New Zen Master Hyon Ja!
On Saturday, September 26, 2020, during the European Sangha Weekend, Zen Master Hyon Ja received Transmission from Zen Master Bon Shim (Aleksandra Porter) in the first ever online Kwan Um School of Zen Transmission ceremony, broadcast from Vienna Zen Center.
Zen Master Hyon Ja (Jo-Alma Potter) was born in Arizona USA in 1954. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in clinical nutrition from Arizona State University.
Her meditation practice started when she was seventeen years old. She traveled to India in the early 1980s, where she studied Zen and Buddhism. In 1986, she moved to Berlin Germany, living there for 27 years. Together with a core group of Zen students she built the Berlin Zen Center. She was the abbess of the Berlin Zen Center for 11 years. She met Zen Master Seung Sahn in the early 1990s and has been a member of the Kwan Um School of Zen since then.
In 2008, she received the title Ji Do Poep Sa and Inka — the official seal of approval to teach kong-an — from Zen Master Wu Bong. She has traveled worldwide leading and teaching Zen retreats. She moved to Vienna in 2012.
Congratulations to our new Zen Master!