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Dharma Holders

The term Hoshi, which means Dharma Holder, was created in 1979 by Maezumi Roshi. The term comes from reversing Shiho (dharma Transmission, permission to freely teach). It was used to acknowledge the completion of koan study and it meant that the recipient could hold daisan.

Daisan was to be given by an assistant teacher training under Maezumi Roshi. Later, Hoshi was given not necessarily for the completion of koan study, but for acknowledging that the recipient was ready to hold daisan and continue their training with him.


Randall Ryotan Eiger
Hoshi, Dharma Holder

Ryotan was named Dharma Holder at the Village Zendo temple (Dotokuji) in August, 2005. He began the formal practice of Zen in 1989 at Zen Mountain Monastery and studied for eight years with Roshi John Daido Loori. He has been studying with Roshi Pat Enkyo OHara since 1997. In August 2002, Ryotan received ordination in the Soto Zen lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Currently, he serves as coordinator of the Zendo's Buddhist program at Sing Sing prison. Ryotan practices psychotherapy in the Union Square area of Manhattan. He says, "I have found that the practices of Zen and psychotherapy feed each other, though not necessarily in the ways you read about in books. I believe we have only scratched the surface in combining these two disciplines to foster human creativity, growth and well-being."


Sinclair Shinryu Thomson
Hoshi, Dharma Holder

Sinclair Shinryu Thomson received Denkai, or full priest ordination, from Enkyo O’Hara Roshi in August 2007. He was named a Village Zendo Dharma Holder in 2006. He received novice priest ordination in 2000. He has been affiliated with the Village Zendo since 1998. He is a also member of the Phajjsi Qollut Jalsu Zen Center in La Paz, Bolivia, which he helped to co-found in 1992. Shinryu teaches Latin American History at New York University and is the author of books on Native American politics, colonialism, and revolution in the Andes.


MyokoCatherine Anraku Hondorp
Hoshi, Dharma Holder

Catherine Anraku Hondorp was affirmed as a Dharma Holder in August, 2006.  She is the priest in residence at, The Zen Center on Main Street, an affiliate of the Village Zendo, in Northampton, Massachusetts.  Anraku is the adjunct Buddhist Chaplain at Smith College and Buddhist Spiritual Advisor at Hampshire College. Anraku began Zen Practice in August of 1987  at Zen Mountain Monastery with Roshi Daido Loori.  In 1996 she asked Roshi Enkyo O'Hara to be her teacher, and in 2000 she received Tokudo (priest ordination) with her. Anraku is also a Network Chiropractor with a practice in Northampton, where she is inspired daily by the healing journeys of the many people she serves.


MyokoJulie Kirin Myoko Terestman
Hoshi, Dharma Holder

Julie Myoko Terestman began formally studying and practicing Zen with Roshi Enkyo O’Hara at Village Zendo in 1993.  In 2001 she received novice priest ordination and in 2007 she received Osho.  She was named a Village Zendo Dharma Holder in summer of 2008. She is also part of the Sing Sing prison program and shopkeeper at the zendo. Myoko is a studio potter working in a studio in Jersey City.  She also teaches ceramics at Greenwich House Pottery and various other places around the city and is a licensed massage therapist.


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