Sobun Katherine Thanas

Photo of Katherine ThanasKatherine Thanas / Karin Sobun
March 17, 1927 – June 24 , 2012

Sobun Katherine Thanas, founder of the Monterey Bay Zen Center and student of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Dainin Katagiri Roshi, Zentatsu Baker Roshi, and Tenshin Reb Anderson, died on June 24 surrounded by loved ones and disciples, after sustaining a head injury that had left her in a coma.

A memorial service was held at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts in Carmel on Tuesday, June 26.

A funeral ceremony was held at Santa Cruz Zen Center on Sunday, July 1, for the Santa Cruz Zen Center and Monterey Bay Zen Center sanghas, officiated by Katherine’s honshi, Tenshin Reb Anderson.

Weekly memorial services were held after zazen each Sunday night thru August 12 at the Santa Cruz Zen Center including the culminating Eye-Opening Ceremony and altar memorial tablet dedication August 12.

Monterey Bay Zen Center held a 49-day memorial on Tuesday August 14 following zazen at the Cherry Center. On Friday, August 24 at 6:25 am the Sobun Katherine Thanas Roshi Monthly Memorial Ceremony began in Santa Cruz.

A stupa dedication and sprinkling of ashes is planned at Tassajara in 2013.

Memorial Tree Planting Ceremony

Sunday, September 30 at 3pm
Green Gulch Farm

A memorial ceremony to honor Karin Sobun / Katherine Thanas, and marking 100 days since her passing from this world, will be held at Green Gulch Farm on Sunday, September 30, at 3pm.

Tenshin Reb Anderson will officiate. The ceremony will include planting a live oak tree on the hillside below the new student housing at Green Gulch Farm.

Everyone is invited. The ceremony will be followed by a reception.

For a biography, please visit the Katherine Thanas memorial page on the Santa Cruz Zen Center web site.

In lieu of flowers, her family and close friends have requested that donations be made to The Santa Cruz Zen Center, The Monterey Bay Zen Center or one of the many organizations she supported, listed at the bottom of the memorial page at SCZC.