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Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin, first encountered Buddhism in 1963. She has been practicing the Lotus Sutra ever since. In 2002, she began training to become a priest. She became head priest and guiding teacher of the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of Texas in Houston, also known as Myoken-ji Temple in 2007. She has active prison and hospice ministries. Myokei Shonin, is currently bishop of the Nichiren Shu Order of North America.

Zen Master Soeng Hyang, Barbara Rhodes, or Bobby, as she is known to many people, was one of Zen Master Seung Sahn's first American students and began studying with him in 1972. She was given inka, or permission to teach, in 1977 and received dharma transmission from Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1992. For many years Bobby worked as a hospice nurse and her practice and teaching was profoundly impacted by sitting with her patients as they transitioned from this body. Today Zen Master Soeng Hyang is the guiding Zen Master of the Kwan Um School of Zen, which includes over a hundred centers and temples worldwide.