THE LINEAGE
Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995)
Genpo Roshi's Teacher and Honorary Founder of Kanzeon Zen Center, Maezumi Roshi was one of the first great teachers who brought Zen from Japan to the West.
Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi was born in 1931. His father, Baian Hakujun Kuroda Roshi, was one of the leading figures in Japanese Soto Zen. Maezumi Roshi was ordained as a Soto monk at age eleven and studied oriental literature and philosophy at Komazawa University.
He completed his Soto monk's training at Sojiji monastery, one of the two main Soto monasteries in Japan. In 1955, he received Dharma Transmission from his father. He later received final approval as an independent Zen Master (Inka) from both Hakuun Yasutani Roshi and Koryu Osaka Roshi (a lay Rinzai teacher), thus becoming a Master in three Zen lineages, a rarely encountered achievement.
Maezumi Roshi came to Los Angeles in 1956 to serve as a priest at Zenshuji Temple, the Soto headquarters in the United States. In 1967, he established the Zen Center of Los Angeles (ZCLA) and dedicated it to his father as the honorary founder. Maezumi Roshi became an American citizen and worked tirelessly for 28 years to contribute to the transmission of Buddhist teachings to the West and to transmit the Dharma to Western successors. His clearly articulated goal was to cultivate Western Zen teachers so that the Buddha Way might flourish in its natural Western expression under their guidance. He was instrumental in the formation of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA) of American Soto Zen teachers and founded the Kuroda Institute, dedicated to Zen scholarship and translation. Maezumi Roshi was himself an outstanding translator of Dogen Zenji.
Maezumi Roshi transmitted the Dharma to twelve successors, a community he designated the White Plum Asanga, named in honor of his father Baian Hakujun, whose name “Baian” means “white plum.” These successors include Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, Dennis Genpo Merzel, Charlotte Joko Beck, Jan Chozen Bays, John Daido Loori, Gerry Shishin Wick, John Tesshin Sanderson, Alfred Jitsudo Ancheta, Charles Tenshin Fletcher, Susan Myoyu Andersen, Nicolee Jikyo Miller, and William Nyogen Yeo. These twelve successors have further transmitted the Dharma to second and third generation successors. In the United States and Europe, Maezumi Roshi ordained 68 Zen priests and gave lay Buddhist precepts to over 500 people.
Maezumi Roshi established six temples in the United States and Europe that are formally registered with Soto Headquarters in Japan. They include the Zen Center of Los Angeles, Zen Mountain Center in California, Zen Community of New York, Kanzeon Zen Centers in Salt Lake City and Europe, and the Zen Mountain Monastery in New York.
Just before his death, Maezumi Roshi gave Inka to his senior disciple, Tetsugen Glassman, Roshi, who in turn transmitted Inka to Genpo Roshi. Genpo Roshi in turn has transmitted Inka to Daido Loori and Catherine Genno Pages.
Maezumi Roshi died unexpectedly in May 1995 in Japan at the age of 64. He is survived by his wife Martha Ekyo Maezumi and their three children, Kirsten Mitsuyo, Jurui Jundo, and Shira Yoshimi, all of Idyllwild, California.
Hakujun Kuroda Roshi (1898-1978)
Maezumi Roshi’s father, Baian Hakujun Kuroda Roshi, was head of the Soto Sect Supreme Court and one of the leading figures of Japanese Soto Zen.
Hakuun Ryoko Yasutani Roshi (1885-1973)
As a student of Harada Daiun Sogaku Roshi, Yasutani Roshi took what he considered the strengths of the Soto and Rinzai sects and created a new lineage of Zen, the Fellowship of the Three Treasures, which emphasizes both koan practice and kensho experience.
Koryu Osaka Roshi (1901-1987)
Koryu Roshi was a lay Rinzai teacher who emphasized lay practice. Koryu Roshi's teacher, Joko Roshi, empowered him to remain a lay teacher and this emphasis on the validity and importance of lay practice continues in Kanzeon practice today.
