AnRyūJi/Peace Dragon Temple honors Shunryu Suzuki Roshi by offering Soto Zen Buddhist practice in a warm and intimate environment. Nestled in the agricultural town of Westhampton, gateway to the Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts, the temple offers the practice of Shikantaza to beginners and experienced practioners alike.
The rhythms of the temple follow the changing of the seasons as support for deepening our connection with the Earth, continuously practicing Zazen as a way of life, cultivating the motivation to serve all sentient beings, and moving from stillness to action to stillness.
AnRyū Temple houses an Ancestral Memorial Zendo. The 12-seat zendo remembers each year Suzuki Roshi lived in the United States. Friends, supporters, students and benefactors of Two Streams Zen are invited to offer a Gift of Remembrance in the name of a loved one. This gift will directly provide for the needs, ongoing maintenance, and long-term sustainability of the practice space. The names of those remembered will be permanently displayed in the zendo.
Guiding Teacher
Ryūmon Hilda Gutiérrez Baldoquín Sensei, co-founder of Two Streams Zen, is a Zen teacher and lineage holder in the Sōtō Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki.
She first encountered Zen in Spring 1983 stepping through the doors of 300 Page Street, and what she later found out to be, the San Francisco Zen Center. In 1990 she formally was introduced to Zen by Mitsuzen Louis Hartman at Green Dragon Temple-Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. In 1991 she asked to become a student of Zenkei Blanche Hartman Roshi with whom she trained at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and who ordained her as a priest in 2002. She then trained in 2005 as Shuso (Head Monk) with Abiding Abbess Eijun Linda Cutts at Green Dragon Temple. In 2008, Ryūmon Sensei received Shiho from Zenkei Roshi at Beginner’s Mind Temple.
Ryūmon Sensei is editor of, and contributor to, the award-winning anthology Dharma, Color and Culture: New Voices in Western Buddhism (Skipping Stones, 2005 Book Award) and contributor to the book Women Practicing Buddhism: American Experiences. She is published in national journals Buddhadharma: The Practioner’s Quarterly, and Turning Wheel: The Journal of Socially Engaged Buddhism, and co-authored and served as advisor to national publications on cultural literacy, conflict resolution and liberation strategies such as Cultural Considerations in Domestic Violence Cases: A National Judges Bench Book; Face to Face: Solving Conflicts Without Giving In; and Taking the First Step: A Guide for Cultural Programming.
As a Zen Buddhist priest, Ryūmon Sensei trained, mentored and coached hundreds of young adult activists, political organizers and emerging leaders in the interconnection of mindfulness meditation, contemplative practices, and spiritual activism; was instrumental in the founding of People of Color and LGBTQ groups in western Buddhist centers in the United States; consulted to white convert Buddhist communities aspiring to become culturally and racially inclusive; and taught Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to People of Color for the Behavioral Education Unit of Kaiser Permanente, in Oakland California.
She was founding core faculty of the Advanced Certificate Program on Contemplative Clinical Practice: Spirituality and Social Work at Smith College School for Social Work. In this context she taught mindfulness practices to Social Work professionals, facilitated processes where clinicians assessed their own spiritual development, cultivated awareness of how clients’ spirituality impacts the clinical relationship, and learned skills on how to integrate a spiritual lens into their clinical work. For three summers Ryūmon Sensei was invited to be in residence at the School leading the social work students’ meditation group, offering public teachings, and meeting with students for one-on-one spiritual guidance.
For close to thirty years, she worked at the national and international levels as a change process consultant, trainer, facilitator, translator and bilingual/bicultural mediator in the fields of multicultural organizational development, change management, anti-oppression work, communications and conflict resolution.
Currently, Ryūmon Sensei is completing a three-year clinical training program in Somatic Experiencing, the trauma healing work of Peter Levine. Based at her home temple, she practices and studies Dharma full time continuing to deepen her understanding of Buddha’s liberation teachings. She also works closely with her formal Zen students, cares for and plays with Arthur (7-year old, golden Cockapoo) and Jessey (9-year old, chocolate Standard Poodle), and everyday attempts to practice fearless intimacy and passionate laughter with her beloved compañera, Anraku Sensei.