Zen Center of Bloomington

The Sanshin Zen Community was incorporated as an organization in 1996 by Shohaku Okumura after serving as the interim abbot of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center since 1992. He chose the name sanshin (三心, sanshin), meaning "three minds", in reference to Eihei Dogen's teaching from the Tenzo Kyōkun of the three minds a Zen student should cultivate: magnanimous mind, parental mind, and joyful mind. However, the following year the Sōtō-shumucho, the administrative body of Sōtō Zen in Japan, asked Okumura to head the Soto Zen Education Center in San Francisco, to which he agreed, delaying his plans to found his own temple. While still serving in that position, his friend and Buddhist Studies scholar John McRae, recommended locating his temple in Bloomington, Indiana. By 2002 land had been purchased and a local architect employed to design a combined zendo and living space for the Okumura family.[2]