Genpo Merzel Roshi – Abbot of Big Mind Western Zen Center
Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi is a revolutionary in the tradition of the old Zen Masters who so embodied Buddhist teaching that they were able to revitalize and transform it for their own day and age. As Buddhism moved from India to China to Japan and other Asian cultures, it found unique expression in each culture that made its fundamental teachings resonate for a new time and place. Genpo Roshi is working to transmit the essence of the Buddha’s teachings in a way that is readily accessible to Westerners and relevant to our everyday life.
The core of Genpo Roshi’s teaching is the unshakeable and contagious certainty that every one of us, regardless of our socioeconomic, cultural or religious background, can instantly awaken to our true nature, like the great masters of old — like the historical Buddha himself, whose essential teaching was nothing less than this. This experience helps us shed anxiety and fear and learn to live more purposeful, compassionate and joyful lives. Roshi combines Zen tradition with the insights of such visionary western figures as Carl Jung, Fritz Perls, and Hal Stone, enabling virtually anyone to realize their true nature, a realization they can further deepen through meditation.
Dennis Genpo Merzel comes from a long line of Rebbes. Born in Brooklyn NY, he grew up in Southern California where he was a high school champion swimmer and All-American water polo player. He earned a Masters degree in education from the University of Southern California and was a teacher and lifeguard before ordaining as a Zen monk under Zen Master Taizan Maezumi in 1973. Completing formal Koan study in 1979 he became Maezumi Roshi’s second Dharma Successor in 1980, the first being Bernie Tetsugen Glassman. He received Inka (final seal of approval as Zen Master) from Roshi Glassman in 1996, thereby becoming one of a small group of Westerners recognized as lineage holders in both the Soto and Rinzai Zen traditions.
In 1982 Genpo Sensei began teaching throughout Europe and founded the international group he named the Kanzeon (Love and Compassion) Sangha, centered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with affiliates in France, Holland, Poland, Belgium, Germany, England, and Malta. He has twelve Dharma Successors: Catherine Genno Pages, John Shodo Flatt, Anton Tenkei Coppens, Malgosia Jiho Braunek, Daniel Doen Silberberg, Nico Sojun Tydeman, Nancy Genshin Gabrysch, Diane Musho Hamilton, Michael Mugaku Zimmerman, Richard Taido Christofferson, Michel Genko Dubois, and Tammy Myoho Gabrysch. He has given Inka to eight Zen teachers: John Daido Loori, Catherine Genno Pages and Anton Tenkei Coppens, Jan Chozen Bays, Charles Tenshin Fletcher, Nicolee Jikyo McMahon, Susan Myoyu Andersen and Sydney Musai Walter. For ten years, until 2007, he was the President of the White Plum Asanga, the worldwide community comprising all the Dharma heirs of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, their successors, and the many groups they lead.
Roshi’s publications include The Eye Never Sleeps, Beyond Sanity and Madness, 24/7 Dharma, and The Path of The Human Being, and several DVDs. His latest book, Big Mind/Big Heart: Finding Your Way, published in the Fall of 2007, is also going to be published in translation in Holland, Spain, and Germany. He is married to Stephanie Young Merzel, co-administrator of Kanzeon Zen Center International, and has two children, Tai Merzel, an aerospace engineer, and Nicole Merzel, a mathematics major at the University of Puget Sound.
THE SUCCESSORS OF GENPO ROSHI
Catherine Genno Pagès Roshi
Catherine Pagès was born near Grenoble, France, and lived for much of her youth in Paris.
After studying art history at the Sorbonne, she pursued a career in various Parisian galleries and museums.
Beginning in 1978, she began traveling throughout the United States, Mexico, Central America, India and Nepal, where she first encountered the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and began practicing in that tradition.
Upon returning to Paris in 1982, she met the American Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi, who became her teacher. For the next 10 years, she practiced Zen with him in Europe and America, and after completing her formal koan study, she received transmission from him in 1992.
