The word “refuge” has many meanings and associations. In this Dharma Talk, Abbess Josho of the Chapel Hill Zen Center in North Carolina will investigate the question, “what do we actually take refuge in as Zen practitioners, and how we can cultivate our true refuge?”

About Josh Pat Phelan:

The Chapel Hill Zen Center, in the Spring of 1991, asked the Abbots of the San Francisco Zen Center to send Taitaku Josho Patricia Phelan to lead the group. Pat was ordained in 1977 by the former Abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, Zentatsu Richard Baker, who was Suzuki Rōshi’s successor. She has also studied with two of Suzuki Rōshi’s other disciples, Sojun Mel Weitsman and Tenshin Reb Anderson.

Pat began sitting zazen in Oregon in 1969. She moved to San Francisco in 1971 and spent several years at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.

Prior to her arrival in Chapel Hill in August, 1991, she was a Practice Leader and Director of Zen Center’s residence facility in San Francisco.

In the Fall of 1995, she returned to Tassajara and completed her training by receiving Dharma Transmission from Abbot Sojun Weitsman. In October, 2000, Josho Sensei was officially installed as Abbess of the Chapel Hill Zen Center. In December, 2008, Josho Sensei traveled to Japan to participate in Zuise ceremonies at Eihei-ji and Soji-ji temples. She is married and has a daughter. Abbess Josho is the root teacher of both AZC Tanto Choro Antonaccio & Former AZC Director Tim Kroll.