Teacher and Lineage

Sensei Sunyana GRAEF is the founder and teacher of the Vermont Zen Center. She began her practice of Zen Buddhism in 1969 as a disciple of Roshi Philip Kapleau. Sensei Graef was born in Boston in 1948 and grew up in New York. In the sixties, she studied religion and philosophy at Bard College, until beginning her Zen training at the Rochester Zen Center.

Sensei spent over nine years on the staff of the Rochester Zen Center. She was ordained as a priest in 1986 and sanctioned as a Dharma Heir of Roshi Kapleau a year later. With her husband, Jed, and two daughters, Kaila and Dana, she moved to Vermont in June of 1988 to establish the Zen Center in Shelburne.

Sensei Graef also teaches at the Casa Zen of Costa Rica. She was the teacher of the Toronto Zen Centre in Canada for 10 years until sanctioning her first Dharma Heir, Sensei Taigen Henderson, who is now the teacher of the Toronto Centre.

Roshi PHILIP KAPLEAU trained in Japan for thirteen years under three Zen masters. He was the author of several books, including the  classic, The Three Pillars of Zen. Roshi Kapleau passed away peacefully in Rochester, NY, surrounded by his disciples, on May 6, 2004 at the age of 91.

Sensei Sunyana Graef & her husband Jed on Joshu's bridge in China 2006


Roshi Philip Kapleau 1986