Roshi Robert Joshin Althouse is a fully empowered Zen teacher in the White Plum lineage and a fully ordained Zen Buddhist Priest. Roshi and his wife, Roshi June Ryushin Tanoue, co-founded the Zen Life & Meditation Center. Roshi is the Abbot of the Zen Center and its primary teacher and meditation instructor.

He and his wife moved to California in 2001 to work for the Peacemaker Community with Bernie Glassman where Althouse served as the Director of the Zen Peacemaker Order for two years. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship for three years.

Althouse has been practicing in the Zen and Vajrayana traditions for over 40 years. He's been teaching for over 20 years. His root teachers were Taizan Maezumi Roshi and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He received Transmission from Roshi Nicolee Jikyo McMahon in the White Plum lineage tradition of Zen. He has a Bachelor's in Sociology from the University of Redlands.

He is also an artist and painter. He’s been doing digital paintings on his computer for the last 10 years. You can view his work at his site for Robert Althouse Fine Arts at www.althouseart.com.