In January 2005 she received Inka from Genpo Roshi, who thus confirmed that she had completed study with him, and is now a fully Independent teacher.
She teaches the practice of “just sitting” (shikantaza) and koan practice.
Genno Roshi's Sangha is called Dana Sangha, and her Center is in Montreuil, France, on the outskirts of Paris.
Anton Tenkei Coppens Roshi
Anton Tenkei Coppens was born in the Netherlands in 1949. He studied Art and Art History at the Tilburg Academy and graduated in 1973. Sponsored by a Belgium Fellowship, he completed one year of postgraduate studies at the Academy of Antwerp. For almost fifteen years he worked as an artist and art teacher.
Tenkei started Zen practice in 1976 in England and, with the assistance of an arts grant from the Dutch government, traveled in 1980 to the Zen Center of Los Angeles, where he met Genpo Merzel Roshi.
From 1980 Tenkei followed his teacher touring throughout Europe and the USA. In 1988 he received Shukke Tokudo (monk ordination) and went to Maine, where Genpo Roshi had established his first residential training Center. The Center was relocated to Salt Lake City in 1993.
In 1994 Tenkei received the status of Hoshi (Dharma Holder) and Shiho (Dharma Transmission) in 1996. He received Inka from Genpo Roshi in January 2006.
Tenkei Roshi taught full-time at Kanzeon Zen Center until December 1999. He now teaches at his residential training center, Zen River, in the Netherlands, with his wife Tammy Myoho Gabrysch (a Dharma holder).
The Late John Shodo Flatt
John Flatt was born in England, at the turn of the 20th Century. He became a student of Genpo Roshi in 1982, and was a leading figure in the UK Sangha until his death in 1993. He received monk ordination in 1992, and Dharma Transmission in 1993.
Malgosia Jiho Braunek Sensei
When she was still a young student at the Warsaw Theatre Academy, Malgosia Braunek began acting in films. Very quickly she became the outstanding actress of her generation in Poland. She worked with the best Polish filmmakers, such as Andrzej Wajda.
At the very peak of her career she suddenly stopped acting. She and her present husband, Andrzej Krajewski, traveled East to India, Afghanistan, Tibet.
Back home they began Zen practice with the Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn.
When they met Genpo Sensei, who established Kanzeon Sangha in Poland in 1983, he became their main teacher. Since 1992 Malgosia has been leading the Polish Sangha. She received Denkai in 1999 and Shiho in 2003.
Malgosia and her husband Andrzej live in Warsaw where they have a beautiful zendo in their garden. They have 3 children, her son Xavier, Andrzej's son Martin and their daughter, Orinka. Recently, Malgosia resumed her acting career and won a national film award for supporting actress.
Daniel Doen Silberberg Sensei
Doen Sensei was born in Bad Hartzburg, Germany in 1947. His parents moved to the United States when he was four and he grew up in New York City. Sensei began spiritual practice with teachers in the Gurdjieff lineage at the age of 17. By age 32, after studying with four prominent Gurdjieff teachers, he was appointed by the late Willem Nyland to teach a Gurdjieff group in Woodstock, New York.
A couple of years later, feeling dissatisfied with his own understanding, Sensei disbanded his group and began formal Zen practice under Abbot Maezumi Roshi and resident teacher, Daido Roshi, at Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, New York. Doen met Caryn Shudo Schlessinger there. They received Jukai together and were married in 1982 by Maezumi Roshi.
Although Doen became a formal student of Genpo Roshi in 1994, he had met and connected with him 14 years earlier in 1980. He and Caryn received Tokudo from Roshi in 1997 and moved to Salt Lake City to be closer to him. Sensei received Shiho from Genpo Roshi in December 2003.
