Religion Zen Buddhism Website [1] Title Rōshi Predecessor Tetsugen Bernard Glassman | Dharma names Shungaku Seisen School Sanbo Kyodan Lineage White Plum Asanga | |
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Anne Seisen Saunders (previously Anne Seisen Fletcher) is a Zen Priest and teacher in the Soto tradition of the White Plum Asanga. She is Abbott, founder and guiding teacher of Sweetwater Zen Center in National City, California, a residential training center in the greater San Diego region. She was a student of the late Taizan Maezumi Roshi and received dharma transmission in the Maezumi lineage from Tetsugen Bernard Glassman in 1996.
Biography
Anne Saunders was born in Sheridan, Wyoming in 1948 and grew up in Billings, Montana. Before coming to Zen practice Saunders earned a BA in Biochemistry from UC Berkeley in 1970. She began practicing Zen 1976, and shortly after began living and working at the Zen Center of Los Angeles. While at ZCLA, she founded the sewing room, served as tenzo and worked in the administration of the Center. Saunders ordained as a Zen Priest with Maezumi Roshi in 1983, and studied with him until his death in 1995. She subsequently studied with Roshi Bernie Glassman and received Shiho from him in 1996. During this period Saunders served as administrator for Yokoji Zen Mountain Center, where she was Teacher and Co-abbot with Charles Tenshin Fletcher.
Saunders Roshi founded Sweetwater Zen Center in 2000. She is a founding teacher in the Prison Meditation Project, founded that same year, offering meditation services to Prisons in the San Diego area. Saunders received Inka from Roshi Glassman in 2007. She was certified as Kokosaifukyoshi (Soto Zen teacher) by the Japanese Sōtō Zen sect (Sōtō-shū Shûmusôchô) in 2009.
Saunders was an early member of the Zen Peacemakers, and has been an active member of the White Plum Asanga, serving for 15 years in administration as secretary. She was elected as the fourth president of the White Plum Asanga in 2013. Saunders figures prominently as the subject of “It was Worth It,” a modern koan highlighting the role and centrality of gender equality in contemporary Zen Buddhism, in 49 Fingers: A Collection of Modern American Koans by Dairyu Michael Wenger.