Photo: Shundo David Haye
Lee Lipp / Ninsen Kashin
River of Patience, Singing Heart
December 9, 1937 – August 17, 2016
Our dear friend Lee Lipp died the morning of August 17, 2016, at 7:50 am. We rang the densho bell 108 times at City Center to mark her passing.
An inspirational teacher, Dr. Lee Lipp began practicing the Buddha’s teaching in 1989, continuing her practice in 1993 as a member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. She was a resident of Green Gulch Farm and City Center from 1998 to 2005, and received lay ordination in 2000. She served as SFZC’s Cultural Awareness Advocate. In 2012, Spirit Rock Meditation Center authorized her to teach the Theravadan tradition in the community. Lee lived in San Francisco and had a private psychotherapy practice there. She served as Shuso (head student) for the Winter Practice Period at City Center in 2013.
Having taught in psychology graduate programs for 16 years, her most recent work included being Diversity Coordinator at SFZC. She facilitated workshops, practice groups and classes that combined psychotherapeutic skills with mindfulness meditation for issues related to chronic depression and anxiety mood states, as well as for preventing substance abuse relapse.
For many years, she taught Transforming Depression and Anxiety classes in venues that include Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Insight Meditation Society, Zen Hospice Project, East Bay Meditation Center, Gay Men’s Buddhist Sangha, SF Mental Health Association and San Francisco Department of Mental Health, as well as San Francisco Zen Center. She sat on San Francisco Zen Center’s Ethics and Reconciliation Council, and served on the Board of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.
We will miss her bright smile, her effervescent friendliness, and her profound wisdom. May her passing into the great mystery be peaceful.
At Lee’s request, in lieu of a memorial, there will a be a life-celebration party soon, with music and dancing and cookies and frivolity. The date and venue will be announced soon.
