Joyful News: Sarah Bender, Roshi
Dear SMS Steering Committee & Community :
It is with deep happiness I tell you that last weekend Sarah Bender received transmission
from me, in a simple ceremony on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. She is now a
Roshi of the Pacific Zen School,
with the lineage name Noble Servant in the Temple of Heron Dreaming,
a name whose meanings she can tell you about.
It is a small moment in a thousand-year old tradition, but its radiance extends in both
directions, back to the origins of the koan way and, now, forward into the lives of future
pilgrims of that way.
My warmest wishes to all of you, dear friends, and to Sarah Bender, Roshi as she steps
barefoot onto this new ground,
Joan Sutherland, Roshi
Bright Solitude in the Temple of the Cloud Dragon