Grass, “Grass Writing”, by June I. Poe, her tribute to Katherine from 2012.
June died on July 1, 2022.
Karin Sobun Daiōshō
Flower Forest, Grass Writing
In Katherine’s Words
This Deepest Self | An Excerpt from The Truth of This Life
The Truth of This Life:
Zen Teachings on Loving the World as It Is
by Katherine Thanas
Please see Shambhala Publications for credits and purchasing details.
“The truth and joy of this life is that we cannot change things as they are.” The import of those words can be found beautifully expressed in the work of the woman who spoke them, Katherine Thanas (1927–2012)—in her art, in her writing, and especially in her Zen teaching. Fearlessly direct and endlessly curious, Katherine’s understanding of Zen was inseparable from her affinity for the arts. She was an MFA student studying painting with Richard Diebenkorn, the preeminent Californian abstract painter, when she met Shunryu Suzuki, author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, in the sixties. Soon thereafter she decided to drop painting to dedicate herself to Zen, which she did for the last forty years of her life. In these essential teachings taken from her dharma talks—which make up her only book—her love of art and literature shine through in her elegant prose and her vast references, from poets William Stafford and Naomi Shihab Nye to the Zen teachings of Dogen and Robert Aitken. Ranging on subjects from the practice of zazen to the meaning of life, Katherine urges us to “develop an insatiable appetite for inner awareness, to become proficient with this mind.” This slim volume is an important contribution by a well-loved and revered teacher. — from the Shambhala dustjacket
and in words from others:
“Although I never heard her state it, Katherine now appears to me as a great artist. Perhaps her most important work of art was to inspire many living beings to make a deep and wide vow to practice the Buddha way for the sake of mountains, rivers, grasses, the great earth, and all sentient beings.
“Her inspiration and vow now live on and flourish among her many wonderful students and successors.”
— Tenshin Reb Anderson Roshi
Sobun Thanas and Tenshin Anderson, early days of Tassajara practice.
In Memoriam
Monterey County Herald, July 1, 2012
Santa Cruz Zen Center.org
Cuke.com by David Chadwick, Katherine’s dharma sibling.
(they were students of Suzuki Roshi together.)
Myra Goodman’s Quest for Eternal Sunshine, May 2020
includes a student tribute to Katherine Roshi:
Myra’s Journey — Eighteen Years as a Student of Soto Zen Buddhism
from the San Francisco Zen Center Sangha News Journal
In Memoriam, Sobun Katherine Thanas
On Practice
Some recorded talks presented to Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz Zen centers from 1995-2009
A video talk by Katharine Thanas
(This video has been removed or made private by its “owners” on YouTube. We hope to find them!)
Tassajara Memorial Sitting & Ash Scattering
Karin Sobun Daiosho, Katherine Thanas Roshi
May 5, 2012
All photos courtesy Anne Muraski; video collage courtesy John Light.
Katherine’s hands.
“The truth and joy of this life is that we cannot change things as they are.”
An early MBZC & SCZC retreat at Tassajara.
A few audio excerpts from Katherine’s jukai ceremony on August 23, 1970 were just identified and announced (July 6, 2022) as part of the Suzuki Roshi Archive tape remastering project.
Lay Ordination Ceremony (Tape #25)
Additionally, here is the announcement blog page. Two other talks (August 1 & 3, 1970) from the sesshin leading up to the jukai, and a separate tokudo ordination are referenced and linked. It is recommended to read and listen to all three of the talks in combination.
Katherine and dharma heir Onryu Patrick Teverbaugh with young student bathing the infant Buddha in the ceremony of Kanbutsue.
Katherine officiating at jukai (lay ordination) for MBZC practitioners. To left of Katherine her dharma heir, Kathy Whilden. Jukai recipient Anne Muraski center.
Katherine (front row nr center in gassho), receiving jukai from Suzuki Roshi. (Carl Bielefeldt, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Stanford, is seated to her right. Chikudo Lewis Richmond is in the second row far right.)
Images on this page from San Francisco Zen Center and Wind Bell (for which Katherine served as editor several years); Santa Cruz Zen Center; Branching Streams sangha sites; Cuke.com. Page top photo from Katherine’s ash scattering and parinirvana memorial at Tassajara and the photo of Katherine’s hands are both by Anne Muraski.
Katherine and Kojun Gil Fronsdal.
Go to SFZC.org for the full archive (which is still updating with the talks during the month of August 1970).
Once the links and numbering to the recordings are sorted out and fully functioning, they will be individually posted here.