About the Dana for Aitken Roshi Project

This project is inspired by our love and respect for Aitken Roshi and our desire that he be able to continue to live at the Palolo Zen Center, if at all possible, rather than in an institution such as a care home or nursing home.

Who are we? As a group we generally include friends and former students of Aitken Roshi, and students of Roshi’s dharma heirs, or teachers who studied with him of all religions and paths. We live around the world, including Hawaii, Australia, Europe, South America, and throughout the continental United States.

Perhaps you have also benefited from Roshi’s life and work. Some folks will count themselves as friends who have never met Roshi, but have read one or more of his books or articles, or in turn have studied, read a book, or heard a talk by someone else who had studied with, sat sesshin with, or was influenced by Roshi’s books and articles over the years.

We hope that you will join the Friends of Robert Aitken by making a pledge or gift now. Please reflect on your own experience. Perhaps Taking the Path of Zen was your introduction to Zen practice, or maybe right now you are reading The Gateless Barrier, Encouraging Words, or Zen Master Raven.

Perhaps Wednesday night at Koko An was where you first did zazen, as a student at the University of Hawaii or a seeker living in or visiting Honolulu. Maybe you came to Hawaii for a training period at the Maui Zendo or on Oahu, or you were on the construction crew for the Palolo Zen Center, or even built the Teachers’ Quarters where Roshi has returned to live. Possibly Roshi visited your city to lead sesshin, and you joined the sitting or came to hear his teisho or talk.

Or perhaps you have participated in social action through the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, which Roshi co-founded, or you have found inspiration there. Maybe your study of the Bodhisattva precepts was informed by his book The Mind of Clover, or you’ve learned about the paramitas from The Practice of Perfection. Perhaps you have read and found helpful an article by or about Roshi in publications such as Tricycle, or Turning Wheel, or one of his frequent contributions recently to the Honolulu Diamond Sangha newsletter.

We are earnestly appealing to you to participate in this dana, this practice of generosity, as your circumstances permit. As we hope to support Roshi to feel free of concerns about the future, pledges are an important part of this effort. If you wish, Friends of Robert Aitken will keep you informed about how Roshi is doing and changes in his circumstances. There is a place on the pledge form to request such updates.

A photo of Roshi If you do not already have a pledge form, please print
and mail it to us. We strongly encourage you to review our Questions and Answers (Q&A) document which provides important information about Roshi’s needs, his financial situation, and how your gifts will be used. (You may have received this in a mailing with the Appeal Letter.) If you do have additional questions, please contact us at
808-386-4162, or by email to info@AitkenRoshi.org.

Roshi talking story at 50th anniversay, July 2009

Friends of Robert Aitken 808-386-4162 info@AitkenRoshi.org

P.O. Box 37872, Honolulu, HI 96837