Bodhin Kjolhede (born 1948) is an American Sōtō/Rinzai Zen roshi and Abbot of the Rochester Zen Center (RZC), a position he assumed when Philip Kapleau retired from teaching in 1986. He founded the “Cloud-Water Sangha”, an international community of Zen centers led by teachers in his lineage.

Zen training

Kjolhede was ordained as a priest in 1976. In 1986 he was formally installed as Kapleau’s Dharma-successor and Abbot of the Rochester Zen Center. He has additionally been offered transmission in a Sōtō lineage, but has thus far chosen to decline.

Lineage

Kjolhede has authorized ten of his disciples as teachers, some of whom are independent teachers with their own dharma successors:

Cloud-Water Sangha

The Cloud-Water Sangha is formed of centers led by Kjolhede's students and their disciples: The name of the sangha is a translation of the Japanese term unsui.

Galleries

Chapin Mill

RZC