Two outstanding Zen Masters of modern Japan, Daiun Sogaku Harada (1870-1961) and Hakuun Ryoko Yasutani (1885-1973) established a new school of Zen Buddhism, hoping to combine the strongest features of both the Soto and Rinzai sects. This integral school of Zen was brought to the West by Philip Kapleau (founder of the Rochester Zen Center and author of The Three Pillars of Zen) and Robert Aitken (founder of the Honolulu Diamond Sangha), two outstanding American students of Yasutani and Yamada Roshis’.
Danan Henry is a Dharma heir of Philip Kapleau, and then completed an additional ten years of Zen training with Robert Aitken to become a sanctioned Diamond Sangha Dharma teacher. Thus, the Zen Center of Denver is rooted in the teachings and traditions of Soto and Rinzai Zen Buddhism. Three of Danan Roshi’s dharma heirs – Karin Ryuku Kempe, Peggy Metta Sheehan, and Ken Tetsuzan Morgareidge – received full transmission and jointly assumed the spiritual directorship of the Zen Center of Denver in the Ascending the Mountain Ceremony in 2010. Ken Tetsuzan Roshi retired from his position as co-spiritual director in fall 2020, while Karin Ryuku Roshi and Peggy Metta Roshi continue to serve as co-spiritual directors.
In 2018, Karin Ryuku also received inka, or dharma transmission, from Gerry Shishin Wick (of Great Mountain Zen Center in Berthoud, Colorado), thus additionally becoming a dharma successor in the White Plum lineage founded by Hakuyun Taizan Maezumi.
