Rev. Chimyo Atkinson is a Soto Zen priest that serves the Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple in Alexander, NC, as well as sanghas and centers throughout the United States and internationally. Rev. Chimyo was ordained by Rev. Teijo Munnich in 2007 and received Dharma Transmission in 2015. She received monastic training at Great Tree Temple and completed two Sotoshu International training periods (angos) in Japan in 2010 and 2011, two additional angos at Aichi Senmon Nisodo in Nagoya in 2012 and one ango at Ryumonji Monastery in Iowa in 2014. Chimyo served as Head of Practice at Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple and volunteered with the sangha at Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institute until 2020.

We talked about encountering isolation, judgement and loneliness while practicing Buddhism in Southern states, the challenges of coordinating Jukai for inmates of a correctional facility, zazen and 'just stopping' to connect with your full self, monastic practice in America and Japan, Dogen and love, and the importance of taking care of each other and approaching everything in life like your “ringing that bell.”