Bodhin Kjolhede

Bodhin Kjolhede (born 1948) is an American Sōtō/Rinzai Zen roshi and Abbot of the Rochester Zen Center (RZC), a position he assumed when Philip Kapleau retired from teaching in 1986. He founded the “Cloud-Water Sangha”, an international community of Zen centers led by teachers in his lineage.

Zen training Kjolhede was ordained as a priest in 1976. In 1986 he was formally installed as Kapleau's Dharma-successor and Abbot of the Rochester Zen Center. He has additionally been offered transmission in a Sōtō lineage, but has thus far chosen to decline.

Lineage Kjolhede has authorized ten of his disciples as teachers, some of whom are independent teachers with their own dharma successors:

Gerardo Gally Robert Goldmann Donna Kowal Kanja Odland Sante Poromaa John Pulleyn Sevan Ross Rick Smith Richard von Sturmer Amala Wrightson

Cloud-Water Sangha The Cloud-Water Sangha is formed of centers led by Kjolhede's students and their disciples:

Auckland Zen Centre (New Zealand) Berliner Zen-Gruppe (Germany) Casa Zen Mexico (Mexico) Cleveland Zazen Group (USA) Louisville Zen Center (USA) Madison Zen Center (USA) Rochester Zen Center (USA) Zenbuddhistiska Samfundet (Sweden, Finland, Germany, UK) The name of the sangha is a translation of the Japanese term unsui.