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Chobun Nenzen was introduced to sitting meditation in 1976. Over the following decades—through marriage, practicing law, and raising a family—she returned to practice sporadically, keeping a small but steady thread of the teachings in her life. Many years later, as her father was declining with a neurodegenerative disease, she finally chose to remain seated, committing herself to a continuous path.

She initially trained with Sensei Gary Koan Janka from whom she received the Bodhisattva Precepts, and served on the Board of his Santa Barbara Zen Center. Koan Sensei introduced her to Jikoji Zen Center, where she was ordained in Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi’s lineage by Shoho Michael Newhall in 2020. She received Dharma Transmission from Jakko Eso Vanja Palmers at Felsentor, Switzerland, in 2022.

Nenzen serves as the Abiding Teacher at Jikoji Zen Center, where she lives and practices within the daily rhythms, demands, and quiet challenges and joys of a communal temple life—finding in them a continual source of training, presence, and gratitude.