Established in 1966 by Roshi Philip Kapleau on his return from Japan, the Zen Center grew to a large membership in Rochester and throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. In June of 1986 Bodhin Kjolhede (pron. BODE'n COLE-heed) was formally installed as Roshi Kapleau's Dharma-successor and Abbot of the Center. This appointment marked the culmination of a sixteen-year teacher-student relationship, the last decade working intimately together. 

Roshi Kjolhede has devoted himself to the Rochester Zen Center full-time for thirty-five years. Prior to coming to the Center in 1970, he received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan. He was ordained as a Buddhist priest in 1976 and went on to spend several years traveling extensively with the Center's founder, Roshi Philip Kapleau, and working closely with him on three of his books. After completing twelve years of koan training under Roshi Kapleau, Roshi Kjolhede spent a year on pilgrimage through Japan, China, India, Tibet, and Taiwan. In 1986 he was installed by Roshi Kapleau as his Dharma-successor and, the following year, Abbot of the Center. Since then he has conducted some 150 retreats (sesshin), most of seven days, in the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Mexico. He has published numerous articles and travels widely (most recently to Taiwan) to participate in Buddhist teachers' conferences. He now devotes most of his time to teaching at the original Dharma center and residential training facility of the Rochester Zen Center and nearby at Chapin Mill, its country retreat center. In his twenty years of teaching, Roshi Kjolhede has sanctioned five of his students as Zen teachers, who now lead Zen centers in Chicago, Mexico, Sweden, Finland, and New Zealand. 

Philip Kapleau spent thirteen years undergoing Zen training in Japan under three Zen masters before being ordained by Hakuun Yasutani-roshi in 1965 and given permission by him to teach. In 1966, shortly after the publication of his first book, The Three Pillars of Zen, he came to Rochester to found the Zen Center. His other books, published subsequently, are Zen: Merging of East and West, To Cherish All Life, Awakening to Zen and The Zen of Living and Dying: A Practical and Spiritual Guide. 

Roshi Kapleau died in May, 2004, at the age of 91.

Other Information

• Contacting the Zen Center
• Membership
• Roshi and His Teachers
• Youth Program
• Zen Center Calendars
• Ethical Guidelines
  
  To read the Ethical Guidelines, you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 5.0 or higher.. You can download a free copy of the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader by clicking on the Adobe icon and following the directions.
  

  

About the Zen Center      Introductory Workshops    Chapin Mill       Public Events
Photo Gallery       Members       Library       Training       Marketplace      Calendars
Wider Sangha      Site Map       Contacts       What's New       Home