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Eido Frances Carney RoshiOur Founder and Teacher, Eido Frances Carney Roshi

Eido Roshi's Travel Schedule

Olympia Zen Center, located in Olympia, Washington, came into existence in 1995. From humble beginnings in rented spaces, this small sangha, while maintaining a daily meditation and monthly retreat schedule, purchased its own property, renovated it into a place of practice, and landscaped the exterior, all with volunteer labor. Additionally, the sangha, the majority of whom are fully employed lay practitioners, has performed community service through volunteer hospice work, Zen arts classes, caregiver retreats, prison visitation, and the establishment of a non-religious meditation program for those coping with addiction and grief. None of this work would have been accomplished without the driving vision and energy of Eido Frances Carney, Roshi, the guiding inspiration behind all of the Center’s achievements.

Eido Roshi was born in Brooklyn, New York, the third of five children, and raised in the Catholic faith. Eido Roshi moved with her husband and three children to California in 1968, where she developed an interest in Buddhism when she worked in the School of Education at Stanford University. She became a student of Kobun Chino Roshi in 1971, received monk’s ordination from him in 1976, and practiced with him for 13 years. After obtaining a master’s degree from San Francisco State University in 1986, she moved to Japan in 1990 to teach English at Notre Dame University in Okayama.

An interest in Ryokan san, Japan’s beloved hermit priest and poet, led Eido Roshi to visit Entsuji Temple in Tamashima, Japan, where she met Niho Tetsumei Roshi, from whom she eventually received Dharma Transmission in Ryokan san’s lineage. During the years she lived in Japan, Eido Roshi entered monk’s training at Shoboji Temple, founded in 1365 as the third largest Soto training center in Japan, and became the first foreigner and first woman to complete training at that temple.

As a result of the connections to Ryokan san, Olympia Zen Center performs the practice of Takuhatsu, public spiritual begging, and has a strong connection to the arts. The Center has hosted numerous artists, poets, and speakers through its Zen arts program and has established an annual Ryokan san lecture in September. Another treasured annual tradition is the reading of New Year poems written by members of the sangha on the first Sunday evening following the New Year. Eido Roshi’s personal interest in Ryokan san continues. She is currently writing a book about Ryokan san, a portion of which was presented at a worldwide Ryokan san convention at Entsuji Temple in spring 2004.

Eido Roshi is herself an accomplished writer, poet, and painter. In 1996, she joined Shoen Tokunaga Sensei, her painting teacher, and her daughter Ellen F. O’Connell, an accomplished photographer, in a three-woman exhibition. In April of 2000, her dragon sumi-e paintings were featured in a one-woman show at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts and at Childhood’s End Gallery. She encourages each of her students to develop at least one creative aspect of themselves through the Zen arts. Many of her students are active writers, poets, musicians, actors, and painters.

During the summer of 2002, Eido Roshi, responding to a request from the state Buddhist chaplin, Aryadaka, began monthly visits with Buddhist inmates at Stafford Creek Correction Center near Aberdeen. From this practice, Eido Roshi has developed a book that can be used by prisoners toward individual spiritual exploration.

Eido Roshi’s concern for the future training and certification of her students has led her to become President of the Board of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association. Issues addressed by the board include standards for the certification of priests and teachers in America, codes of ethics, accountability for priests and lay practitioners, and other matters relevant to American Buddhist practice.

Eido Roshi’s efforts to establish Buddhist practice in Olympia have brought continuous blessings to the Center’s members, to the Olympia community, and now to other regions of the state. She began in the traditional manner by just sitting and has worked to establish a deep practice. From these roots may all beings continue to benefit.