Doen Sensei draws on a rich and varied background. He received a B.A. in English literature, with an emphasis in Eastern literature, and has a Masters and Ph. D. in psychology. He has had a successful career as a musician and has spent 25 years as a psychotherapist, as a coach and consultant in New York and Salt Lake City. Doen Sensei frequently lectures at the University of Utah in the History, Psychology, Communications, Architecture, and Social Work departments and has given classes in religion at Westminster College. He has been a consultant to leaders in local government and business and has given interviews for local radio and the Salt Lake City Tribune. www.lostcoindev.com
Nico Sojun Tydeman Sensei
Nico Tydeman was born in Rotterdam in 1942.
In 1954, he became a student at the seminary of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1961 as a novice and member, he began his study of philosophy and theology at Liesbosch, and continued his studies in theology from 1965 to 1971 at the University of Nijmegen.
He began his Zen studies as a student of Karlfried Dürckheim in 1971. From 1971 to 1986 he was a staff member of the Kosmos Meditation Center at Amsterdam. In 1976, he spent time studying at the San Francisco Zen Center, and in 1980 began practice with Thich Nhat Hanh. In 1983, he became a student of Genpo Roshi.
He has been teaching at the Kanzeon Zen Centers in Amsterdam and Rotterdam since 1990. He is a guest teacher at Zentrum Utrecht and since 1991 has taught at the Yoga Academie, Nederland.
In 2004, Nico Sensei received Dharma Transmission from Genpo Roshi.
Nancy Genshin Gabrysch Sensei
Nancy Genshin Gabrysch was born in Scotland in 1937. She entered fine art studies in 1954 at the Slade School University College in London, followed by a year of post graduate studies. At the London University Institute of Education she studied teaching and then pursued a career as a painter and teacher.
Genshin became certified in art therapy in 1978 and worked in hospital and private settings. In 1983 while studying individual psychotherapy at Liverpool University, she met Genpo Roshi. She then devoted herself to studying Zen. Genshin later moved to Bar Harbor and then Salt Lake City with Genpo Roshi to continue Zen training, which included more than 12 years of residential practice. In January 1998 Genshin received Hoshi. From 1999 - 2004, she led a satellite group of Kanzeon Zen Center in Park City, Utah. Genshin Sensei received shiho (transmission) from Genpo Roshi in May 2006. She lives in England where she has a zendo (Kannon-ji) in Bilsborrow, near Preston, Lancs.
Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei
Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei is a dharma successor of Genpo Roshi. She began her dharma study at Naropa Institute in 1983 with Trungpa Rinpoche, and became a Zen student of Roshi's in 1997. In 2003, she received ordination as a Zen monk with her husband Michael Zimmerman, and dharma transmission from Roshi in the spring of 2006. She is also the director of curriculum and trainer for the Integral Life Practice seminars at Ken Wilber's Integral Institute. For her, Zen practice is a fundamental commitment to experiencing reality as it is – beautiful, ungraspable and seamless, nothing other than your own life. It is also a practice in fearlessness, in compassion, and in seeing the wisdom in all situations and greeting them with a joyous mind. Sometimes Zen practice is satisfying; sometimes it isn't. Sometimes you are able to make a kind of sense of it; most of the time you can't. But Zen teaching and sitting practice penetrate into your being in a way almost nothing else does, until you realize you are nothing but practice yourself. www.dianemushohamilton.org
Favorite Zen saying: "The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.” —Third Chinese Patriarch
Michael Mugaku Zimmerman Sensei
“In Buddhism, there is no hope.” That was my formal introduction to Zen, a remark made by a monk teaching an introductory class at Kanzeon. What a relief! Nothing to do. Just this! Hearing that, I never looked back. I wholeheartedly entered Zen practice.
For me, the central attraction and the essential challenge of Zen is the same: To constantly realize that my sense of who and what I am, my expectations of myself and others, my ingrained habits of mind, are all perspectives--all are true, all are partial. The same can be said of other, non-dual perspectives I attain through my practice, perspectives from which the separate “I” is seen as essentially illusory, like a circle drawn on the surface of a swift-flowing stream, a frame for a picture that is never the same from moment to moment, an arbitrary demarcation separating that which is not separate.
