
A momentous day was celebrated at the Toledo Buddhist Temple in Ohio earlier this month when Rev. Karen Do'on Weik was authorized to become a roshi in the Rinzai Zen Buddhist tradition.
Rev. Karen runs the temple in partnership with her husband Rinsen Weik, who has been licensed as a roshi in 2019 during the traditional Inka Shomei ceremony.
One hundred and fifty people attended the ceremony on October 6 in support of the couple, founders of the Buddhist temple of Toledo in the early 2000s.
The title of roshi is granted to Buddhist practitioners who attain the same level of enlightenment as that achieved by the historical Buddha approximately 2 years ago. Rev. Karen accomplished this feat after several decades of practicing the Dharma and teaching it to students.
A person who has attained this level of enlightenment is also known as do itAs Reverend Rinsen explained: “Do itin the terms of tradition, is considered a fully human Buddha. An awakened person who walks around and is ready to interact with you, just like my teacher, just like me.

By receiving Dharma transmission, Rev. Karen became the 88th Do'on of the Rinzai Buddhist lineage. Rev. Rinsen is the 87th Do'on as well as Rev. Karen's husband and transmitting teacher.
Rev. Rinsen then spoke of his wife's achievement, saying, "Among those who achieve this level of recognition, it is rare enough, but then it is an example of the ascendancy of women. There are not many women in the country who hold this rank within Zen. And there are certainly not many who belong to her generation (Generation X). (The Blade)
The Inka Shomei began with a regular Buddhist liturgy. Participants lit incense, changed sutras, and practiced sitting and walking meditation. Then the two Buddhist teachers performed three ritual bows and another bow side by side.
The first three greetings were performed as a teacher and student. The fourth was completed by a colleague. roshi.
After the ceremony, guest teachers from across the country, along with members of the Toledo Buddhist Temple sangha, formed a receiving line where they showered Do'on Karen Weik with gifts, words of encouragement, and handwritten poems.
“I feel really grateful to all my teachers, and I feel really grateful to the sangha, the community, because without sangha and without community, there is no teacher,” the new leader said. roshi says of her success. “I feel really grateful to my husband and I feel grateful to my younger self who was so tenacious.” (The Blade)
“It’s really for the community; it’s really for the world,” Do’on Weik noted. “Just having this place where people can come and meet the purity of their heart and meet themselves and their Buddha nature and we can just live together, practice together and just be friends.” (The Blade)
One of the temple’s priests-in-training, Kelly Kensei Troyer, expressed excitement about the turn of events, saying, “For our practitioners, having access to two roshi, one of whom is a woman, is a tremendous blessing for people who are engaged in Zen training. Two teachers with the same heart, mind, and Dharma, but with two different personalities, experiences, and modes of communication, means that students are offered depth, richness, and opportunities to contact the Dharma in a way that is personally accessible to them.” (The Blade)
The Buddhist Temple of Toledo hosts a weekly podcast, Toledo Greater Heartland Buddhist Temple Podcastwith morning practice sessions at the temple Tuesday through Saturday at 7am
See more
A Lifetime of Practice: West Toledo Teacher Receives Rare Buddhist Rite (The blade)
Buddhist Temple of Toledo
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