
Dear Silent Thunder Order Community,
We want to make you all aware of an urgent matter. Over the last few years financial support for our Abbot, Elliston Roshi, has not kept pace with the rising cost of living. Both living expenses and home maintenance costs for our Abbot are far exceeding income, and this is only increasing over time.
Roshi’s 50 years of dedicated Sangha leadership cannot be overstated. As so, in serving all of us, sacrifices have been made without hesitation, and without regret. Understanding this, and in gratitude, the STO Board of Directors wishes to help address this shortfall. We are encouraging every affiliate Sangha practitioner to join our ‘Supporting Membership Program’. All Dana contributions made, of any size, will directly support our Abbot and his family. Together, all of us can practice deep generosity–each and every one of us. If each of us can give a just little more this will have a significant combined impact.
For those that can, we ask you to consider making a monthly STO Supporting Membership donation to provide ongoing financial support to our Abbot. If you are already giving to STO in this way, please consider increasing your monthly donation amount. If you are not currently giving to STO, please consider joining today, through a monthly or a onetime donation. We hope all of you can help in this effort.
On our behalf, Abbot Elliston Roshi is tirelessly working to continue our community efforts to provide support and Zen practice opportunities to all our STO Affiliates, Sangha members and friends, both online and face-to-face. Let’s express our gratitude for his efforts through generously giving to the STO Supporting Membership Program.
Below are a couple ways for you to become a Supporting Member of STO:
Zenku Jerry Smyers
STO Treasurer
25364 Old US Highway 93
Dayton, MT 59914
STO is a non-profit charitable organization (501c3), and all donations are tax deductible.
Deep Gratitude for your support!
— Katsuryu Bill Cooper, STO BOD Chair, on behalf of the STO Board of Directors