Home Monastery... ...Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett Meditation Dharma Retreats Giving Photos Contact

Shasta Abbey owes its existence to the late Reverend Master Jiyu-Kennett, founder of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives, who established the Abbey in 1970. She provided an example of great wisdom, vigor, inspiration and profound compassion. She was Abbess from the Abbey's beginning, until her death in 1996.

Rev. Kennett was the disciple of the Very Rev. Keido Chisan Koho Zenji, who was the Chief Abbot of Daihonzan Soji-ji Head Temple (1957-1967). She received Dharma Transmission from him in 1963. In1969, in accord with Koho Zenji's wishes, Rev. Kennett returned to the West in order to teach and train Western disciples in the Serene Reflection Meditation tradition.

Examples of her teaching and its effects are found in the training of her disciples, and are also represented throughout this website.

 

Biographical Summary

Reverend Master Jiyu-Kennett was born in St. Leonards-on-Sea, near Hastings, Sussex, England, on New Year's day, 1924.

She became a Buddhist at an early age, studying Theravada Buddhism. She was later introduced to Rinzai Zen Buddhism by D.T. Suzuki in London, where she held membership, and lectured at, the London Buddhist Society. She studied at Trinity College of Music, London, and Durham University and pursued a career as a professional musician before meeting her future master, the Very Reverend Keido Chisan Koho Zenji.

Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett began her priest training in 1962 with her ordination by the Very Reverend Seck Kim Seng, Archbishop of Malacca, into the Chinese Buddhist Sangha of Malaysia. She then continued her training in Japan under Koho Zenji, who was then Chief Abbot of Dai Hon Zan Sojiji, one of the two head temples of Soto Zen Buddhism in Japan.

 

In 1963 she received Dharma Transmission from him and was later certified by him as a Roshi (Zen Master). She held several positions during her years in Japan including that of Foreign Guestmaster of Dai Hon Zan Sojiji and Abbess of her own temple in Mie Prefecture.

It had always been Koho Zenji’s sincere wish that Soto Zen Buddhism be successfully transmitted to the West by a Westerner. He worked very hard to make it possible for Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett to train in Japan and, after his death, she left Japan in order to carry out this task.

In November 1969, Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett came to San Francisco on a lecture tour, and Shasta Abbey was founded in Mt. Shasta in November of 1970. Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett served twenty-six years as Abbess and spiritual director of Shasta Abbey, ordaining and teaching monks and lay people.

She founded Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey in England in 1972 and was Head of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives with its numerous priories and meditation groups in North America and Europe. She died on November 6, 1996.

Her written legacy as a Zen Master includes the books
Zen is Eternal Life
How to Grow a Lotus Blossom
The Wild, White Goose
the Liturgy of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives for the Laity; Collections of her lectures are published as
The Roar of the Tigress, Volumes I and II.


             
Home Monastery... ...Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett Meditation Dharma Retreats Giving Photos Contact

A Serene Reflection (Soto Zen) Meditation monastery, Order of Buddhist Contemplatives temple, Shasta Abbey offers monastic and lay retreats, Zen Buddhist meditation, spiritual training, and mindfulness practice; central principles are Refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Buddhist Precepts and Bodhisattva vow.