Summer 2024 Newsletter: Dojo Outreach
Zen & Politics: A Third Year Exploring The Way of Public Leadership
Zen & Politics participants hear from Chozen-ji Abbot Sayama Daian Roshi.
The third cohort of Zen & Politics: The Way of Public Leadership, completed its 10-week program in late June. The cohort was made up of 16 early- to mid-career leaders working at Hawaiian Electric Industries, Hawaii Kids Can, Hawaii State Senate, Pearl City High School, Transform Hawaii Government, Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, Kupu, Hawaii State Energy Office, Aloha Harvest, Hawaii Office of the Public Defender and Japanese American Citizens League, Hawaii Department of Transportation, Pacific Gateway Center, Hawaii Energy Systems, and the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.
Participants spent two weekends staying at the Dojo, sitting zazen and being introduced to Hojo, Kendo, Chado, and Sun Tzu's Art of War. They also sat zazen every Thursday and heard from a variety of speakers who shared their own personal experiences of leadership, and the impact of Chozen-ji on how they lead.
Z&P program coordinators Bill Kaneko, Burt Lum, Kangen Roshi and Cristina Moon would like to mahalo to our speakers: Sayama Daian Roshi, Colbert Matsumoto, Twinkle Borge, James Pakele, Governor John Waihee, City Council Members Calvin Say and Andria Tupola, and Judge Karen Nakasone—and Z&P alumni Liann Ebesugawa, Scott Glenn, and Jackson Sayama who also came to speak with the group.
We will be announcing the dates and inviting applications for the fourth Zen & Politics program beginning in early 2025.
Three Years on the Great Mountain: A Memoir of Zen and Fearlessness by Cristina Moon
Cristina Moon published her memoir, Three Years on the Great Mountain: A Memoir of Zen and Fearlessness, about her first three years living and training at Chozen-ji with Shambhala Publications in June. Prior to publication, she shared her book and her story at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (formerly San Quentin Prison).
Boxing + Zen in Oakland
On July 26, seven-time world champion boxer Michele Aboro and Michael Kangen Roshi will join Oakland, California-based priest Christine Cordero and Raúl Betancourt to offer a public event called Intro to Boxing + Zen at the Gopa Boxing Gym.
Spaces for Intro to Boxing + Zen are still available. Those in the San Francisco Bay Area are encouraged to register and attend. This event is open to youth and is being offered by donation on a sliding scale.
Chozen-ji in India and Bhutan, AND AT May We Gather, Wisdom 2.0
In March, Michael Kangen Roshi joined Daiko Matsuyama Roshi (Deputy Head Priest of Taizo-In at Daihonzan Myoshinji) on a goodwill mission between Buddhist nations with Japanese Princess Akiko of Mikasa. The group met with Sikh leaders in India and had an audience with His Majesty King Jigme Khesar in Bhutan.
While visiting a monastery high in the Himalayas, Kangen Roshi had an unexpected reunion with one of the Bhutanese monks who had attended Mochitsuki at Chozen-ji while visiting Hawaii in 2008!
Kangen Roshi and Daiko Matsuyama Roshi at the famous Tiger’s Nest monastery in Bhutan.
A young Kangen Roshi and Bhutanese monks at Mochitsuki at Chozen-ji in 2008.
Kangen Roshi with one of the monks who visited Chozen-ji in 2008.
Christine Cordero at Wisdom 2.0.
Chozen-ji priests Cristina Moon and Christine Cordero participated in the May We Gather pilgrimage in Antioch, California in May. The pilgrimage included Asian American Buddhist monks, nuns, and clergy from across the country and was held on the three year anniversary of the racially motivated Atlanta spa shootings.
Christine Cordero also represented the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, where she is co-Director, at the Wisdom 2.0 conference in April. She joined a notable list of speakers that included Deepak Chopra, Tarana Burke (founder of the #MeToo movement), singer-songwriter Alanis Morisette, playwright V (formerly Eve Ensler), and Jon Kabat-Zinn.