The practice of Zen is the practice of constantly letting go of each perspective as it arises, remaining fluid in the face of life and death. That fluidity enables us to respond to life from the present moment, not from some notion of who we are or what life should be. This does not mean that our practice leads us to dwell in some vast empty place, apart from the people around us, apart from the ordinariness of everyday life. Rather, we seek to experience life intimately, warmly, without filters, without illusions, with deep joy and amazement at the incomprehensibility of what it is to be human. Fluidity of perspective unlocks profound empathy and resulting compassion for all beings living this same life. We feel a strong resolve to alleviate their suffering, to burst the illusion of separateness and isolation endemic to human experience. We vow to approach every aspect of our daily life with this awareness.
In my teaching, I seek to awaken our ever-present awareness of the wondrousness of this moment, and to point out how enriched our lives can be by that awareness.
Michael Mugaku Zimmerman, Sensei, was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1943. He moved to Arizona as a teenager, where he finished high school and began college. Moving to Utah, he graduated from the University of Utah and then attended its law school. Following graduation, he moved to Washington, D.C., for a judicial clerkship, then to Los Angeles, where he worked for a large law firm in Los Angeles until 1976, when he returned to Utah to teach law briefly. He served as part-time special counsel to the Governor, had a litigation law practice, and served as a Justice and then Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court. In 2000, he returned to the practice of law and is a partner in a multi-state firm.
Mugaku Sensei came to Zen relatively late. He first ventured into meditation in 1993 as a way to find some grounding during his first wife's year-long struggle with terminal cancer. Shortly thereafter, he met Diane Hamilton, now Musho Sensei, through their working together for the Utah courts. At her suggestion, he attended an introductory class at Kanzeon in early 1997. Soon after, he began to study with Genpo Roshi. He and Diane were married by Genpo Roshi in 1998, the year he received Jukai. They received Tokudo and became monks together in 2003, were joint Shushos during the Spring Ango in 2005, received Denkai in early 2006, and he received Dharma Transmission in December 2006, seven months after Diane. Together, they have four children, and Ali, the Wonder Dog.
Rich Taido Christofferson Sensei
Rich Christofferson was born in 1960, and raised on the east coast. During the eighties, he sat with a number of Zen Groups in the New York area, until 1988, when he quit his job in the trucking business and came out to Salt Lake City to study anthropology, work in the desert and train with Genpo Roshi. In 1989, he received Jukai and ordained in 1994. In 1998 he became a senior monk, and received Hoshi in 2003. In the spring of 2007 he received Dharma Transmission from Genpo Roshi.
Michel Genko Dubois Sensei
Michel Genko Dubois started to practice Zen in 1978. He has been studying with Genpo Roshi since 1982 and received Dharma transmission from him in 2007. He has also studied with Maezumi Roshi and Bernie Tetsugen Glassman Roshi. He became a member of the Zen Peacemakers in 2002. He also received teaching from Tibetan Lamas: Chhoje Tulku Rimpoche, Tsoknyi Rimpoche, and Sogyal Rinpoche.
From 1970 to 1974 Michel Genko Dubois hitchhiked throughout Africa, taking up various jobs and teaching English on the way. He sat in meditation for the first time in the mountains of northern Ethiopia in 1974.
He traveled throughout the United States and Central America in 1975, eventually settling in San Francisco where he drove cabs and started to practice Zen. In 1980 he took part in the Long Walk for Survival, a Native American prayer walk to end uranium mining on the Indian reservations, pray for world peace and for the Native American women who had been sterilized by the Indian Health Services during the 60s and the 70s.
