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Eido Mary Frances Carney Roshi, born in Brooklyn, NY, April, 1940, is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest, teacher, writer, artist, who received Dharma Transmission from her teacher Niho Tetsumei Roshi in 1997 at Entsuji Temple in Kurashiki, Japan, where Niho Roshi is Abbot. Her full Dharma name is Katsuyu Eido which means Reviving Function, Illuminating Way. She founded Olympia Zen Center in Olympia, Washington in 1995, where she lived and taught until her retirement to the downtown area of Olympia in June, 2022.

Biography
Carney developed an interest in Zen during a serious illness in 1970, when someone gave her the book, The Zen Teachings of Huang-Po, On the Transmission of Mind. This later led to her taking a course in “Zen and the Christian Mystics” through Berkeley Extension taught by Professor Jack Weller (1939–2018 ). Weller invited a Zen teacher, Kobun Chino Sensei (later known as Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi) to meet with the class and give a teaching.

After an experience at a Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery weekend retreat led by Weller, she began practicing with Kobun Chino Roshi at Haiku Zendo, where Suzuki Roshi had been teaching before his death in 1971. Haiku Zendo had been the site for Suzuki Roshi’s teachings that became Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. Kobun Roshi had been invited to be the teacher there when Suzuki Roshi became ill and unable to continue teaching.

Carney received lay Jukai Precepts from Kobun Roshi in 1973 and was given the Dharma name Tennen Myoshin. Carney asked Kobun Roshi for priest vows, but he was reluctant to fulfill this while Carney’s children were not yet independent. Nevertheless, he agreed but asked her to live this vow secretly until the children were independent. She graduated with a B.A. in English from San Jose State University in 1978. In the same year, Carney moved with her children to San Francisco to give them wider opportunities of culture and career. Carney received her M.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University in 1986. When the children became independent, Carney moved to Olympia, Washington just after her father died and where her mother and other family lived. After being there for under a year, she answered an ad in the NY Times for an English teacher in Japan.

Japan
In 1990, Carney left for Japan teaching at Notre Dame University for Women in Okayama. Her Japanese teacher, Miyoko Watanabe Sensei, took her to Entsuji in Kurashiki. Thereafter, she sat at Entsuji with Niho Tetsumei Roshi every weekend following her Soto Zen traditional beginnings. That Entsuji was Ryokan’s training temple rooted her in practice in the atmosphere of the founder, Tokuo Ryoko Zenji, and Ryokan’s deepest vows and life intentions. She began the study of Shodo, Japanese calligraphy, with Tokunaga Shoen Sensei whose calligraphy can be found in various places around Kyoto. Inoue Kando Roshi also came regularly to Entsuji to teach Shobogenzo and thus it was a rich and formative time for Eido in her practice development and search to experience the Mind as Buddha.

Carney led a public Peace March in Okayama against the War in Iraq. She soon after took priest vows and received the name Katsuyu Eido and entered Shoboji Temple in Iwate Prefecture to complete her monastic requirements for full certification as a Zen priest before returning to America.

Founding of Olympia Zen Center
In 1995, Carney began to sit Zazen in Olympia, Washington. Gradually a Sangha formed and determined to create a temple dedicated to practice that could allow for people to legally assemble. An ideal place was found and purchased and opened for sitting in January 2000 while construction continued to refine and refit the building to suit Soto Zen practice. Niho Roshi and visitors from Japan came in 2001 to dedicate the temple, and thus, the journey to find a home for Soto Zen practice in Olympia was realized. It was named Ryoko-An (Good Pond Hermitage), Shin Getsu Zan (Heart Moon Mountain), Olympia Zen Center.

In 1997, Carney returned to Entsuji in Kurashiki where she received Dharma Transmission from Niho Tetsumei Roshi.

Gogo-An
In 2008, a replica of Gogo-an was built on the temple ground of Olympia Zen Center. Gogo-an is the name of the hut that Ryokan lived in after he left Entsuji, wandered for seven years and finally returned to Niigata Prefecture his place of birth. This unique rustic, farm, style of architecture is rarely found in Japan and in deference to the original design, the one at Olympia Zen Center opens on the opposite side representing the expressions between the East and the West. The hut is an active place of practice for solitary retreats to experience the simplicity and challenges Ryokan realized in living on the mountain without heat, water, or electricity. Because of the devotion to the teachings of Ryokan, the Order of Ryokan took root.

Temple Ground Press
Carney is the founder, publisher, and chief editor of Temple Ground Press, a publishing company and subsidiary of Olympia Zen Center which she founded to promote the teachings of Dharma Transmitted women priests in the Soto Zen tradition so that their teachings on Soto Zen will be available now and for the people, particularly women, of future generations. More recently, TGP has expanded to publish Soto Zen books written by men.

Temple Ground Press Publications
Receiving the Marrow: Teachings on Dogen by Soto Zen Women Priests, Eido Frances Carney Ed. 2011.

