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 She compiled and edited Eloquent Silence: Nyogen Senzaki’s Gateless Gate and Other Previously Unpublished Teachings and Letters; Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa, with Eido Shimano Roshi and Kazuaki Tanahashi; and Subtle Sound: The Zen Teachings of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.
Chigan-kutsu Kyo-On Dokuro Jaeckel Roshi
Kyo-On Dokuro Osho was given Dharma Transmission by Shinge Roshi Nov. 25, 2017, at Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji. Three years later, on Nov. 29, 2020, in a shitsugo (room name) ceremony, Shinge Roshi gave him the name Chigan-kutsu (Wisdom Mirror-Cave)and the title Roshi. Chigan Roshi teaches at the Zen Studies Society and serves on the ZSS Board of Directors. He is also abbot of Charles River Zen in Boston, and was abbot of the Cambridge Buddhist Association (CBA) from 2004 to 2011. He met Shinge Roshi in 2010 at CBA, where one of her teachers, MyoOn Maurine Stuart Zenni, was spiritual director until her death in 1990. Chigan Roshi formally became Shinge Roshi’s disciple when his previous teacher, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, retired from teaching. A native of Austria, Chigan Roshi began his formal Zen training there in 1982 under Genro Seiun Osho, a student of Joshu Roshi’s. Entrusted with founding a sitting group in 1984, Chigan Roshi 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 from Joshu Roshi in the Rinzai-ji lineage of Inzan.