Since 1998, Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede has sanctioned five teachers, giving authority to Ven. Sevan Ross, Ven. Sante Poromaa, Ven. Kanja Odland, Gerardo Gally, and Ven. Amala Wrightson to serve as teachers at their respective centers in Chicago, Stockholm, Sweden, Mexico City, Mexico, and Auckland, New Zealand. The Chicago Zen Center, Stockholm Zen Center, and Casa Zen were formerly affiliates of Rochester, but are now autonomous centers. Bodhin-sensei has expressed his wish to preserve close ties with this new generation of teachers and their respective centers, and they all felt the same. In no time they agreed on a name: The Cloud-Water Sangha.

The Cloud-Water Sangha consists of all members of the Rochester Zen Center, the Chicago Zen Center, the Stockholm Zen Center, Casa Zen, and the Auckland Zen Center, as well as the Madison Zen Center, our lone remaining affiliate center. "Cloud-Water" is a literal translation of "unsui," the name used in Japan for a novice monk. Clouds and water are much admired in Zen as models of adaptability and egolessness, but they are also predominant elements in the weather at all of our centers except Mexico. Snow, rain, lakes, and clouds - these form the common experience of all of us in Rochester, Chicago, Madison, Stockholm, and Auckland. And even our Mexican Sangha has its lake karma, as it sits on the former great Lake Tenochtitlan, site of the Aztec capital.

There are other centers in the U.S. whose actual names include forms of "cloud" and "water" ("Clouds in Water", "Clouds and Water"), but since our Cloud-Water Sangha is just a loose association, we see no conflict. Nothing as formal as even a letterhead is involved, much less a new legal entity. Nonetheless, the name signifies a new reality: new teachers spring up, and their centers become autonomous, but we remain part of a larger family that traces its heritage through Roshi Kapleau and his teachers.

From left to right: Kanja Odland Sensei (Sweden), Sante Poromaa Sensei (Sweden), Sevan Ross Sensei (Chicago), Gerardo Gally Sensei (Mexico), and Bodhin Kjolhede Roshi (Rochester).

Related Information:

• Affiliate Zen Centers
• Autonomous Zen Centers
• Sitting Groups
• Sister Centers

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