Thank you Ellen - Good Times Letter to the Editor Highlights Santa Cruz Zen Center

On July 17, 2025, Ellen Richter’s letter to the editor was published in Good Times. Thank you Ellen!

ZEN HERE

In your current issue you asked for suggestions for future issues celebrating the 50th anniversary of Good Times. I would like to suggest the Santa Cruz Zen Center on School Street, where zen students began practicing in 1973 under the guidance of beloved teacher the late Kobun Chino Otogawa. Kobun, as he was known to everyone, was invited by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi to help with the establishment of Tassajara Zen Monastery in the late ’60s and eventually made his way to teach in Santa Cruz at the invitation of a group of zen students. During the 1980s there was a transition and the late Katherine Thanas from the San Francisco Zen Center was invited to be the teacher at the Santa Cruz Zen Center and was eventually named Abbot. Currently several of Katherine’s students, and some of their students, lead the practice. The Santa Cruz Zen Center is up the block from Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park and down the block from Mission Plaza, and although upgrades have been made over the years the buildings look as they did when the center was established.

Ellen Richter