A Brief History of Mt. Equity Zen Monastery
A dwelling place for meditation began in the living room of the Head Teacher's mother in 1989 during a leave of absence from Japan. It was one of nine rented apartments in a 196 year-old 3-story graystone and timbered Quaker manor named Mt. Equity in the village of Pennsdale. The next year the Head Teacher returned permanently to her home area to teach, starting out with gifts from her peers of "Seeing-Off Money." This covered the deposit on an apartment in the East Wing of Mt. Equity [1882 section] and became the Meditation Hall. After a few more years, with the help of a growing number of students and friends, it became possible to expand into the third and second floors of the East Wing, which became the women's residence and the men's residence respectively. The acquisition of the second floor residence in the central section [built in 1810] provided space for the kitchen, office, dining room and community room.
In 1997, Aoyama Roshi (pictured above), Abbess of the Women's Soto Zen Monastery in Nagoya, Japan, was invited to give a lecture tour of the U.S. Zen centers and several universities and stayed at MEZM. She greatly encouraged us to make Mt. Equity our own and offered support in that direction. Soon after the third floor West Wing residence [built in 1861] became vacant and provided additional quarters for women practitioners.
In October of 2000 MEZM hosted a gathering of Soto Zen teachers from both Japan and the United States. Guest teachers included Rev. Keishi Miyagawa, Rev. Shohaku Okumura, Rev. Teijo Munnich, Rev. Eshin Ikeda, Rev. Issho Fujita.
In December of 2000, with the financial support of many friends and practitioners, both in Japan and in America, we were able to purchase the building. Mt. Equity now has residence capacity for serious lay and monastic practitioners.
With the head teacher officially installed as abbess through the North American Bishop of Soto Zen in May of 2005, authorization was granted to offer Chief Junior Monk ceremonies to ordained disciples that would be registered by the Soto Zen Order.
Mt. Equity Zendo is a member of AZTA, the American Zen Teachers' Association, the ASZB, or Association of Soto Zen Buddhism, and SZBA, the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, North American membership.