the late Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi. First entrusted with founding a sitting group in 1984, Dokuro Osho continued his studies with Joshu Roshi and was ordained a monk at Mt. Baldy Zen Center in 1989. In 2004, he received Temple Dharma Transmission in the Rinzai-ji lineage of Inzan. Dokuro Osho served as abbot of the Cambridge Buddhist Association from 2004 to 2011 and continues as abbot of Charles River Zen in Boston.
