Puget Sound Zen Center

Puget Sound Zen Center
The Puget Sound Zen Center is a non-profit organization that exists to support the practice and teaching of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. We are a member of the Rinzai-ji, an affiliation of temples founded by Kyozan Joshu Roshi.

Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi
Joshu Roshi was born in April 1907 in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. He became a novice monk at the age of 14 under Joten Soko Miura Roshi, who went on to head Myoshin-ji, one of the two preeminent Rinzai temples in Japan.
Between the ages of 21 and 40, Joshu Roshi lived as a priest at Myoshin-ji in Kyoto, but in 1947 he received his authority as a roshi and became abbot of his own monastery.
It was 15 years later, when he was 55, that Joshu Roshi was asked by the abbot at Myoshin-ji teach in America.
He arrived in Los Angeles in the summer of 1962, and began teaching out of a house rented in Gardena. 40+ years later Joshu Roshi keeps a rigorous teaching schedule that includes two three-month training periods and many week-long retreats (dai-sesshin). He spends most of his time at Mt. Baldy Zen Center, near Claremont, California and Rinzai-ji Zen Center in Los Angeles.

Koshin Christopher Cain
Koshin Christopher Cain is Abbot of the Puget Sound Zen Center. Koshin was born in 1965 and grew up in London, England, and Raleigh, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with a BA in American Studies in 1987. In 1990 he moved to Mt. Baldy Zen Center in California, he ordained in 1991, and trained at Mt. Baldy as a monk from 1991 to 1999. In 1999 Joshu Roshi made him an Osho, or teacher. From 1999 to 2002 he served as Vice-abbot of Mt. Baldy Zen Center. Koshin is married to Soshin Lidunn Cain, and they have a son, Lars, born in 2001, and daughter Eva, born in 2004.

Soshin Lidunn Cain
Soshin Lidunn Cain is the only other ordained staff member of the Puget Sound Zen Center. She was born in 1962, and raised in Trondheim, Norway. In 1990 she graduated from the Oslo school of Architecture. In the 1990s she practiced Zen under Genro Osho, a student of Joshu Roshi's, and she served on the Board of Directors of the Rinzai Zen Center in Oslo. In 1998 Soshin moved to Mt. Baldy Zen Center and was ordained in 1999.

The Board of Directors
President - Van Crozier
Secretary - David Steel
Treasurer - Sissel Johannessen

Members
Soshin Lidunn Cain
Elaine Hanowell
Renee Marceau
Bob Spivey

Phone: (206)463-4332 Email: office@pszen.org Address: PO Box 2644, Vashon, WA 98070

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