About Soken
Soken Graf is a Certified Advanced Rolfer™. After 12 years of intensive monastic training at Mt Baldy Zen Center his teacher Joshi Sasaki Roshi instructed him to offer Dharma talks and work as a healer in San Francisco. Deeply influenced by Buddhist contemplation and years of monastic study, Soken’s work as a Certified Advanced Rolfer™ supports your body’s innate capacity to heal. His desire is for you to be free of all unnecessary suffering so that you can live a more complete, compassionate and joyful life.
Education
Soken obtained his degree as a Certified Rolfer™ in 2006 at the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado. Upon certification he continued to study in Scottsdale, AZ with internationally recognized Advanced Rolfer Dr. Jeffrey Maitland–author of Mind Body Zen, and one of only seven people in the world authorized to write Advanced Rolfing curricula. Following his study with Dr. Maitland, Soken went to Vienna and Berlin to deepen his understanding of the energetic aspects of healing. In 2010, he obtained his degree as a Certified Advanced Rolfer™. Soken is also trained in Visceral Manipulation, a manual therapy that serves to relieve and restore vitality to tired organs; as well as Craniosacral Therapy, a powerful therapy that restores flow to cerebro-spinal fluid, often resulting in clear-headedness and profound relaxation. While in AZ, Soken also studied with renowned chiropractors such as Dr. John Brimhall, and received an advanced certification to practice Cold-Laser Therapy, an FDA-approved intervention that restores health to damaged cells.
Soken’s treatments manifest as a direct response to your body’s 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 and mind so that you can flourish and 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.