Lineage

Having a “lineage” means that Atlanta Soto Zen Center has a long history of teachers and credentials that connect us to each other and confirm our capabilities as a group that can help further the practice of Zen in America.  Soto Zen is one of the major sects of Zen Buddhism. The Soto Zen tradition emphasizes the practice of zazen, or sitting meditation, and individual effort. By learning to put our entire being into our practice, we are able to realize our original nature - open, spontaneous and ever-changing - and to carry that experience into daily life. Our Zen group traces its descent from a common lineage of teachers that trace back to the founder of Soto Zen, Dogen Zenji in Japan and – ultimately – to the 6th Century Chinese Chan/Zen founder Bodhidharma and further to the historic Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, in India over 2500 years ago.  

More recently, we trace our roots to Soyu Matsuoka Roshi and Shōhaku Okumura Roshi and to their disciple and our direct senior teacher, Taiun Elliston Roshi.

Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka Roshi

Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka Roshi was one of the early pioneers in bringing Zen to America.  He came to the United States from Japan in 1939 and ultimately settled in Chicago, IL where he founded the Chicago Buddhist Temple in 1949 (now the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago).  In 1970, Matsuoka moved to Long Beach, CA and founded the Long Beach Zen Center. You can learn directly from Matsuoka Roshi by reading his compiled lectures in the books, Kyosaku and Mokurai.

Shōhaku Okumura Roshi

Shōhaku Okumura Roshi is a Japanese Sōtō Zen priest and the founder and abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community in Bloomington, IN.  Okumura was ordained in Japan by his teacher Kōshō Uchiyama before moving to the United States in 1981. You can learn directly about Okumura Roshi by watching the short documentary by his daughter, Yoko Okumura, or by visiting the Sanshin web site.

Taiun Michael Elliston Roshi

Born and raised on a farm outside the small town of Centralia, Illinois in 1941, Michael Elliston completed high school with honors. He attended the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago from which he received a B.S. in 1964 and an M.S. in 1970. From 1966 to 1970 he taught art and design at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.Elliston Roshi’s involvement with Zen began in 1966 when he met Matsuoka Roshi, founder and head teacher of the Chicago Zen Buddhist Temple. Taiun Michael Elliston was registered with the Soto Shu in Japan July 13, 1969 and ordained as a Zen Priest March 22, 1970. He continued his duties at the Chicago Zen Center until 1970, when he moved to Atlanta, where he soon began offering Zen meditation and teaching. In 1977 he founded the Atlanta Soto Zen Center (ASZC), and in 1983 Matsuoka-roshi presented him the title of “Roshi”, which he called “the Ph.D. of Zen”.  In 2006 Sensei underwent "Shuso” training and a precepts ceremony with Seirin Barbara Kohn of Austin Zen Center (Suzuki lineage), and sesshin with Shohaku Okumura in Bloomington, Indiana, and completed transmission with them in early 2007 in a ceremony that recognized the authenticity of Matsuoka-Roshi's transmission and lineage. 

Elliston Roshi continues to offer his ordinary-everyday style of Zen practice and training as the head teacher of ASZC, where he oversees the training of disciples and priests and encourages the growing membership to lead a Zen life and maintain a harmonious balance with the demands of family and livelihood. Elliston Roshi also serves as Abbot of the Silent Thunder Order and is a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA).

Elliston Roshi is well known as a fine artist as well as a creative Zen teacher.  His artwork fuses the influence of his design training and his Zen practice. You can see more about Elliston Roshi’s art by visiting his art website.

Daikaku Kongo Richard Langlois

Kongo Richard Langlois (1935 – 1999) was a Soto Zen Priest in the lineage of Soyu Matsuoka Roshi, to whom he is a Dharma heir. He was ordained in 1967 and received dharma transmission in 1971. Following his teacher, Kongo Langlois formally served as abbot of the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago for 28 years from 1971 to 1999. Usually known as Kongo Roshi, he also served as the Director of the Chinese Cultural Academy in Evanston, Illinois for 11 years. Langlois was one of the first Americans to teach the spiritual practices of zazen and tai chi chuan which he found mutually supportive & beneficial. He played an instrumental role in determining how these arts would be transplanted from their Oriental culture to Midwestern America. Kongo Roshi, inherited his knowledge of these arts through direct transmission and decades of study with two teachers: Rev. Soyu Matsuoka Roshi and Professor Huo Chi-kwang, founder of the Chinese Cultural Academy.

Kongo Langlois was also the author of the book, “The Diamond Sword”, which is a collection of his early talks, published in 1987. Work is underway by his active students to compile a complete record of his talks and teachings in both audio and written format.

The Diamond Sword, published in 1987, contains dharma talks given by Kongo Roshi during the 1970s and 1980s. (To obtain a copy send a request via email to Jerry.smyers@gmail.com).

A collection of audio talks by our late abbot Kongo Langlois, Roshi is now available at Northwestern University Libraries. Click Here to access or by going to www.zbtc.org. The Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago web site has a link to this library of over 50 Kongo Roshi dharma talks.