It began in 1984 by the Reverend Tokushu Senghas, his wife Dorrie Seishu Senghas and Henry Chigen Finney, a professor at the University of Vermont. Weekly sittings took place at the Burlington UU Church. Originally named the Zen Center of Burlington, the organization formalized its ties to the Zen Mountain Monastery (zmm.org) in Mount Tremper, New York and the Society of Mountains and Rivers (an international network of MRO Zen Centers and Sitting Groups). It was then renamed Zen Affiliate of Vermont and came under the spiritual guidance of John Daido Loori Roshi, abbot of ZMM.
