Roshi's students have gone on to establish Zen centers across the UnitedStates and Canada, as well as in Europe. The following article appeared in the Arizona Republic on May 20, 2000. By 5 a.m., when the sun and the birds begin waking, Zen practitioners already are meditating in a quiet, residential neighborhood in Tempe. God is not something you can take as an object. The person who takes God as an object is the mistaken self, he said.
Zen practice brings people to their true selves.
That is a dangerous concept in a country where most people believe in God, he said. The goal of Zen is zero, or the state of emptiness. That is God. That is the perfect self. But he likes Americans, even if they have a hard time understanding Zen.