[2] Honolulu Diamond Sangha has been considered "one of several pivotal Buddhist organizations critical to the development of Zen" in western countries.

[8] 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.

She traveled to Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Italy, Mexico, and much of South America[9] Among other experiences, she had worked in a settlement house in Chicago.

[2] 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.

[2] Aitken was living at the teacher's quarters of the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in Pālolo, Hawaiʻi, 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.