Anne Hopkins Aitken

Anne Hopkins was born on February 8, 1911, to in Cook County, Illinois. Her mother, Marian Stinchfield Hopkins, was born in Detroit, Michigan, and was 25 when Anne was born. Her father, Lambert Arundel Hopkins, born in New Mexico, was a 29-year-old "railroad supply man" when she was born.{{cite web|title=Constance Hopkins Hellyer November 14, 1914 - July 27, 2012|url=http://www.mountainviewtacoma.com/obituaries/Constance-Hopkins-Hellyer-1288959/#!/Obituary|access-date=2 February 2018|website=Mountain View Funeral Home}}{{cite book|title=The Social Secretary of Detroit|date=1961|publisher=Social Secretary|location=Detroit (Mich.)|page=122}}

Named Anna Stinchfield Hopkins on her birth certificate, No.6407, Hopkins told her husband, Robert Baker Aitken, that her name was later changed (when she was old enough to remember the event, perhaps six to eight years-old) because Stinchfield did not provide positive numerology readings.{{cite web|title=An Tanshin (1911-1994)|url=https://sites.google.com/site/annehopkinsaitken/|website=Anne Arundel Hopkins Aitken|access-date=2 February 2018}}

Hopkins spent the years 1929 to 1931 studying abroad as an undergraduate at Oxford University and graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, California, with a B.A. in English in 1932. She then pursued a master's degree in sociology, first at Stanford University in 1933, and later at Northwestern University (1940–1942). In addition to her Oxford years, she also lived in England from January to June, 1937. She traveled to Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Italy, Mexico, and much of South America{{cite web|title=Inventory of Records: Anne Aitken Papers November 12, 2003|url=https://sites.google.com/site/annehopkinsaitken/home/anne-aitken-papers|website= University of Hawai{{okina}}i|access-date=2 February 2018}}

Among other experiences, she had worked in a settlement house in Chicago. During World War II, she worked in a Red Cross hospital.{{cite book|last1=Tworkov|first1=Helen|title=Zen in America : profiles of five teachers : Robert Aitken, Jakusho Kwong, Bernard Glassman, Maurine Stuart, Richard Baker|date=1989|publisher=North Point Press|location=San Francisco|isbn=978-0-86547-354-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/zeninamericaprof00twor/page/23 23-62]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/zeninamericaprof00twor/page/23}}{{rp|27}}

In 1949, Hopkins became a teacher and assistant director at Happy Valley School. There she met, hired, and in 1957 married, English language teacher Robert Aitken.{{cite book|last=Baroni|first=Helen J.|title=Love, Rōshi : Robert Baker Aitken and His Distant Correspondents|date=2012|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany|isbn=9781438443775|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JXQ_AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA23|access-date=2 February 2018}}{{rp|27}}

File:Yokoji Zen Mountain Center.jpg

Her new husband introduced her to Zen Buddhism, and her long relationship with the Buddhist community began with their honeymoon to Ryutakuji in Japan. She went on to study the Dharma with Haku'un Yasutani, Sōen Nakagawa and Koun Yamada. She was given the Japanese Buddhist name An (Peace, peace of being at home) Tanshin (Single mind). She and her husband moved to Honolulu, Hawai{{okina}}i, to be closer to her young stepson, Thomas L. Aitken.

There they established the Koko An Zendo, which led to the establishment of the Diamond Sangha, an international Zen Buddhist society, in 1959.{{cite web|title=About Us|url=http://diamondsangha.org/about-us/|website=Honolulu Diamond Sangha|access-date=2 February 2018}}{{cite journal|last1=Haar|first1=Francis|title=Robert Aitken, Roshi|journal=Lion's Roar|date=2018|volume=March|page=35}}{{cite news|last1=Woo|first1=Elaine|title=Robert Aitken dies at 93; American Zen master|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-robert-aitken-20100810-story.html|access-date=2 February 2018|work=Los Angeles Times|date=August 10, 2010}} A second site, Maui Zendo in Haiku, Maui, was established by the Aitkens in 1969.{{rp|31}} Both Koko An Zendo and Maui Zendo were purchased by Anne Aitken, using money from an inheritance.{{cite news|last1=Ratliff|first1=Kathy|title=Founding the Diamond Sangha Robert Aitken Roshi & Anne Hopkins Aiken|url=http://szc.org.au/uploads/szc_mmc_winter_2009.pdf|access-date=2 February 2018|work=Mind Moon Circle: Journal of the Sydney Zen Centre|pages=1–3|issue=Winter|date=2009}}

