In September Shugen Roshi visited Garrison Institute in the Hudson Valley to co-lead a workshop with Dharma teachers Sharon Saltzberg and Pema Khandro. Hosted by the Lion’s Roar magazine the weekend workshop’s theme was Manifesting Compassion. Throughout the fall Roshi also continued monthly meetings with other religious leaders at the Woodstock Interfaith Council.
In October Roshi traveled overseas to Japan to visit Eiheji and Sojiji, the two main training monasteries of the Soto School, where he served as guest head priest in the traditional Zuise ceremonies to recognize Dharma transmission in the Soto lineage. This visit was a way for Roshi to acknowledge and celebrate the MRO’s lineage with our Japanese ancestors, a connection established through Daido Roshi’s teacher, Maezumi Roshi.
Shugen Roshi was accompanied on his travels in Japan by Seido Suzuki Roshi (pictured with Shugen and Junyu Kuroda Roshi on bottom right photo). Seido Roshi lived at ZMM in the mid-1980s and has been a close friend over these many years. Also accompanying Roshi was Tash Esho Sudan (lower left facing page on far right), a Soto priest who also had lived and studied at the Monastery as a student of Daido Roshi. Junyu Kuroda Roshi is a Zen Priest and brother of the late Maezumi Roshi, and abbot of Kirigayaji Temple in Tokyo. Shugen Roshi also visited another historic temple, Toshoji, (lower left facing page, where Seido Roshi has been leading a traditional Soto Zen training sangha.