Tenkei Coppens Roshi

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Anton Tenkei Coppens was born in the Netherlands in 1949, studied art and art history, and worked for almost fifteen years as a painter and a teacher. He started Zen practice in 1976 in the UK and went to the Zen Center of Los Angeles in 1980 where he met Maezumi Roshi and Genpo Roshi. He became a close student of Genpo Roshi and followed him touring throughout Europe and the USA. In 1988 he received Tokudo, left the Netherlands and went to Maine, where Genpo Roshi had established his first residential training center. This center was relocated to Salt Lake City in 1993. In 1996 Tenkei received Shiho and for the following four years assisted Genpo Roshi full-time in teaching in Salt Lake City. In the footsteps of Roshi he also went to Europe regularly to conduct retreats and workshops. Inspired by the vast expanse of the USA he led many outdoor retreats in the desert of southern Utah, together with his wife Tamara (Tammy) Myoho Gabrysch. They both lived as resident students with Genpo Roshi for twelve years.

Tenkei and Tammy left the USA at the turn of the century and went to Japan to live and practice for six months in the temple of Maezumi Roshi's brother, Junyu Kuroda Roshi (Hojo-san). In Japan Tenkei had the opportunity to officiate ceremonies in the two main temples of the Soto School, that qualify for becoming an abbot of a Zen temple. He and Tammy finally settled in the Netherlands in the fall of 2000 and, together with a fast growing sangha, established Zen River in Uithuizen. In September 2003 Tenkei was installed as abbot during a traditional Shinsan-shiki ceremony, officated by Hojo-san. In November 2003 he completed a one month Tokubetsu sesshin at Zuioji temple, Niihama, Japan, which gave him further certification's within the Soto School. Later he was granted the official status of Kokusai Fukyoshi (certified teacher who spreads the dharma internationally). On January 23, 2006, Tenkei received Inka, the final seal of approval as a Zen master (and the title of Roshi) from Genpo Roshi.

Although mostly at their home-base Zen River after years of travelling and living abroad, Tenkei Roshi regularly visits other locations to conduct workshops, including The Hague, Düsseldorf, Madrid and Kiev. He is the father of one adult daughter, Maartje, who lives in Amsterdam. Tenkei Roshi is co-editor of "Beyond Sanity and Madness" by Genpo Roshi. He has also edited a series dharma talks that Maezumi Roshi gave in Europe, published under the title "The Echoless Valley" and "Teaching of the Great Mountain".

Myoho Gabrysch Sensei

** Myoho Sensei **

Tamara (Tammy) Myoho Gabrysch was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1961, the eldest of five siblings. She grew up in Lancashire and went on to study Fine Art in Manchester where she received a BA Hons. Degree in 1986. She worked as a free lance artist until she met Genpo Roshi in August 1988 when he came to the Gabrysch's family home in Northern England to lead a retreat for which her mother Genshin (who would later become Genshin Sensei) had invited him. This sesshin was a turning point for her, and from then on she completely committed herself to studying with Genpo Roshi. She joined him along with other students to attend sesshins in Europe and then on to Bar Harbor, Maine, where Roshi was setting up Kanzeon Zen Center. In November 1988, Myoho received Jukai and in March, 1991 received Shukke Tokudo (ordination).

After Genpo Roshi relocated Kanzeon Zen Center to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1993, she began to cook for the residential programme and was the Tenzo (head-cook) for many years. Myoho and Tenkei worked together full-time at the Center, and - among other projects - organized outdoor retreats in the mountains around SLC and the desert of southern Utah. In 1998 they were married by Genpo Roshi during a mountain retreat, a ceremony that was repeated a half year later on Ameland in the Netherlands to accomodate family members. Earlier that year Myoho had received Hoshi (dharma holder) and Denkai (precept holder for priestly activites) from Genpo Roshi. They left SLC in 2000 after 12 years of residential training, and went on to live and practice for six month in Japan with Junyu Kuroda Roshi (Hojo-san), the younger brother of Maezumi Roshi.

Finally, in 2002, Myoho and Tenkei settled in the Netherlands and - with a dedicated goup of students - established Zen River, a community of residents and members with an on-going daily programme and monthly sesshins. Tammy serves as Tenzo, Web-master and as PR administrator. After receiving Shiho from Genpo Roshi in Salt Lake City on May 10, 2008, she made a start with formal teaching.

White Plum Lineage

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Taizan Maezumi Roshi & Genpo Merzel Roshi in April 1994

The White Plum Lineage was established by Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995), one of the great pioneers of modern Zen who, alongside a handful of other Japanese masters, turned the wheel of dharma in our age and opened up a unique tradition of Buddhist practice to a worldwide movement. Maezumi Roshi received not only Shiho (Dharma Transmission) in Soto Zen from Baian Hakujun Kuroda Roshi, which he transmitted to his Dharma successors, but he also received Inka (Seal of Approval) in the Shakyamuni Kai from Osaka Koryu Roshi and in the Sanbo Kyodan from Hakuun Yasutani Roshi. As he incorporated the approaches of all of these masters, he could draw from an exceptionally rich background and express the teaching of the Buddha in a very broad and colorful way. As abbot of the Zen Center of Los Angeles he guided thousands of students and produced twelve successors, who spread his teaching all around the world: Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, Dennis Genpo Merzel, Charlotte Joko Beck, Jan Chozen Bays, John Daido Loori, Gerry Shishin Wick, John Tesshin Sanderson, Alfred Jitsudo Ancheta, Charles Tenshin Fletcher, Susan Myoyu Andersen, Nicolee Jikyo Miller, and William Nyogen Yeo. These twelve have further transmitted the Dharma to new generations of successors currently close to 100 in total. Most of these successors are member of the White Plum Asanga. For a listing see the White Plum Asangha website.

