Our Teachers

Roshi Philip Kapleau

Roshi Philip Kapleau (1912–2004) was the author of numerous books on Zen including the classic The Three Pillars of Zen.

Philip Kapleau grew up in Connecticut, studied law and worked for many years as a court reporter. At the end of World War II, he was appointed chief reporter for the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg and afterwards reporter for the Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo. It was there that he had his first encounter with Zen.

In 1953 he left the United States and went to Japan to practice Zen. He stayed for 13 years and worked with three masters, first shortly with Nakagawa Soen-Roshi (1907–1984) in Ryutaku-ji, then Harada Daiun-Roshi (1870–1961) in Hosshin-ji and finally with the latter’s Dharma-heir Yasutani-Roshi (1885–1973). Philip Kapleau was ordained by Yasutani-Roshi and, after he was authorised to teach by Yasutani-Roshi, returned to the United States in 1966. There he founded the Rochester Zen Center.

After two decades as abbot he passed on the leadership to Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede. Roshi Philip Kapleau died on May 6th 2004 in Rochester.

Roshi Kapleau's published works are:

The Three Pillars of Zen (1965)

Zen: Dawn in the West (1979)

The latter was also published under the title:

Zen: Merging of East and West (1989, 2000)

To Cherish All Life (1981)

The Wheel of Life and Death (1989)

Awakening to Zen (1997)

Straight to the Heart of Zen (2001)

Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede

(Abbot of the Rochester Zen Center)

Bodhin Kjolhede graduated from the University of Michigan and came to the Center in 1970. 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 hundreds of meditation retreats, most of seven days, in the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Mexico. He has published numerous articles and traveled widely to participate in Buddhist teachers’ conferences.

In his more than 35 years of teaching, Roshi Kjolhede has sanctioned seven of his students as Zen teachers; they now lead Zen centers in the United States, Mexico, Scandinavia, Germany, and New Zealand. Two of those teachers, Sensei John Pulleyn and Sensei Donna Kowal, currently serve as Spiritual Co-Directors of the Rochester Zen Center. In semi-retirement since 2022, Roshi Kjolhede now serves as the Center’s Spiritual Director Emeritus, and lives with his wife in Florida.

Sensei Robert Goldmann

(Leader of the Berlin Zen Group)

Robert Goldmann has been practicing Zen since 1975, beginning with Sochu Suzuki-roshi and Kyudo Nakagawa-roshi in London and Ryutaku-ji. From 1981 he then studied with Roshi Philip Kapleau and, since 1989, with Roshi Kapleau´s Dharma-heir Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede. For many years Robert assisted Roshi Kjolhede in the US, Sweden, Mexico and Berlin and organized regular sesshin (retreats) in Germany. After completing his formal koan-training with the classical koan-collections, breath-practice and shikantaza (just sitting), Robert was sanctioned as a full Zen teacher by Roshi Kjolhede in August 2007 at a public ceremony in Berlin. He is a physician and, in his younger years, studied Chinese and Far-Eastern Buddhism at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Like his teachers, Robert conveys the practice of Zen in a context appropriate to western culture. This includes regular zazen (sitting meditation) by oneself and in a group, sutra-chanting in one´s mother tongue, studying classical Zen-Buddhist texts and especially participation in intensive 7-day-sesshin (retreats).

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