Dating back 2,600 years to the historical Buddha, the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care’s Zen practice is in the Soto Zen Lineage of the White Plum Asanga. Our Founders, Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei and Chodo Robert Campbell Sensei are recognized Soto Zen Teachers by the Soto Zen Teachers Association, The White Plum Asanga, Zen Peacemakers and American Zen Teachers’ Association.
Siddhartha Gautama
(480 BCE – 400 BCE)
The Buddha was a real person, Siddhartha Gautama, who lived 2,600 years ago. He was born the son of a king in Lumbini, Nepal. Prince Siddhartha lived in luxury, but at the age of 29, all that changed—he renounced his royal life and began a spiritual quest. Over many years, his journey led him to believe that the path to enlightenment was achieved through discipline of the mind. In the modern Indian state of Bihar, at Bodh Gaya, Siddhartha sat in meditation beneath a ficus tree. This is where he had his awakening and realized enlightenment.
Bodhidharma
(5th or 6th century)
A Buddhist monk that lived in the 5th or 6th century. He is widely considered the founder of Zen in China. Bodhidharma was the first to introduce the specific teachings that defined the Zen school. Much of his renown comes from a well-known, four-line teaching attributed to him:
A special transmission outside the scriptures, Not depending on words and letters; Directly pointing to the mind, Seeing into one’s true nature and attaining Buddhahood.
Eihei Dogen Zenji
(January 26, 1200—1253)
Eihei Dogen Zenji (January 26, 1200—1253), was a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Soto school of Zen in Japan.
Originally ordained as a monk in the Tendai School in Kyoto, he was ultimately dissatisfied with its teaching and traveled to China to seek out what he believed to be a more authentic Buddhism. He remained there for five years, finally training under Tiantong Rujing, an eminent teacher of the Chinese Caodong lineage. Upon his return to Japan, he began promoting the practice of zazen (sitting meditation) through literary works such as Fukan zazengi and Bendōwa.
He eventually left Kyoto for the mountainous countryside where he founded the monastery Eihei-ji, which remains the head temple of the Soto school today.
Dōgen is known for his extensive writing including his most famous work, the collection of 95 essays called the Shōbōgenzō, but also Eihei Kōroku, a collection of his talks, poetry, and commentaries, and Eihei Shingi, the first Zen monastic code written in Japan, among others.
KEIZAN JOKIN ZENJI
(born Nov. 13, 1268, —Sept. 22, 1325)
Keizan Jōkin Zenji, posthumous name Jōsai Daishi, monk of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism, who founded the Sojiji Temple (now in Yokohama), one of the two head Soto Zen temples of the school. At the age of 12 Keizan entered ordained as a monk under Koun Ejō, the second head priest of the Eihei Temple (in modern Fukui prefecture), the headquarters of the sect. After the death of Koun Ejō, Keizan studied under Tettsū Gikai of the Daijō Temple and finally received the law of Buddha from him. After studying under Kohō Kakumyō, he returned to the Daijō Temple and there propagated the teachings of the Sōtō sect for 10 years, until he became the head priest of the Shogaku Temple (in modern Ishikawa prefecture). Keizan gave the temple a new name, Shogaku-zan Sōjiji Temple, and affiliated it with the Sōtō sect in 1321. Later, when he preached to the emperor Go-Daigo on the Ten Questions on Buddhism, Sōji Temple became an imperial temple. It was destroyed by fire in 1898 and was rebuilt on the present site in Yokohama. Keizan devoted himself to establishing many temples, renewing the religious traditions of his sect, and popularizing the teachings of its founder, Dogen. Keizan was very concerned with laypeople too, giving precepts to over 70 lay people just while abbot of Jomanji, prior to receiving dharma transmission from Gikai. This focus on lay people is perhaps why the Soto sect was always the largest of the Japanese Zen schools. Keizan was also a champion of women’s rights in his time, actively appointing women as monks and priests and probably paving the way for the establishment of a monastic order for women in Soto Zen. Keizan approved of the use of koans in meditation – though not to the extent of the Rinzai school, more as an aid to concentration. Under him the Sōtō sect developed rapidly and expanded to all corners of Japan. Now called Taiso (“Great Master”), he is appreciated as the restorer of the Sōtō school. The main literary works of Keizan are explanations of Sōtō methods of meditation and daily monastic life.
