Zen-Teachers

Ama Genun-ken Samy was born in Burma in 1936. There, he came into contact with Burmese Buddhism at an early age. Driven by poverty, his parents placed him in the care of his maternal grandfather in India, a follower of a Muslim saint. Soon after, his grandfather died in an accident, leaving him as a young boy without support or guidance. Despite this, he finished school and joined the Society of Jesus. But his heart still longed for God. He began visiting Hindu ashrams and Buddhist meditation centers. Swami Abhishiktananda introduced him to Ramana Maharshi, and he was moved by Ramana's vision. His search led him to become a wandering beggar for a time and to settle as a hermit near a holy shrine, where the villagers fed him.

Over time, it was the Zen path that attracted him most. With the help of Father Enomiya Lassalle, he visited Japan and trained under Yamada Koun Roshi of Sanbo Kyodan. In 1982, Yamada Roshi authorized him to teach Zen.
Ama Samy founded the Bodhi Sangha in 1986 and opened the Bodhi Zendo Zen Center in South India in 1996. In 2022, he moved to Kanzeon Zendo, where he lives and teaches today, to continue teaching his advanced students. With the help of his students, he runs Little Flower, a nonprofit organization that supports women, children, and the landless in South India.

Kanzeon Zendo
Bodhi Sangha
Teishos (talks)

Gert (Satya Bodhi Ken) studied theology, taught some Greek, and then worked as a researcher on the ancient Jewish diaspora. He spent some time in Delhi, living with a Hindu family, and studied Buddhist logic and Madhyamaka philosophy daily with Geshe Palden Drakpa for several years.
Later in life, he worked for 17 years in a youth psychiatric clinic. He is married and lives with his wife Saskia in Tübingen (southern Germany). He has two children; his son lives in Delhi.
Zen became an important part of his life in the 1980s, when he attended sesshins with Harada Sekkei Roshi and P. Enomiya-Lassalle. Around 1991, he became a student of Ama Samy, who has guided him ever since.

Nicholas Hauser studied philosophy and religious studies and worked for the Austrian Trade Union Federation. He is the father of one daughter and lives in Vienna.
His Zen path began in 1988 under the Zen teachers Karl Obermayer and Kobun Chino Otogawa of the Soto school. In 1990, he met the Indian Zen master Ama Samy and became his student. Since then, he has studied with Ama Samy and lived and practiced for many years at Bodhi Zendo and Kanzeon Zendo, his teacher's Zen centers in Tamil Nadu, South India.