Celebrating the transfer of temple stewardship. L to R: David Shojin Stanley; Lee Ann Kyoan Nail; Master Lee Chung; Jyoshin Clay, interpreter; Kirk Yatta Jarvie
Photos by: Justin Chen, Kirk Jarvie, Lee Ann Nail, David Stanley

After receiving a new temple space offered in a great act of generosity, the Salem Zen Center has significantly increased the regular programs offered to people in the region.

In November 2023, the Zen center and its teacher, Lee Ann Kyoan Nail Roshi, were given stewardship of the Wondrous Intent Temple by then-abbot Venerable Master Lee Chung.  Prior to the gifting the structure was run by a Pure Land Buddhist sangha, and the temple’s Taiwanese name, “Mia Chung Temple,” will be kept .

On April 19-21 of 2024, we held our first kosesshin three-day retreat in the new space, attended by 18 sangha members.  The excitement was palpable as we sat, walked, chanted and ate meals together, as one body and one mind.  With this success, two more multi-day sesshins are planned for 2024: October 23-27 and December 6-8.  As interest expands and resources allow, we‘ll continue to explore opportunities to grow our program offerings. 

In addition to the regular Tuesday evening offering of zazen, tea, dharma talk and chanting service, we are now able to offer Thursday morning zazen, samu (contemplative temple work with a communal lunch); a Sunday morning zazen communal lunch, a book club and a rakusu (ceremonial robe) sewing class.  Our new-to-us space also gives us the freedom to hold longer retreats or sesshins. 

Salem Zen Center is a Harada-Yasutani lineage sangha practicing in the soto Zen tradition. A sister organization, the Salem Buddhist Association, is managing caretaking of the 100-year-old structure to support Zen training and local temple life for Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley region.  Prior to this, the Salem Zen Center sangha practiced for over 25 years at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, which generously provided space for Tuesday evening meditations and occasional one-day retreats.

As we’ve grown into this new temple space, we’ve come to appreciate and embrace the history that infuses the building. Starting in 2004, the Miao Chung Temple served as a Pure Land temple for Salem’s Taiwanese Buddhist community, offering weekly chanting services along with monthly celebrations, services and retreats.

Over time many of the community members moved on, and by 2022 Master Lee Chung, who was aging, decided for personal reasons to return to his native home in Taiwan and seek a new steward for the temple. For the next three years, the Zen center will rent the temple from the master for a nominal fee.  Final transfer of ownership to the Zen center will be negotiated after that time.

Prior to its life as a Buddhist temple, the building served as a church and parsonage. It is thought to have originally been built as a barn, (complete with a hayloft!). Salem Zen Center Board President Kirk Yatta Jarvie said, “It is truly a thing of wonder to be a part of the building’s history, evolution, and the opportunities it allows for our sangha.”

Karen Sokyo Swallow, a senior student of the Dharma Rain Center in Portland, Oregon (and occasional English teacher to Master Chung), assisted Master Chung in finding a worthy user for the building.  Swallow said a broad search for a new temple steward across the Pacific Northwest ultimately led to Lee Ann Kyoan Nail Roshi, with Sensei Jyoshin Clay aiding the transition. After a series of meetings between 2022 and 2023, Master Chung concurred with the recommendation, and generously offered the temple to Salem Zen Center for $1 per year.

Nail shares that it was during the first tour of the temple that she first felt a deep connection with Master Chung, although they didn’t speak the same language. She remembers them both touching the building’s siding, and in that moment, feeling the two had truly met.

This gesture was repeated during their final tour, when Master Chung placed his hand on the copious supplies stocked in the temple’s upper bathroom, and Nail did the same in appreciation. Then after this brief exchange Master Chung suddenly disappeared, because when Nail turned around, he was gone.

Master Chung’s assistant explained this was traditional, so Nail might literally step into his shoes. Humorously the Master left his temple slippers for her, just inside the office door.

Nail recounted following the Master into the eaves of the attic, and asking (through an interpreter) for the original founder’s date, so the sangha could continue to honor that. As Master Chung thought for a moment, a big smile came across his face, and he said in English “November 1st.” Nail laughed, as this was the day Master Chung had set to pass on stewardship, and thus he had purposely learned to say this date so all could understand. 

Later as they proceeded through the temple grounds, she asked the Master’s birthday and he again smiled and repeated “November 1st.” Nail notes that the Master declined a retirement party, and through his eldest disciple (Shifu Chen Yuan) communicated that all he asked was for the Zen center to accept the gift of temple stewardship.

On January 9, 2024, some 39 people came together for the temple’s first Zen meditation and chanting service, in front of a traditional altar with a full retinue of Buddhas serving as inspiration.  To ensure our humility, the Buddha of good fortune Hotei hilariously delivered an ice storm shortly thereafter, requiring us to cancel the following week’s services!

Nail said the key to making the temple sustainable has been sangha members’ willingness to make ongoing monthly pledges, assist with building upkeep and maintenance, and volunteer time and energy for regular Thursday temple cleaning. The Salem Zen Center Board expresses its boundless gratitude and profound sense of wonder at the transformation of the Miao Chung Temple into the Zen center’s new dharma home.

Having a true temple had never seemed possible to the Salem Zen Center community. The generous gift of temple stewardship is one that brings daily wonder and joy to the sangha and also to neighbors. Many of them express happiness that the temple did not close, but is now continuing as a local treasure, offering a home for Buddhist study and contemplation.