Zen Mountain Monastery
Overview
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
in Mount Tremper, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. It was founded in 1980 by John Daido Loori
John Daido Loori
John Daido Loori was a Zen Buddhist rōshi who served as the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery and was the founder of the Mountains and Rivers Order and CEO of Dharma Communications. Daido Loori received shiho from Taizan Maezumi in 1986 and also received a dendokyoshi certificate formally from the...
, originally as the Zen Arts Center. It combines the Rinzai and Sōtō
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 traditions, in both of which Loori received dharma transmission
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...
. Since Loori's death in October 2009, Zen Mountain Monastery has two teachers: Geoffrey Shugen Arnold
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold is a sensei of the Mountains and Rivers Order founded by John Daido Loori, from whom Shugen received shiho in July 1997. As a lineage holder in the Sōtō tradition, Shugen currently serves as head of MRO and abbot of the Zen Center of New York City in Brooklyn...
, who received Dharma transmission from Loori in 1997, and Konrad Ryushin Marchaj
Konrad Ryushin Marchaj
Konrad Ryushin Marchaj is the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery, the mainhouse of the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism, founded by John Daido Loori from whom Marchaj received shiho in June 2009. Marchaj was a pediatrician and a psychiatrist before entering residency at the monastery in...
, the abbot of the monastery.
The monastery was originally built as Camp Wapanachki in the 1930s.
