Taitaku Pat Phelan
Encyclopedia
Josho Pat Phelan, Buddhist name Taitaku Josho, is a Sōtō
Zen
priest and current abbot of Chapel Hill Zen Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
—she has served as abbot there since 2000. Before coming to Chapel Hill, she practiced for twenty years at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
and the San Francisco Zen Center
(where she became practice leader and director). Phelan began leading the Chapel Hill Zen Center in 1991, when there were just eight members including herself. As of 2001, the center had forty-five members and provides meditation instruction for approximately one-hundred and fifty people every year. Ordained as a priest by Zentatsu Richard Baker
in 1977, she began Zen practice in 1969 and has also trained under Sojun Mel Weitsman, Robert Baker Aitken
and Tenshin Reb Anderson Additionally, Phelan is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association
, and in 1995 she received shiho
from Sojun Weitsman at Tassajara.
Soto
Sōtō Zen , or is, with Rinzai and Ōbaku, one of the three most populous sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.The Sōtō sect was first established as the Caodong sect during the Tang Dynasty in China by Dongshan Liangjie in the 9th century, which Dōgen Zenji then brought to Japan in the 13th century...
Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
priest and current abbot of Chapel Hill Zen Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
—she has served as abbot there since 2000. Before coming to Chapel Hill, she practiced for twenty years at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
-External links:*...
and the San Francisco Zen Center
San Francisco Zen Center
San Francisco Zen Center , is a network of affiliated Sōtō Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising the City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. The sangha was incorporated by Shunryu...
(where she became practice leader and director). Phelan began leading the Chapel Hill Zen Center in 1991, when there were just eight members including herself. As of 2001, the center had forty-five members and provides meditation instruction for approximately one-hundred and fifty people every year. Ordained as a priest by Zentatsu Richard Baker
Zentatsu Richard Baker
Zentatsu Richard Baker , born Richard Dudley Baker, is an American Soto Zen master , the founder and guiding teacher of Dharma Sangha—which consists of Crestone Mountain Zen Center located in Crestone, Colorado and the Buddhistisches Studienzentrum in Germany's Black Forest...
in 1977, she began Zen practice in 1969 and has also trained under Sojun Mel Weitsman, Robert Baker Aitken
Robert Baker Aitken
Robert Baker Dairyu Chotan Aitken Roshi was a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He co-founded the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in 1959...
and Tenshin Reb Anderson Additionally, Phelan is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association
American Zen Teachers Association
The American Zen Teachers Association was founded in the late 1980s as the Second Generation Zen Teachers Group. It is a peer-group organization of ordained and lay Zen Buddhist teachers, all of whom have received either teaching authorization or dharma transmission from the mostly Asian Zen...
, and in 1995 she received shiho
Shiho
refers to a series of ceremonies in Sōtō Zen Buddhism wherein which a priest receives full transmission, inheriting the Dharma from his/her master and becoming empowered to transmit the precepts and lineage to others. A shiho ceremony can last anywhere from one to three weeks, with the final...
from Sojun Weitsman at Tassajara.