About Soken
Soken Graf is a Certified Advanced Rolfer based in San Francisco. He found his path to Rolfing through his study of Zen Buddhism. Soken studied Zen intensively at Mount Baldy Zen Center, in the mountains outside Los Angeles, for 12 years before setting up his Rolfing practice in San Francisco. He brings the monastic discipline and awareness developed in authentic Zen meditation to his work as a Certified Advanced Rolfer™. His extensive engagement with Buddhist contemplation allows Soken to connect uniquely with your body’s needs. His desire is for you to be free of all unnecessary suffering so that you can live a more complete, compassionate and joyful life.
Sent by his teacher Joshu Sasaki Roshi to study at the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado, Soken has been a certified Rolfer since 2006. After his certification Soken continued to study with internationally-renowned Advanced Rolfer Dr. Jeffrey Maitland, one of only seven Advanced Rolfing Instructors in the world. Soken is also trained in Visceral Manipulation, a manual therapy developed by osteopaths to relieve and restore function to stressed organs; as well as Craniosacral Therapy, an osteopathic-based manual therapy that supports your immune system and alleviates thwarts to well-being by releasing restrictions that inhibit the flow of cerebrospinal fluid throughout the head and spinal cord. Soken has also studied with renowned chiropractors and physical therapists and holds an advanced certification to practice Cold-Laser Therapy, an FDA-approved intervention that helps restore function to traumatized cells.
Additionally, Soken has studied Rolf Movement®, which allows him to provide you with take-home exercises that help you to increase awareness about how your body moves, where and why it gets stuck, and what options you have to move with more comfort, ease and flow through daily life.
Soken’s individualized approach precisely attends to your unique needs. This might mean relieving strain from overworked nerves, clearing energy blockages or working with soft tissue to relieve pain, increase your range of motion and stabilize your joints. His goal is for you to feel grounded, balanced and at ease in your body, enabling you to flourish as you function with simplicity and grace in a complex, demanding world.
Soken’s Teacher
Born in 1907 in Japan’s rural Miyagi Prefecture, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi became a novice at the age of 14 under Joten Soko Miura Roshi, a master in the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism. Under Joten’s guidance, Joshu Sasaki became an Osho after seven years, and when Joten was appointed head abbot of Myoshin-ji, the preeminent Rinzai temple, Joshu Sasaki followed him there to continue his training.
In 1947 at age 40 Joshu Sasaki received full authority as a Roshi and became abbot of his own temple, eventually relocating to, restoring and presiding over Shoju-an, a remote monastery in the Japanese Alps founded by Shoju Ronin, teacher of the great 18th Century Zen master Hakuin. In 1962, Daiko Furukawa, Joten Roshi’s successor as abbot of Myoshin-ji, asked Joshu Roshi to begin teaching in America.
Joshu Roshi arrived in Los Angeles on July 21, 1962, and has remained a US resident ever since. Rinzai-Ji, his main city temple, was established in Los Angeles in 1968, followed by his two main training centers, the Mount Baldy Zen Center in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California (1972) and the Bodhi Manda Zen Center in New Mexico, just outside Albuquerque (1973). His students have opened centers in the US, Puerto Rico, Canada, Austria, and Germany. Now over 100 years old, Joshu Roshi continues to maintain a full and uncompromising schedule. Through his teachings and work he emphasizes direct experience over an intellectual or pious approach to spiritual growth. Today, he represents the last of a generation of pioneering Japanese teachers who brought dharma to the West.