Carney, Eido Frances. Kakurenbo or the Whereabouts of Zen Priest Ryokan. 2012.

Seeds of Virtue, Seeds of Change. Jikyo Cheryl Wolfer, Ed. 2014.

The Eightfold Path. Jikyo Cheryl Wolfer, Ed. 2016.

Inoue, Gien. A Blueprint of Enlightenment, A Contemporary Commentary on Dogen Zenji's Gakudo Yojinshu, Guidelines for Studying the Way. Trans. Daigaku Rummé and Keiko Ohmae. 2020.

Personal life
Carney was married and later divorced, and has three children and two grandchildren.

College Teaching
1986 – 1987  San Francisco State University, Creative Writing Dept.

1990 -1993  Notre Dame Seishin University. English Dept.

1996 - 2006  South Puget Sound Community College. Dept. of Humanities

Zen Teaching
1995 to 2022. Olympia Zen Center, Olympia, Washington.

1998-2002 “Spiritual Care of the Sick and the Dying” Olympia, WA.

2005 to present. Teachings on Ryokan and creativity: Switzerland (Felsentor); Germany; the Netherlands, other temples in the U.S.

Associations
Past President of the national Soto Zen Buddhist Association and current member.

Member of the Association of Soto Zen Buddhists, serving on the Roadmap Committee.

Member of the national American Zen Teachers Association.

Other Activities
Buddhist Chaplain, Minimum Security Unit at Monroe Correctional Complex, and King County Jail.

Teaching of spiritual care of the sick and dying to all faith traditions. 1998 to 2002.

Invited Speaker at The Evergreen State College, 1996 to 2010: Women’s Studies; Religious Studies.

Distinguished Faculty Award, SPSCC, 1999.

Distinguished Faculty Award, SPSCC, 2001 to travel to Ireland and Scotland to study Celtic Shamanism.

Japan English Literature Society, 1992-1994.

Presentation of Ryokan paper at JELS, Shimane University, Matsue, Japan, 1993.

Presentor at Ryokan International Society Meeting in Japan, 2004.

Art Exhibitions
1997. Site Line Gallery, Olympia, WA. Exhibition of calligraphy and photography with Tokunaga Shoen and Ellen O’Connell photography.

2000. Washington Center for the Performing Arts. One-person calligraphy exhibition, Year of the Dragon 2000.

2000. South Puget Sound Community College Library. One-person calligraphy exhibition, Year of the Dragon.

2008. Childhood’s End Gallery, Olympia, WA. One woman sumi-e exhibition.

2010. The Evergreen State University, Olympia, WA. Juried. “Dragon Study 10.”

2017. The Evergreen State University, Olympia, WA. Administrated exhibition for Tokunaga Shoen.

2018. South Sound Sumi-e Society, Tacoma Main Library. Juried. “Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom.”

Publications
“Resonance of Suffering in the Poetry of Ryokan.” Kiyo, Studies in Foreign Languages and Literature. 1993.

“Geography of Freedom:  Ryokan at Gogoan, Thoreau at Walden Pond.” Kiyo, Studies in Foreign Languages and Literature, 1994.

Assorted Poems in Gathering Stones, An Anthology. New Market Press, 1996.

Assorted Poems in Ends of the Earth. New Market Press, 1997.

“Zen and the Art of Begging, Practicing Takuhatsu in America.” Tricycle, Fall, 1998.

“On the Moon as One’s Excellent Nature.” In: Receiving the Marrow, Teachings on Dogen by Soto Zen Women Priests. Olympia, WA: Temple Ground, 2012.

Kakurenbo Or The Whereabouts of Zen Priest Ryokan. Creative Nonfiction. Temple Ground: Olympia, WA, 2013.

“Rattling Teeth.” In: Seeds of Virtue, Seeds of Change. Jikyo Cheryl Wolfer Ed. Temple Ground: Olympia, WA, 2014.

Carney, Eido Frances. Entering the Stream: Zen Journal Guides. 2015.

Carney, Eido Frances. The Three Treasures: Zen Journal Guides. 2017.

Zen Teachings in Challenging Times. Jikyo Cheryl Wolfer, Ed. 2018.

“Can Kanzeon Bodhisattva Laugh?” In: Zen Teachings in Challenging Times. Jikyo Cheryl Wolfer, Ed. Temple Ground: Olympia, WA, 2018.

Fiction:

Carney, Mary Frances. A Parish Near Ebbets Field. Independent Press. 2015.

Carney, Mary Frances. The Buddha of Eastern Parkway. Independent Press. 2019.

Dharma Lineage

 * Katsugen Doki, (1900 - 1960) Shiho 1925


 * Katsuryu Tetsumei Niho, (born 1940) Shiho 1964


 * Katsuyu Eido Carney, (born 1940) Shiho 1997

Dharma Heirs

 * Meido Jikyo Wolfer, (born 1952) Shiho 2010