He started studying with Genpo Roshi in 1982. In the 80s, he also co-produced the documentary film, The Spirit of Crazy Horse, which tells the History of the Lakota Indians and their struggle to regain their sacred land, the Black Hills of South Dakota. The film aired on FRONTLINE in 1990 and was broadcast in 11 countries.
He currently teaches Zen Buddhism at the Big Mind Zen Center in Salt Lake City and at the Dana Zen Center in Paris. He is the co-founder of the humanitarian organization, L’UN EST L’AUTRE, which serves meals to the homeless in Paris.
Tammy Myoho Gabrysch Sensei
Tamara (Tammy) Myoho Gabrysch was born in Edinburgh Scotland in 1961, the eldest of five siblings. She grew up in Lancashire and went on to study in Manchester and received a BA (hons.) Degree in Fine Art in 1986.
She met Genpo Roshi in August 1988 when he came to the family home in Northern England, where her mother Nancy Genshin Gabrysch had invited Roshi to lead a retreat. The sesshin became a turning point for Tammy and from then on she committed to studying Zen with Genpo Roshi. She joined him along with other students to attend sesshins in Europe and then on to Bar Harbor, Maine, where Roshi was setting up Kanzeon Zen Center. In November 1988, Tammy received Jukai and in March, 1991 received Shukke Tokudo.
After Kanzeon Sangha relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1993, she began to cook for the residential program. In 1998 she received Hoshi and Denkai and also married Tenkei Coppens Roshi. They moved to the Netherlands in 2000 after 12 years of residential training.
Before settling in The Netherlands, Tammy and Tenkei Roshi spent six months living and training in Japan with Junyu Kuroda Roshi (Hojo-san) the younger brother of Maezumi Roshi. In 2002, with a dedicated goup, they established Zen River, an international zen training center on the north coast of The Netherlands.
Denkai Students of Genpo Roshi
Lineage Holders are still in training; they have received lineage and precept transmission as priests, and are qualified to officiate as priests in various ceremonies under their teacher's guidance. Denkai students are Hoshi students with additional empowerment and responsibilities.
Wilma Shinko Groenewoud - The Netherlands
Paul Genki Kahn - New Jersey, USA
Rein Konpo Kaales - White Cloud Zen Center, Idaho, USA
Mark Seiryo Shikeoga - Hawaii, USA
Alexandra Mushin Gericke - Zen Sangha, Belgium
George Jisho Robertson - London, UK
Hank Yoshin Malinowski - The Netherlands
Oscar Sodo Zerafa Gregory - Malta zenmalta.blogspot.com
Stephan Kenjitsu Coppens - Kanzeon Zen Centrum, The Netherlands
Hoshi Students of Genpo Roshi
Dharma Holders are still in training, but may undertake some teaching roles with Roshi’s permission and under his guidance
Gretha Myoshin Aerts - Zengroep Rotterdam Kanzeon, The Netherlands
Irene Kyojo Bakker - Zen Spirit, The Netherlands
Kees Kongo van de Bunt - Kanzeon Zen Centrum Den Haag, The Netherlands
Jim Kuzan Curtice - Utah, USA
Meindert Musho van den Heuvel - Zen in de Roos, The Netherlands
Lida Myoen Kerssies - Zen Centrum Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Maurice Shonen Knegtel - The Netherlands
Andrzej Getsugen Krajewski - Kanzeon Sangha, Poland
Robert Sokan Lee - California, USA
Linda Myoki Lehrhaupt - Germany & France
Dave Shoji Scott - Liverpool Zen Group, England
Christian Jikishin von Wolkahof - Kanzeon Sangha Deutschland, Germany
Marcela Ensei von Wolkahof - Kanzeon Sangha Deutschland, Germany
Jacqueline Shosui Wellenstein - iZen, The Netherlands
Willem Schuitemaker – The Netherlands
KC Kyozen Gerpheide – Utah, USA
Peter Dokuho Verbogt – The Netherlands
The people listed above are the only legitimate successors and Dharma Holders of Genpo Merzel Roshi
