7th August 1941 – 3rd May 2023

After many months of declining health, Reverend Master Jishō Perry passed away on May 3^rd, 2023.  He had been a monk of the Order for fifty-three years, since the very early years of the monastery, having been ordained by Reverend Master Jiyu-Kennett on 14^th May 1971, and given the name Reikō Jishō, meaning “Self-Shining Truth.”

At the beginning of January, Reverend Master Jishō fell in his room at the Abbey, fracturing his pelvis and necessitating an Emergency Room visit.  Later that week, he was transferred to a nearby long-term care and rehab facility a few miles away from the Abbey.  He fell again while at the rehab center and had surgery for a broken hip. He was soon back up and about in a wheelchair or with a walker, and always had a smile and cheerful hello for his visitors and the staff.  Monks along with friends and several of his lay disciples visited with him regularly. In mid-April, he suffered a stroke, leaving him with partial paralysis on one side.  However, he continued in good spirits and had been visited by an Abbey monk and one of his lay disciples shortly before he passed away.

Although his health had been steadily declining, even before his fall, he continued his monastic duties at the Abbey, offering the benefit of his years of monastic training to the community through being the Chief Monastic Instructor and Chief Lecturer. He was the Refuge Monk for a number of lay ministers, along with having several lay disciples.  In April 2013, he gave the Dharma Transmission to his monastic disciple, Rev. Veronica Snedaker.  Reverend Master Jishō was a prolific writer: the O.B.C Journal published many of his articles throughout the years, most recently one entitled, Persimmon  in which he used his experience while Prior at Santa Barbara to offer some excellent teaching on patience and generosity. He also edited two Shasta Abbey Press books, Sōtō Zen and Beyond The Pale Of Vengeance.

He went to Throssel Hole Priory in the mid-seventies where he served as Prior for a few years, subsequently returning to Shasta with the first group of British monks to train at the Abbey.  He remained a Trustee of Throssel for many years. He had received the Dharma Transmission from Reverend Master Jiyu in 1972 and was named a Master of the Order in 1977.

His university education and his law degree were both done at University of California, Berkeley, and he worked as an attorney up until he entered monastic life. During those early years at Shasta Abbey, he provided Reverend Master Jiyu with legal assistance and later on was the legal consultant for both the Abbey and the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. He established the Santa Barbara Buddhist Priory in 1979; in 1999 he was joined there by Reverend Master Phoebe van Woerden as Co-Prior. The Priory later re-located to Maricopa and became Pine Mountain Buddhist Temple.

Resigning as co-Prior of Pine Mountain, Rev. Master Jishō returned to Shasta Abbey in 2002 where he quickly resumed being an active senior member of the monastic community, giving Dharma talks, offering spiritual counselling, and undertaking various monastic assignments. He was appointed Corporate Secretary of the Order and continued in that position up until his death. He traveled to many temples of the Order, including Dharmazuflucht Schwarzwald in Germany where, in May 2018, he offered a week-long retreat giving teaching based on the Shurangama Sutra, (his talks are available on-line at https://shastaabbey.org/senior-teachers.)

Several of his lay disciples visited to provide help with his care during his final months. We offer our grateful thanks to them, and our sympathy to both them and to his family – his daughter Eryn and her husband – for the loss of this remarkable monk.  On the evening of the day he passed, monks offered a meditation vigil in the Buddha Hall at the Abbey. The service at his cremation on May 11^th was attended by both monks and laity. A public funeral is scheduled for July 1^st at Shasta Abbey.

For those of us who had the privilege of training with Reverend Master Jishō, or reading his Journal articles, or listening to his Dharma Talks, we will long remember his devotion and daily practice of the Dharma, his welcoming smile and gentle sense of humor. We offer merit and the wish that Reverend Master Jishō (James Keith) Perry be at peace in his own True Home.― Rev. Masters Oswin, Scholastica and Margaret