By Tova Green

Kōgetsu Mok, San Francisco Zen Center’s new Chief Financial Officer, stepped into the position in July 2024. She was previously the Treasurer for Green Gulch Farm and Tassajara and understudied for the role with former CFO, Michael McCord (who is now SFZC’s President).

The CFO’s main responsibilities are working with the President and other SFZC leaders on financial strategy and planning, reporting to the Finance Committee and the Board, sitting on the Board of Greens Restaurant, managing the Accounting Department team, and working with the Directors of City Center, Green Gulch Farm, and Tassajara on managing their budgets. She also participates in the steering committee for SFZC’s Transformational Change process, which  plans for SFZC’s future.

All of these tasks have in common teamwork and collaboration, which Kōgetsu feels is essential to her work. “I enjoy building relationships and helping people understand what keeps the lights on,” as well as working with her team of four (one resident and three employees) in the Accounting Department, and taking care of the business of SFZC.

Kōgetsu is also learning to cultivate and manage relationships with donors, and is being coached by former Abbot Ed Sattizahn. “I like the idea that I’m helping take care of SFZC, including our wider sangha. It’s one way to save all beings.”

Kōgetsu was born in Canada and grew up in the Bay Area. She began learning the business skills she uses now as a young person. “My mom ran a real estate business, and I would help her balance the bank statements. I often managed money in different jobs. I was good at math, as well as music; I played violin, and later guitar. My first real musical loves were The Beatles and jazz. Music is mathematical and mathematics is art as well.”

“I started learning web programming at sixteen. I began designing web pages, amazed by the art and beauty of coding. Math is finite; it’s very satisfying and comforting. Having a logical brain helps.” Kōgetsu loves learning things and taking on challenges. “I put myself in the deep ends of many pools and have found my way to swim many, many times.”

Kōgetsu started working in tech in 1999, and  started her own consulting business in 2001. She was hired by Adobe in 2003, where she worked for sixteen years. “I advanced well in the company and traveled the world working with different teams. I moved to India in 2008 to help start a team in Bangalore, India and worked there for four years.”

“Meditation has always been a big part of my life. As a young person, I would sit at Ocean Beach and listen to the sound of the waves.” Later she joined the Self Realization Fellowship, where she learned techniques intended to “burn off karma.” After some time, not feeling connected to the guru model, she left, but continued practicing some of the meditation techniques. She also discovered Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, and wrote “morning pages” daily for fifteen years.

Kōgetsu had known about Tassajara for a long time and had wanted to do a kitchen apprenticeship, but her job kept her from residential practice. In 2015, she went to Tassajara in the summer as a guest. She loves cooking and food and excitedly bought all the cookbooks in the bookstore. “Time went by, and on my birthday I was craving Tassajara bread. I’d heard about the Green Gulch Bakery and drove up there and met the baker, Mick Sopko, who sold me bread. I went back as a guest for a weekend in 2018 and fell in love with the community and life. I felt at home there. I attended a Dharma talk and was moved by a chant that ended with ‘saving all beings.’ I wanted to help all beings. I wanted this to be how I live my life.”

A year later, Kōgetsu became a resident at Green Gulch Farm. Furyu Schroeder became her teacher and in 2021 she received Jukai and was given the Dharma name Ko Getsu Sho Jun, Bright Moon Pure-Hearted Truth.

Currently, Kōgetsu lives at City Center and gives talks for Young Urban Zen and Meditation in Recovery, affinity groups that meet at SFZC. “I speak about my experience and try to meet people where they are.”

Kōgetsu and SFZC’s president Michael McCord are starting a meditation program at the Asian Art Museum. They are also partnering with The Commons, a space near City Center which is dedicated to meaning-making, personal growth, and self-expression in the community. “People there are looking for meaning in their life. Through offering talks about Zen practice, as well as zazen instruction, we hope to bring people to SFZC for talks, classes and Zen meditation.”