Mission & Lineage
As part of the White Plum lineage of centers and groups descended from our dharma ancestor, Taizan Maezumi Roshi, Green River Zen Center follows the path of the Buddha, the path of awakening, realizing and actualizing the oneness of life. As part of the Zen Peacemakers lineage, the center also emphasizes the three tenets of Not Knowing, Bearing Witness and Loving Action.
Spring Sesshin 2026 ended with a group photo of participants who span 46 years of Zen Peacemaker lineage, from 1980 - 2026, with members who have participated in Street Retreats, Auschwitz Bearing Witness, Native American Bearing Witness, and Bearing Witness to Racism in America.
As our members engage the teachings of Not Knowing, Bearing Witness and Loving Action, we recognize the responsibility we have as individuals and as a sangha to be more in right relation, more transparent, more ethical and more wholesomely embodied than those who painfully transgressed boundaries, both in our own lineage and in others over the years. This is an important time of discernment and change to align with ways of true well-being.
May our teaching, actions and innovations contribute to the healthy deconstruction of hierarchical, patriarchal, and secretive tendencies of the early years of Zen in America; and may our sincere practice serve in all directions to awaken together to the dignity of true liberation with all beings, the Interbeing, of Dr. Martin Luther King's Beloved Community.