Gyokuko Carlson

Who is Gyokuko Carlson?

Gyokuko Carlson is a Soto Zen roshi and co-abbot of Dharma Rain Zen Center in Portland, Oregon, United States, along with her husband, Kyogen Carlson. Carlson and her husband practiced at Shasta Abbey when Jiyu Kennett was the abbot, leaving to found their own center in 1986 when celibacy became a requirement there. She has been a practitioner of Zen Buddhism for more than thirty years, and is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association.

Gyokuko and Kyogen Carlson have come to be known as the major non-Shasta Abbey line in succession to Jiyu Kennett; their Zen center has become the largest Zen congregation in Oregon. Carlson's main teaching emphasis is the implementation of spiritual practice into daily life. Her family religious education program was developed from Unitarian Universalist practices, transformed by Buddhist principles. It is the largest Buddhist child education program in Oregon, and one of the largest and oldest in the United States.