As a major contribution to the transmission of Buddhist teachings to the West, Maezumi Roshi was instrumental in bringing to realization the formation of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA) of American Soto Zen teachers. Maezumi Roshi also promoted exchange programmes among priests and lay practitioners between the United States and Japan. He has published commentaries on major Buddhist works. A collection of his talks appeared in book form under the title Appreciate Your Life (Shambhala), The Echoless Valley (Dharma Communications) and Teaching of the Great Mountain (Tuttle). Maezumi Roshi passed away unexpectedly on May 15, 1995, while visiting Japan. Intimate funeral services were held in Tokyo and Los Angeles. He is survived by his wife Martha Ekyo Maezumi and their three children, Kirsten Mitsuyo, Yuri Jundo and Shira Yoshimi.

Genpo Merzel Roshi (1944, Brooklyn, USA) is the second dharma successor of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. After receiving dharma transmission in 1979 he stayed at the Zen Center of Los Angeles for four more years to assist Maezumi Roshi in teaching. Since 1982 he also started visiting Europe several times a year to conduct Zen retreats and workshops, creating the international Kanzeon Sangha. For some twenty years he was particularly active in The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and France. And even though he was first installed as abbot of Kanzeon Zen Center in Bar Harbor, Maine, in 1988 and later moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, most of his students were European during those years. Several times he invited Maezumi Roshi accross the Atlantic to lead a series of sesshins in the various countries together with him. These visits were highly appreciated and are still treasured by sangha members as very precious occasions. Maezumi Roshi passed away in 1995, and up till 2000 Genpo Roshi's teaching was clearly based on the models he had inherited. Since then he started to diverge from those models and developed an interactive method called "Big Mind", which combines the way of Zen with Western psychological insights. This method proved to be very successful and led him to conduct workshops and conferences for large groups all over the USA and Europe. The "Maha Sangha Gathering", an international retreat with the emphasis on Big Mind, held annually for many years on the island of Ameland, just off the northern coast of The Netherlands, ended up attracting over 300 participants; the last one of these retreats was held in January 2011. For personal reasons Genpo Roshi decided to give up the Salt Lake City center's property, to resign from the White Plum Asangha, and to more explicitly follow his own course. He now focusses on teaching Big Mind as a secular practice at various locations primarily in the USA, including Maui, Hawai.

To date, Genpo Roshi has given Shiho Transmission to Catherine Genno Pagès (1992), the late John Shodo Flatt (1994), Anton Tenkei Coppens (1996), Malgosia Jiho Braunek (2003), Daniel Doen Silberberg (2003), Nico Sojun Tydeman (2004), Nancy Genshin Gabrysch (2006) Diane Musho Hamilton (2006), Michael Mugaku Zimmerman (2006) Rich Taido Christofferson (2007) Michel Genko Dubois (2007), Tamara Myoho Gabrysch (2008), Maurice Shonen Knegtel (2009) and KC Kyozen Gerpheide (2010). Genpo Roshi has given Inka, the final seal of approval, to Genno Pages, Tenkei Coppens and Jiho Braunek as well as several of Maezumi Roshi's direct successors. Genpo Roshi is the author of five books: The Eye Never Sleeps, Beyond Sanity and Madness, 24/7 Dharma, The Path of The Human Being, and Big Mind/Big Heart: Finding your way and created numerous DVDs on Big Mind.

Junyu Kuroda Roshi

Junyu Kuroda Roshi

Junyu Kuroda Roshi

Since Tenkei Roshi and Myoho Sensei spent six months in 2000 at Kirigaya-ji, Tokyo, with Junyu Kuroda Roshi, they developed a special and intimate relationship with him. Mutual visits occur almost every year and Kuroda Roshi (Hojo-san) has been very supportive of their life's vocation. He also introduced Roshi and Sensei to a wide circle of friends and teachers in Japan and China. Hojo-san definitely functions as one other link to the life of his brother Maezumi Roshi, and is an unmistakable factor in the lineage.

group in mini-bus
Myoho Sensei & Tenkei Roshi with Hojosan, Shugetsu, Kodo and Kono.

** Lineage Chart**
The Lineage Chart in the Hatto

Links

Successors in the Kanzeon/White Plum Lineage

More White Plum Successors
(Selection)

Zen River- and other connected groups

European Sotoshu Temples / Dojos

Germany

Spain

France

Italy

Norway

Netherlands

Switzerland

European Office of Soto Zen Buddhism

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Sotoshu Shumucho international site

Resource Links