Her essay In Spite of Myself chronicled some of her early experiences, and the discouragement and disillusion that she experienced during the twelve years of practice that led to her realization of kensho.{{cite journal|last1=Aitken|first1=Anne|title=In Spite of Myself|journal=Kahawai|date=1979|volume=1|issue=2 Spring|pages=2–9}}

Many of the changes that emphasized the full equality of women and made Zen practice and leadership more accessible to women can be attributed to her work within the Diamond Sangha.{{cite book|last1=Malik|first1=Akhtar|title=Survey of Buddhist temples and monasteries|date=2007|publisher=Anmol Publications|location=New Delhi|isbn=9788126132591|page=265}}{{cite web|title=Aitken, Anne Tanshin Hopkins|url=http://sweepingzen.com/anne-hopkins-aitken-bio/|website=Sweeping Zen|access-date=2 February 2018}}{{cite book|editor-last1=Prebish|editor-first1=Charles S.|editor-last2=Tanaka|editor-first2=Kenneth K.|title=The faces of Buddhism in America|date=1998|publisher=University Press|location=Berkeley, Calif.|isbn=0520213017|page=270|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5h8AokRoGjYC&pg=PA270|access-date=2 February 2018}} She was neither a prolific writer nor a frequent speaker, but she is remembered fondly around the world for her dedication to the Dharma and support for the Sangha. People recall how she touched them individually and made each one feel as if they were special to her.

Aitken was living at the teacher's quarters of the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in Pālolo, Hawai{{okina}}i, when she became ill, displaying symptoms similar to the flu. Two days later, on June 13, 1994, at the age of 83, she died of a coronary heart attack, with her husband, stepson, and some close friends at her hospital bedside.{{rp|32}}

Image:Anne Hopkins Aitken and Robert Baker Aitken.JPG

Image:Robert Baker Aitken and Anne Hopkins Aitken 1.JPG

Image:Robert Baker Aitken and Anne Hopkins Aitken.JPG

• {{cite journal|last1=Aitken|first1=Anne|title=In Spite of Myself|journal=Kahawai|date=1979|volume=1|issue=2 Spring|pages=2–9}} Reprinted in Blind Donkey. 15 (1 Spring, 1995): 5-7, 12.
• Aitken, Robert.1982. "Willy-Nilly Zen." pp. 115–132. In: {{cite book|last1=Aitken|first1=Robert|title=Taking the path of Zen|url=https://archive.org/details/takingpathofzen00aitk|url-access=registration|date=1982|publisher=North Point Press|location=San Francisco}}
• {{cite book|last1=Tworkov|first1=Helen|title=Zen in America : profiles of five teachers : Robert Aitken, Jakusho Kwong, Bernard Glassman, Maurine Stuart, Richard Baker|date=1989|publisher=North Point Press|location=San Francisco|isbn=978-0-86547-354-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/zeninamericaprof00twor/page/23 23-62]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/zeninamericaprof00twor/page/23}}

• Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States

{{reflist}}

• {{cite web|title=Anne Arundel Hopkins Aitken|url=http://anne.robertaitken.net}}
• {{cite web|title=Inventory of Records: Anne Aitken Papers November 12, 2003|url=https://sites.google.com/site/annehopkinsaitken/home/anne-aitken-papers|website= University of Hawai{{okina}}i|access-date=2 February 2018}}
• {{cite web|title=Robert Baker Aitken Papers|url=http://manoa.hawaii.edu/library/research/collections/archives/manuscript-collections/other-manuscript-collections/robert-baker-aitken-papers/|website=University of Hawai{{okina}}i}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aitken, Anne Hopkins}}

Category:1911 births

Category:1994 deaths

Category:American Zen Buddhists

Category:20th-century American Buddhists

Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford

Category:Converts to Buddhism

Category:Northwestern University alumni

Category:Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences alumni

Category:Scripps College alumni

Category:Female Buddhist spiritual teachers