Saturday, February 14, 2015

RIP Tony Johansen

Just learned that early Shunryu Suzuki student, Tony Johansen, died recently. Tony and his wife Toni sat at Sokoji and at Los Altos and both of them frequently drove Suzuki to Los Altos and back for his talks there. In later years Tony was a founding or early member of the Santa Barbara Zen Center

Here's a brief memory of Suzuki from Tony with more entered today on that page and a link to an interview with his former wife, Toni which has a lot about him and them and Suzuki and those times.

Tony and Toni and their kids spent a lot of time at Tassajara in the summers and they were at the first practice period in 1967. They started sitting with Suzuki in 1964 and were lay ordained in 1970. Their kids also took part in a kids lay ordination.