Jon Joseph, Roshi is the practice leader of San Mateo Zen, and holding teacher for Desert Lotus Zen in Phoenix. He began sitting Zen over 40 years ago with a group of high school friends, led by their Spanish teacher. Jon then took his practice to the logging camps and fishing villages of Alaska and to the redwoods of California’s North Coast. After college, Jon traveled to Kamakura, Japan, where he studied for eight years with Yamada Koun Roshi at the SanUn Zendo. In the late 1980s, Jon returned to San Francisco and New York as a technology financial analyst, and took up koan practice with John Tarrant, Roshi, the founder of Pacific Zen Institute. Tarrant Roshi (Bring Me the Rhinoceros) and Pacific Zen have become known for their innovative use of the ancient koans to transform our lives in the present world. In 2012 Tarrant Roshi gave Jon permission to teach. In 2016 Jon received full transmission.
