Sarah Dōjin Emerson began formal practice in Soto Zen in 1996. She lived and trained at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and other sites of the San Francisco Zen Center from 1997–2007. She received Dharma transmission from Abbott Konjin Gaelyn Godwin of the Houston Zen Center in 2015. She has a M.A. in Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, and has worked in the fields of mental health and pastoral care with children and adults.
She experiences Bodhisattva Zen practice as deeply supportive to inquiring into, challenging and transforming systems of oppression, particularly racial inequities and the harm they cause within convert Buddhist sanghas, and in U.S. society generally. Sarah has also worked for many years in grief support—clinically, ritually and in community—specializing in child loss. She lives with her partner, Charlie Pokorny, who is also a Soto Zen Buddhist priest, their children, who are her most profound and constant teachers, and numerous pets in Brooklyn, NY, where she teaches at the Brooklyn Zen Center.