Hakuyū Taizan Maezumi Roshi
February 24, 1931—May 15, 1995
Hakuyū Taizan Maezumi Roshi (February 24, 1931—May 15, 1995), was a Japanese-born Soto Zen priest with dharma transmission in both the Rinzai Zen school and the Harada-Yasutani lineage. His parents Yoshiko Kuroda-Maezumi and Baian Hakujun Kuroda (a respected Soto Zen priest), named him Hirotaka Kuroda. He was third eldest of eight brothers, four of whom went on to be Soto Zen priests. Ordained as a Soto Zen monk at age eleven on March 25, 1942 and given the ordination name Taizan (meaning, Great Mountain), Maezumi received degrees in Oriental Literature and Philosophy from Komazawa University; he also did Zen training at one of the two main training monasteries for the Soto-shu in Japan, Sojiji. He took on his mother’s family name Maezumi when the last of the males in her family passed away and used the Sino-Japanese pronunciation of his first name, changing it from Hirotaka to Hakuyū. Along with other seminal figures like Shunryu Suzuki and Dainin Katagiri, Maezumi Roshi played a seminal role in helping to establish Soto Zen practice in the United States. James Ishmael Ford, a Zen priest and an American Zen historian of sorts, writes, “Taizan Maezumi is probably the most important koan master to come West—the first Zen teacher in the West to receive formal Dharma transmission in the Soto, Rinzai, and Harada-Yasutani lines.”
Tetsugen Bernard Glassman Roshi
January 18, 1939 – November 4th, 2018
Tetsugen Bernard Glassman Roshi (January 18, 1939 – November 4th, 2018), is a Sōtō Zen teacher and member of the White Plum Asanga—comprised of various teachers in the lineage of the late teacher Taizan Maezumi-Roshi, to whom he is a Dharma heir. Bernie was born on January 18, 1938 in Brooklyn, New York. In 1963 he married his 1st wife Helen Silverberg, who he had met in Israel—the couple settling in Santa Monica, CA. Philip Kapleau’s 1965 classic The Three Pillars of Zen had a profound impact on Glassman, and by 1966 he and some friends began to visit Zenshuji Soto Zen Mission in Little Tokyo of Los Angeles (where Bishop Togen Sumi and Taizan Maezumi-Roshi resided). In 1968 he began practicing at the Zen Center of Los Angeles (ZCLA) with Taizan Maezumi Roshi while also working for McDonnell-Douglas designing shuttle systems. In 1970 Glassman became a novice Sōtō Zen priest and received his Dharma name Tetsugen (“To Penetrate Mysteries”). In 1971 he moved in to ZCLA with Helen and their two children, spending the next five years in residence there training. He continued his work with McDonnell-Douglas and also became chief administrator of ZCLA during this period. In 1976 he finished koan studies with Maezumi Roshi and was authorized as a teacher in the lineage; he quit his job at McDonnell-Douglas so that he could devote himself fulltime to ZCLA. He became executive director of ZCLA and, through his efforts, the Zen center acquired many properties in their neighborhood, started a publishing company, and developed a medical clinic for residents of the Mexican-American neighborhood in which the center resides. Glassman Roshi co-founded the Zen Peacemaker Order in 1996 with his late wife, Sandra Jishu Holmes. In 1982 he established Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, NY, a successful business staffed by his students and homeless people of the area. Glassman Roshi is well-known for his engaged Buddhist practice.
Roshi Peter Muryo Matthiessen
May 22, 1927 – April 5, 2014
Roshi Peter Muryo Matthiessen (May 22, 1927 – April 5, 2014) is an Soto Zen Teacher, American novelist, naturalist, and wilderness writer. A co-founder of the literary magazine The Paris Review and a three-time National Book Award-winner, he has also been a prominent environmental activist. His nonfiction has featured nature and travel—notably The Snow Leopard (1978)—or American Indian issues and history—notably a detailed and controversial study of the Leonard Peltier case, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (1983). His fiction has occasionally been adapted for film: the early story “Travelin’ Man” was made into The Young One (1960) by Luis Bunuel and the novel At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1965) into the 1991 film of the same name. In 2008, at age 81, Matthiessen received the National Book Award for Fiction for Shadow Country, a one-volume, 890-page revision of his three novels set in frontier Florida that had been published in the 1990s. According to critic Michael Dirda, “No one writes more lyrically about animals or describes more movingly the spiritual experience of mountaintops, savannas, and the sea.” He is the Founder of the Ocean Zendo, in Sagaponek, NY.
