Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett
British-born roshi and the first woman to be sanctioned by the Sōtō School to teach Zen Buddhism in the West. After the death of her master Kōho Keidō Chisan Zenji in 1967, Jiyu moved to the United States to do missionary work. In 1969, she founded the Zen Mission Society in San Francisco. In 1970, she established Shasta Abbey.
Jiyu is a woman of incredible spiritual and psychic fortitude, but by 1973 her physical health was failing fast. On his third visit to Mount Shasta, Mitch — who had visited Jiyu twice before — found her on death’s door. There she confessed to him that she had a vision of Mitch, and the rest of URIEL, and somehow knew he would visit her a final time before she departed this world:
I saw how … I saw you. I saw your colleagues. In a manifold golden lotus! A shard of the Master of the House. In that reflection, I saw you and I saw how our dharmas are intertwined. I’m not … part of your circle but I have been an advisor. I have been a trusted friend. To you. In past lives. And here I am wondering why, why I would be tormented with these visions of ego and Self, when I — when all I have tried my whole life is to divest myself of that.
After hearing her confession and comforting her as best he could, Mitch laid hands upon Jiyu and attempted to use his psychic powers to heal her. He was as surprised as anyone that it worked.