“Caring for Our Only Home: A Buddhist Response to the Climate Crisis” with Shinge Roshi, abbot of the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-Ji

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Tibetan Buddhist Chenrezig Sand Mandala Healing and Compassion in Challenging Times, on display at the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery until November 16, 2024.

The event is free and open to the public.

Shinge Roko Sherry Chayat Roshi is abbot of the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji in Syracuse, NY, and retired abbot of the Zen Studies Society’s mountain monastery, Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji, and New York City temple, New York Zendo Shobo-ji.

She began formal Zen practice at the Zen Studies Society in 1967.  She served as co-director of the first residential community at Dai Bosatsu Zendo from 1974 until 1976, when she moved to Syracuse and began leading the Zen Center there.  She received lay ordination from Maurine Stuart Roshi in 1985, and full ordination from Eido Shimano Roshi in 1991.  She was installed as abbot of the Zen Center of Syracuse in 1996; received Dharma Transmission from Eido Roshi in 1998; and in 2008 was authorized as a roshi, or Zen Master, and given the name Shinge, meaning “heart-mind flowering.” 

In addition to her work as a Zen teacher, Shinge Roshi is an award-winning writer and editor.  She compiled and edited Eloquent Silence: Nyogen Senzaki's Gateless Gate and Other Previously Unpublished Teachings and Letters (Wisdom Publications); Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa, with Eido Shimano Roshi and Kazuaki Tanahashi (Shambhala); and Subtle Sound: The Zen Teachings of Maurine Stuart (Shambhala).  She is also the author of Circle: The Zen Brushwork of Kazuaki Tanahashi (Amsterdam: Samsara Uitgeverij) and Life Lessons: The Art of Jerome Witkin (Syracuse University Press), and her articles and reviews have appeared in Buddhadharma, Tricycle, Tikkun, ARTNews, Sculpture Magazine and American Ceramics, among others. 

Her weekly art column in Syracuse Newspapers’ Sunday Stars Magazine ran for twenty years.  She has curated several art exhibitions, including “Earth’s Altars” at the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park in Cazenovia.  She is a graduate of Vassar College, and studied at the New York School of Drawing and Painting and the Art Students League in New York City.

Image by Roy Gumpel