GAELYN GODWIN

Resident Teacher

Gaelyn is a Zen priest, and a Dharma successor in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. Gaelyn began training at San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) in 1985 and was ordained by Tenshin Reb Anderson Roshi in January 1991. She received the Dharma name, Setsuan, which is translated as Snow Hut. Her second Dharma name is Konjin, Establish Love. She became Tenshin Roshi's Dharma successor in 2003 in the U.S., and was acknowledged in 2005 at the head Soto Zen temple in Japan, qualifying to receive the title of Kaikyoshi.

Gaelyn lived and trained at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, SFZC's monastery, for 12 years, serving in many positions, from kitchen crew through Director. She lived and trained at Zen Center's Green Gulch Farm and Beginner's Mind temple for 6 more years. She served on SFZC's Board of Directors for 7 years and currently advises the Affiliates Council. She trained in Japan, at Hosshinji with Harada Sekkei Roshi in 1991-92, and with Robert Aitken Roshi in Hawaii in 1995-96. Gaelyn moved to Houston in 2003 to serve as the Guiding Teacher of the Houston Zen Community.

Gaelyn was born in 1951 in San Luis Obispo, California and was raised in Cayucos, California, population 1,900. She moved north to attend UC Berkeley, majoring in Russian Intellectual History. After graduating she sought right-livelihood, beginning with running an after-school program for children, followed by apprenticing as a baker and pastry chef, then serving as a paralegal for family law.

She has two stepdaughters, Jessie, an economist in Chicago, and Sarah, an obstetrician in San Francisco, and four grandchildren, Oscar, Rose, Joachim and Sofia.

She values interfaith communication as well as intra-Buddhist communication to further understanding of the various Buddhist schools. She maintains close ties, both official and social, with the Soto Zen head temple in Japan, and serves on the Board of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association. She is also a member of the American Zen Teachers Association and the Association of Soto Zen Buddhists. She hopes to see, in this lifetime, the teachings of Buddhism flourish and show their Western colors and Western styles for the benefit of everyone.

VISITING TEACHERS

ROSHI REB ANDERSON

Reb Anderson is Senior Dharma Teacher at San Francisco Zen Center. He came to San Francisco from Minnesota in 1967 to study Zen Buddhism with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and in 1970 was ordained by him as a priest and given the name Tenshin Zenki, Naturally Real, The Whole Works. Since that time he has continued to practice and teach at San Francisco Zen Center, which includes Green Gulch Farm, the San Francisco Beginners Mind Temple (City Center), and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He served as abbot from 1986 to 1995. Tenshin Roshi is particularly interested in Buddhist yoga and psychology, and in the relationship between Buddhist wisdom and compassion to the social and ecological crises of our time. He lives with his family at Green Dragon Temple/Green Gulch Farm where he teaches, lectures and leads practice periods.

SENIOR DHARMA TEACHER EIJUN LINDA CUTTS

Senior Dharma Teacher Eijun Linda Cutts came to San Francisco Zen Center in 1971, where she practiced with Suzuki-roshi, Zentatsu Baker and Tenshin Reb Anderson Roshi. She was ordained as a priest in 1975 and has lived at Tassajara and San Francisco City Center and since 1993, she and her family have lived at Green Gulch Farm. Linda is married to Steve Weintraub, a zen priest and psychotherapist, and they have two children, Sarah who is dividing her time between Tassajara and Colombia, South America doing human rights work, and David, who is a senior at UC Santa Barbara and climbs mountains. Linda received dharma transmission from Tenshin Roshi in 1996 and served as Abbess of San Francisco Zen Center from 2000 to 2007. She continues to teach and lead practice periods and retreats at Tassajara and Green Gulch.

SENIOR DHARMA TEACHER ZENKEI BLANCHE HARTMAN

Zenkei Blanche Hartman is a Zen Roshi from San Francisco Zen Center. She served as Abbess for 7 years and is now a Senior Dharma Teacher. In 1969, while she was working as a biostatistician for the California Department of Public Health, she and Lou became interested in Zen Buddhism. They practiced at the Berkeley Zendo and San Francisco Zen Center where they met Suzuki Roshi and Mel Weitsman. They went to Tassajara in 1972 and to Green Gulch Farm in 1974, and were ordained together in 1977. Zenkei received Dharma Transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1988 and was Abbess of San Francisco in residence at the Beginners' Mind Temple in San Francisco from 1996 until 2003. She and Shuun continue to live and practice there now.

DAIGAN DAVID LUECK & ARLENE LUECK

Daigan David Lueck has been a resident practitioner at the San Francisco Zen Center for more than twenty years. He was ordained as a priest in 1989 and received Dharma transmission, becoming a Dharma Lineage holder, from then-Abbot Zoketsu Norman Fischer. He served as Head Monk and, later, Head of Practice at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center monastery for several years before moving to Green Gulch Farm Zen Center where he now lives and teaches. He is a poet and painter.

Arlene Lueck has been a resident practitioner at the San Francisco Zen Center for more than fifteen years. She was ordained as a priest by Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1996. She has served as Head Monk, Head of the Guest Program at both Tassajara and Green Gulch Farm and currently serves as a Practice Leader and as project director for new construction while overseeing the maintenance department at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center.

SEIRIN BARBARA KOHN SENSEI

Seirin Barbara Kohn Sensei, teacher and head priest at Austin Zen Center, spent 15 years at San Francisco Zen Center where she was ordained as a priest by Tenshin Reb Anderson Roshi and received dharma transmission from Zenkei Blanche Hartman Roshi. She has been guiding the practice at AZC since 2000. She keeps regularly in touch with her teachers and friends at San Francisco Zen Center and meets yearly with other U.S. and Canadian Zen teachers. Seirin regularly offers sittings and talks in other cities and is available to meet with people who want guidance through a Zen perspective, or who want to know more about Zen practice.

KOSHIN FLINT SPARKS

Flint is an ordained Zen Buddhist priest serving the Austin Zen Center. He began his formal training at the San Francisco Zen Center with his teacher, Zenkei Blanche Hartman and has continued to work with Zenkei Roshi as well as her dharma heir and Austin Zen Center teacher and head priest, Seirin Barbara Kohn. Along with other teachers in the Soto tradition, Flint is fortunate to also work with Ruben Habito, head teacher at the Maria Kannon Zen Center.

KAZ TANAHASHI

Kaz has had solo exhibitions and done painting performances in art galleries, museums, and universities internationally. Trained in Japan as a painter and calligrapher, Kaz has been active in the United States since 1977. He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and is listed in Who's Who In America. He is the founding director of A World Without Armies: The Costa Rica Initiative.

SHOHO MICHAEL NEWHALL

Michael began practicing and studying with Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi in the early seventies. He was ordained in the mid-eighties by Chino Roshi and also in Japan by his brother Kiebun Otogawa Roshi, with whom he did ceremony and temple training. He also practiced with Dainin Katagiri Roshi and Tozen Akiyama Roshi. Monastery training was with Tenshin Reb Anderson at Tassajara, and also under Kobun Chino Roshi as shuso of angos at both Hokoji and Jikoji temples. In the early nineties he was director at Jikoji. Throughout this time he taught visual arts at various schools and universities, including Naropa University, where he also taught meditation and Buddhism. He received Dharma Transmission in 2004. Since that time Shoho Michael Newhall has been the the abbot of Jikoji Zen Center.