Dai Jiyu David Ketter moved to Bellingham in 2019 and began practicing zen in early 2021 with Diane Musho Roshi Hamilton of Two Arrows Zen in Salt Lake City. Wishing to have an in-person sangha to practice with, he began practicing with Red Cedar Zen later that year. Previous to practicing zen, David practiced Vipassana meditation for 12 years. During this time he attended numerous 10-day meditation retreats, practiced at a dharma study center in Thailand for a month and led two study abroad programs there focused on Engaged Buddhism. He has also attended multiple sesshins with both Two Arrows Zen and with Red Cedar Zen, and he received the precepts from Diane Hamilton in 2023.

Professionally, David worked in education, mostly teaching middle and high school science, but he also worked as an administrator of a professional development program for teachers and began his career in education as a work site supervisor and education program coordinator for an urban conservation corps in Oakland, CA. His passion throughout his entire career has been to connect students to nature in a way that transformed the way they thought about, perceived and related to their environment. At the center of this work was helping students perceive the interconnectedness of all things. Most recently, David served as a climate change education consultant for Washington State. 

Member Barbara Noda

Barbara Noda's first introduction to Zen Buddhism was at Tassajara Hot Springs in Carmel Valley during the70’s. She backpacked in from Arroyo Seco, was greeted by a monk named Tony who showed her where to get tea, buy bread, and put down her sleeping bag. Since those days, she has returned many, many times to Tassajara as a guest or to attend workshops.

For a time during the 80’s, Barbara lived at the house of Mayumi Oda in Muir Beach near San Francisco Zen Center’s Green Gulch Farm. Mayumi Oda is an intensely devoted Zen Buddhist and renowned artist of Goddesses and paintings that embrace her spiritual path. Barbara helped Mayumi prepare the revision to her book Goddesses in 1988. She also assisted Mayumi in organizing and leading retreats for women and Asian women at her house in Muir Beach. Musim Patricia Ikeda, a Buddhist teacher and community activist, also lived with Barbara at Mayumi’s house. More recently, Barbara was part of a small sangha in Walnut Creek and also a member of the San Francisco Zen Center sangha.

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Member Scott Allen 

Way seeking mind: My Zen journey started during a 29 year career in the U.S. Air Force. In my travels I spent time in Japan, Korea and Thailand. It amazed me especially in Thailand that the people were so friendly and happy even though they didn’t have much in the way of material things. So I did what a lot of us do before formally committing to Zen, I read many books in different traditions not knowing which ones would be right for me.

In 2003 I retired from the military and started a civilian career in St. Louis. I was looking at the weekend edition of our local newspaper and it said there was going to be a large sitting to be held that weekend for all the Buddhist groups in the St. Louis area. It was called Change Your Mind Day to be held that weekend. That Saturday a few hundred people showed up at the Chain of Rocks Bridge overlooking the Mississippi River. Meditation cushions, blankets and padding were set up across the bridge which was the original route 66 bridge across the Mississippi and was pedestrian only. And after a Dharma talk we sat for an hour. I was hooked.

The next weekend I started practicing formally with the Missouri Zen Center which as it turned out was a  Soto Zen Sangha, Rosan Yoshita Abbott. I practiced there until 2006 at which time I became interested in volunteer work in prisons with Rev. Kalen McAllister.  We had a sitting group called Inside Dharma that sat weekly but I also had a commitment with her to lead a meditation group at South – Central Correctional Center in Licking Missouri which I led twice a month until 2007.

At Kalen’s urging I started practicing at Ryumonji Zen Monastery in Decorah Iowa from 2007 until I retired from Civil Service in 2014. I received Jukai from Abbott Shoken Weincoff in 2008 and participated in weekend sittings and Rohatsus until my retirement.  

In 2014 my wife and I retired in Bellingham and I started practicing at Red Cedar Zen Community. After leading numerous introduction talks to newcomers weekly was selected to be Shuso for the 2019 Winter Practice Period.

I am currently in the Leaders Group and recently accepted a position on the Board.

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