Yvonne Rand was a meditation teacher and lay householder priest in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition, active from 1972 until her death in 2020. She started her studies in Eastern religion while an undergraduate at Stanford University, where she majored in Chinese intellectual history.
Yvonne became a close student of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in 1966, served as his secretary and personal assistant, and with his wife Mitsu Suzuki, cared for him through his dying and death in 1971. She was an early, important member of the San Francisco Zen Center, was ordained as a priest there, served on the board of directors for many years, and continued to practice and teach there for many years, primarily at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center.
She studied with Dainin Katagiri Roshi and received dharma transmission from him in 1989. She renounced formal titles, including roshi, the traditional term for a senior priest and teacher like her, and under her own name signaled her commitment to rooting the dharma in Western soil. She described herself as a lay householder priest, emphasizing the importance of the world of family and daily life in dharma practice.
In the course of her career, her profound interest in the Dharma led her to study closely with notable teachers in various Buddhist traditions, including Rinzai Zen with Maureen Stuart Roshi and Shodo Harada Roshi; Theravada Buddhism with Ven. Henepola Gunaratana and Ajahn Sumedho; and the Himalayan Buddhist tradition with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Anagarika Govinda, and Tara Tulku Rinpoche.
Yvonne was instrumental in developing a ceremony of remembrance in the West called the Jizo Ceremony (after the Japanese bodhisattva) for children, born and unborn, who have died. This ceremony continues as part of her Dharma legacy, and numerous other Buddhist teachers have taken it up. Her understanding of the inseparability of life and death led her to sit with and tend people in end-of-life care over many decades. She also taught and counseled extensively both professional and volunteer caregivers working with the terminally ill.
Photo – Hilary Rand.