Sunflower Zen Sangha Is affiliated with the Diamond Sangha network of practice centers. The Diamond Sangha was founded by Robert Aitken in 1959, as a lay practice center. Aitken was among the first westerners to seek out authentic Zen practice in Japan in the 1950's. He studied in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition that draws from both Soto and Rinzai streams of Zen Buddhism and received Dharma Transmission From Yamada Koun Roshi in 1974. Aitken Roshi, in turn, eventually authorized several several teachers to carry the lineage forward in Europe, Australia, and North and South America. Patrick Hawk was one of Aitken's successors.

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Charlie Laurel is the guiding teacher for Sunflower Zen Sangha. He started formal zen practice in the late 1980's. Pat Hawk Roshi was Charlie Laurel's primary teacher from 1998 to 2006. Over the years, Hawk Roshi conferred full teaching authority (transmission) to six of his students, including Robert Walker. Charlie continues to study with Walker Roshi. In 2024 Walker Roshi confirmed Charlie Laurel as an Associate Zen Teacher in the Diamond Sangha. Charlie is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, an amateur musician; married with family, garden and home repair projects, dogs, and deep concerns for ecological and social wellbeing. ​

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Diamond Sangha Teachers Circle Statement:

The Diamond Sangha is a lay Zen Buddhist lineage

grounded in the heritage of our Chinese and Japanese traditions and drawing upon both major streams of Zen, Sōtō and Rinzai. We work to further the way of practice and realization laid out by Chan and Zen masters down through the ages and especially by our founding teacher, Robert Aitken Rōshi. Communities of the Diamond Sangha are functionally independent and diverse in many respects yet united in a commitment to penetrating inquiry into the great matter of life-and-death and to the welfare of all beings, including the mountains and rivers themselves. We hold that practice and realization must be embodied not just in the way that we conduct ourselves at temples and training centers but also throughout our lives—in relationships personal and familial, social and environmental, economic and political.