In this episode, Rev. Kōkyō Henkel and I discuss how he and his wife Rev. Shōhō Kuebast’s became “cloud and water” priests—traveling to Zen centers to offer the Dharma, meditating amid the mountains, camping in off-the-grid places in their Prius, and being in the boundlessness of now. I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Rev. Kōkyō Henkel has long been interested in exploring how the classic teachings of Buddha-Dharma from ancient India, China, and Japan can still be very much alive and useful here and now, to bring peace and openness to the minds and hearts of this troubled world. Kōkyō has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1990 in residence at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, and No Abode Hermitage—all in the Sōtō Zen lineage of Shunryū Suzuki Rōshi—and a year at Bukkokuji Monastery in Japan (with Harada Tangen Rōshi). After living in these monastic communities for almost two decades, Kōkyō was then teacher at Santa Cruz Zen Center from 2010-2020, and has been studying and practicing with no fixed abode along with his wife, Rev. Shōhō Kuebast, since 2020.
Kōkyō was ordained as a Zen priest in 1994 by Tenshin Reb Anderson Rōshi, receiving the Dharma name Kōkyō Yakai (Luminous Owl, Midnight Liberation 光梟夜解). He received Dharma Transmission from Tenshin Rōshi in 2010, becoming a 92nd generation lineage-holder authorized to guide others on the path. Kōkyō has also been practicing with the Tibetan Dzogchen (“Great Perfection”) Teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche since 2003, in California, Colorado, and Kathmandu.
Cloud & Water Priests: The Zen Practice of Wandering