Sensei Dorothy Dai En Friedman
November 16, 1928—
Sensei Dorothy Dai En Friedman (November 16, 1928—), Dai-en’s spiritual journey began in the 1960s when she was forced to seek help for a back injury which ended her career as a professional dancer. This event proved to be a wonderful preparation for her eventual immersion 20 years later in Buddhist Vipassana practice at Insight Meditation Society. After she established her Vipassana practice, she then began her journey into Zen practice. Her core teachers include her transmitting teacher Peter Muryo Mathiessen Roshi, as well as Joseph Goldstein, Matt Flickstein, and Maureen Stuart Roshi. Dai-en is now a Sensei at Ocean Zendo, located on Eastern Long Island. She is honored to teach with Koshin and Chodo, her first dharma heirs, in the wonderful healing work of New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, for the benefit of all beings, as we live and die.
Chodo Robert Campbell Sensei, GC-C
NYZC Co-Founder, Vice President, & Guiding Teacher
Zen teacher, non-profit co-founder, and grief counselor Chodo Robert Campbell is a recognized leader for those suffering with the complexities of death & dying, aging, and sobriety. With his husband, Koshin Paley Ellison, he co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, an educational non-profit dedicated to integrating contemplative approaches to care and contemporary medicine. Through Chodo’s leadership and vision, NYZC has developed transformational, collaborative training experiences: the Foundations in Contemplative Care and the Contemplative Medicine Fellowship. Today, New York Zen Center’s teachings and practices are internationally recognized — and have touched the lives of tens of thousands of individuals.
Chodo is a dynamic, grounded, and visionary leader and teacher: he has traveled extensively throughout the U.S instructing in various institutions. He has also spent many hours dedicated to bearing witness to the suffering of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Chodo’s public programs have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the living and dying. Sixty-thousand people listen to his podcasts each year. His passion lies in bereavement counseling and advocating for change in the way our healthcare institutions work with end of life support and care.
Chodo is widely recognized as a trailblazer and authority on contemplative care. Chodo and Koshin were featured in Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death, a documentary about how we face our mortality and are also the focus of a forthcoming documentary about Buddhism in American for Dutch television.
His work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, Tricycle, Parabola and other media outlets. He is a recognized Soto Zen Teacher with the American Zen Teachers Association, White Plum Asanga, and Soto Zen Buddhist Association.
Academic Appointments
Chodo is part of the core faculty for the Buddhist Track in the Masters in Pastoral Care and Counseling with NYZC’s educational partner, University of the West. He is also on the faculty of the University of Arizona Medical School’s Center for Integrative Medicine’s Integrative Medicine Fellowship and the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine in San Diego.
Koshin Paley Ellison sensei
NYZC Co-Founder, President, & Guiding Teacher
Author, Zen teacher, and Jungian psychotherapist Koshin Paley Ellison is recognized as one of today’s most thoughtful and trusted leaders in the contemplative medicine movement. With his husband, Chodo Campbell he co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, an educational non-profit dedicated to integrating contemplative approaches to care with contemporary medicine. Through Koshin’s leadership and vision, NYZC has developed transformational, collaborative training experiences: the Foundations in Contemplative Care and the Contemplative Medicine Fellowship. Today, New York Zen Center’s teachings and practices are internationally recognized — and have touched the lives of tens of thousands of individuals.
As a renowned thought leader in contemplative care, Koshin’s work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, CBS Sunday Morning and other media outlets. Koshin and Chodo were featured in Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death, a documentary about facing our mortality and are also the focus of a forthcoming documentary about Buddhism in America for Dutch television.
Koshin is the author of Untangled: Walking the Eightfold Path to Clarity, Courage, and Compassion (Balance/Hachette, 2022); Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up (Wisdom Publications, 2019), and the co-editor of Awake at Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care (Wisdom Publications, 2016).
Koshin began his formal Zen training in 1987, and he is a recognized Soto Zen Teacher by the American Zen Teachers Association, White Plum Asanga, and Soto Zen Buddhist Association. He serves on the Board of Directors at the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care and Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
He has completed six years of training at the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association as well as clinical contemplative training at both Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Medical Center. Koshin has served as the co-director of Contemplative Care Services of the Department of Integrative Medicine and as the chaplaincy supervisor for the Pain and Palliative Care Department at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, where he also served on the Medical Ethics Committee for eighteen years.
Koshin is currently on the faculty of the University of Arizona Medical School’s Center for Integrative Medicine’s Integrative Medicine Fellowship, on Faculty of the Integrative Medicine Fellowship of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine, and he is the visiting professor at the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, of the University of Texas Health Science Center of Houston Medical School. Koshin is part of the core faculty for the Buddhist Track in the Masters in Pastoral Care and Counseling with NYZC’s educational partner, University of the West.
