Bodhin kjolhede biography of christopher

Practice at the Chicago Zen Center has from the very beginning been built upon a strong teaching tradition.  Philip Kapleau, the Center's founding teacher, is widely recognized as one of the major contributors to the establishment of an American Zen in the Harada-Yasutani tradition.  His Three Pillars of Zen continues to serve as a sure guide for anyone interested in getting to know something of Zen from the inside out.

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At its founding in 1974, the Chicago Zen Center was an affiliate of the Rochester Zen Center, where Kapleau was abbot.  When Kapleau passed on the abbotship of the RZC to his Dharma heir, Bodhin Kjolhede, responsibility for the CZC was passed on as well.  Both Kapleau and Kjolhede would travel to the Midwest (Chicago or Madison, WI) at least twice a year for sesshins, and CZC members often made the trip to Rochester to attend longer sesshins there. 

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Their dedication to the Chicago sangha hel