User:Gladys Haiti Alley/Susan Postal

Susan Ji-on Toku Do Postal was an American Zen teacher (April 20, 1940 – February 7, 2014). She was the founding teacher-in-residence at the Empty Hand Zen Center in New Rochelle, NY.

Biography
Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Susan Postal received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University in anthropology and her graduate degree from Harvard University. Her professional career included the fields in Dance Instruction and Geriatric Counselling. She was, among other titles, a mother, grandmother, friend, and Zen teacher. With respect to the latter title, she did not hold back from her students in sharing her own challenges with the practice that is Zen, expressing "the feeling of not being a good enough Zen 'student'," as encouragement for students to hear a teacher state this, being a teacher with whom students could relate.

Postal began practicing Buddhism in 1970. She would go on to develop her practice in the 1980s with Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, Roshi, at the Zen Community of New York in Riverdale, NY, and, afterward, with Myo-on Maurine Stuart, Roshi, in Cambridge, MA. She took Stuart as her teacher in 1987, receiving the Priestly Transmission from her in 1988, with the Dharma name "Ji-on," meaning "Compassionate Sound," and answering the call from her to lead a weekly sitting group at the Wainwright House Spiritual Retreat Center in Rye, NY. With the death of her teacher in 1990, Postal—having to interrupt her own formal Zen training—found herself at the service of the group as its teacher. The group moved in at the historic Friends Meeting House in Rye and took the name "The Meeting House Zen Group." As the group expanded, its name changed to the "Empty Hand Zendo." It became an incorporated not-for-profit organization.

Subsequently--after numerous morning and evening sitings; retreats; and jukai and priest ordination ceremonies at the Meeting House, Wainwright House, as well as at other locations, welcoming Zen teachers such as the calligrapher Nonin Chowaney, Roshi of the Nebraska Zen Center at the Heartland Temple, Omaha, Nebraska; Roko Sherry Chayat, then-Sensei of the Zen Center of Syracuse, Syracuse, NY; and the late John Daido Loori, Roshi of Zen Mountain Monastery, Mount Tremper, NY, and welcoming long-time Zen practitioners and new-comers alike--Empty Hand Zendo relocated to New Rochelle, NY, where it opened up to serve the community as "Empty Hand Zen Center."

In conjunction with her leadership role, after receiving many years of encouragement and support from her friends/other Zen teachers and, of course, the Buddha-Dharma-Sangha, Postal resumed her formal training in 2000 with a new teacher: Darlene Cohen, the late teacher of the Russian River Zendo, Guerneville, CA. On January 18, 2008, Cohen, with the support of former San Francisco Zen Center abbots Blanche Hartman and Mel Weitsman, gave Dharma Transmission to Postal in the Soto Lineage of Suzuki-Roshi, along with a new Dharma name of "Toku Do," meaning "Devotion Way," thereby formally connecting Postal's many years of devoted practice and teaching to the title "Sensei," or teacher. The ceremony lasted eight days at the Russian River Zendo in Guerneville, CA, with Michael Wenger, Dean of Buddhist Studies at San Francisco Zen Center, serving as guiding teacher. Additionally, Zen Priest Tony Patchell served to ensure the proper logistics were in place. Postal's two then-senior students Jane Shuman and Dennis Keegan attended the Transmission.

With Darlene Cohen as her Dharma Predecessor, Postal/Toku Do Sensei eventually gave Dharma Transmission to Myozan Dennis Keegan, making him her Dharma Successor, who would become the Guiding Teacher for the Empty Hand Zen Center. Toku Do Sensei continued in her capacity as resident-teacher and priest of the Center to perform a full schedule of daily zazen, retreats, jukai ceremonies and Zen priest ordinations--notably in 2013 for Shuho Catherine Spaeth, Resident Priest at the Empty Hand Zen Center, and, before that, in 2010, for Mushin Deb Wood, Ordained Priest, Toku Do Sensei's long-time student from the days of the historic Friends Meeting House in Rye, NY.

Susan Ji-on Toku Do Postal, Sensei, took her final "bow" on February 7, 2014, when she passed from her body for a much-needed rest from chronic pain and a recurring cancer.

According to her obituary, a beloved family survived Susan: "daughter Leslie Postal (and her husband Jim Stratton), of Orlando, FL, and her son Jonathan Postal (and his wife Jennifer Evans), of Denver, CO, and five grandchildren she adored--Carly Postal, 16, Ben Stratton, 14, Jackson Postal, 12, Kisae Stratton, 9, and Calvin Postal, 8."

--Gladys Haiti Alley, Freelance Reporter

Gladys Haiti Alley (talk) 13:10, 22 March 2015 (UTC)