Zen with Three Remarkable Guests from France

Good Company together with Seeds for Happiness invites you, on the weekend of October 5-7, to a unique and exclusive event in Romania about Zen, with three remarkable guests from France in the lineage of Master Taisen Deshimaru, disciples of Master Philippe Coupey.

For this first meeting in Romania, three of Philippe Coupey’s disciples will come: people of different ages and experience who will offer us a complete image, from different angles, of this simple and clear spiritual work.

The Zen weekend will take place under the guidance of Jonas Endres, Florence Avenel and Christian Espiau - disciples of Master Philippe Coupey (in the lineage of Master Taisen Deshimaru). We will dedicate time to the practice of zazen, including classical sesshin periods and instruction in the posture for practice.

“Through zazen you do not seek to reach a special level of consciousness; on the contrary, you rediscover the normal, original conditions of body and spirit, Buddha nature.” - Master Taisen Deshimaru

Master Philippe Coupey (pictured on the left with Lee Lozowick) is one of the main Soto Zen teachers in Europe, a tradition in which transmission is made directly from master to disciple. He is a tall, lively man, with playful, sparkling eyes and a powerful presence. Born in New York, he studied literature and then met Master Deshimaru in 1972, becoming one of his close disciples, editing various books for him and later becoming himself a writer of Zen books and biographical novels.

He is an associate teacher at AZI (International Zen Association) and leads 30 dojos in France, Germany, Switzerland and Great Britain together with his disciples. He is vice-president of the Paris Zen Dojo (www.dojozenparis.com), founded by Master Deshimaru in 1974, a renowned practice center and headquarters of the International Zen Association, with a library, a kesa sewing room, an activity room for calligraphy, shiatsu and hatha-yoga, and a shop with traditional objects used in Zen practice.

“Education is essential. But it must be an education that touches the true mind. This is zazen: education not through the frontal lobe of the intellect, but through the central part of the brain, the hypothalamus, the meeting point of mind and body. This means not depending on words. This is action before action. This means not paying attention to trifles. It is straight as a line. It is the courage Kodo Sawaki speaks of. The man without qualities. The Great Man. This education will not make us more efficient in one field or another. It is not an education that brings diplomas. It is an education that consists in the complete development of human character, of the mind.” - Philippe Coupey

We offer you the possibility of having this life experience in a setting free of dogma and formalism, led by three dedicated and passionate people. No preliminary practice is necessary. We warmly and joyfully invite you to experience the benefits of meditative practice, through which you can touch a calm, gathered, quiet mind: a radiant and happy mind.

About the guests: Jonas Endres was born in 1978 and is an ordained Zen monk in the lineage of Taisen Deshimaru. He began practicing zazen in 2000 in the dojo in Hamburg, Germany, where he met the monk Philippe Coupey during a sesshin. Later he practiced for several years in the Frankfurt dojo until 2005, when he moved to Paris to follow Master Coupey. Jonas Endres is currently employed by a publishing house in Paris. He is also Philippe Coupey’s secretary and works with Sangha Sans Demeure, as well as with the Paris-based group Seine Zen.

Christian Espiau is a Zen monk and leads the dojo in Rouen. He entered the Zen path in 1973, when he met Master Deshimaru Taisen, who transmitted Soto Zen practice to Europe in the style reformed by Master Kodo Sawaki. Master Deshimaru ordained him as a monk in 1982. After Master Deshimaru’s death, Christian Espiau continued to spread his teaching, first in the Lyon dojo and then in the dojo he founded in Bernay, Normandy. He has led the Rouen dojo since 1986 and is a close disciple of Master Philippe Coupey, whose teaching he follows within Demeure Sangha Sans.

Florence Avenel has been a Zen nun since 2001 and was ordained by Philippe Reiryu Coupey in the lineage of Master Taisen Deshimaru. Florence Avenel is 50 years old and the mother of four children. Twenty years ago she discovered in Zen practice an answer to her enduring question about suffering: a way that revealed the essential to her through the body. Her nun’s name is Bodhisattva ShinKi, “the energy of the heart”; it refers to the source of motivation in her daily life, for example in her relationships with psychiatric patients or with people who are dying, whom she meets in her work as a nurse.

The lineage of Zen practice: Master Taisen DESHIMARU (1914-1982) was the disciple of Master Kodo Sawaki who, since the death of Master Dogen, has been the greatest Zen authority in Japan. Master Deshimaru received from Master Kodo Sawaki, as his spiritual successor, the spirit and deep essence of Zen. He was the first missionary sent to Europe, authorized in this by the highest Zen authorities of his country. His mission was also supported by other schools of Buddhism. He was a great friend of Swami Sivananda, who founded the department of religions at Forest University in India.

Before dedicating himself to monastic life, Master Taisen Deshimaru was director of the Institute of Oriental Studies for Japan, India and China, and made countless journeys in the latter two countries. He knew Eastern philosophy in depth and also studied Western philosophies. At the entrance to the amphitheater of Komazawa University there is a life-size wooden statue representing a monk seated in the zazen posture. Taisen Deshimaru served as the model for the sculptor, who worked according to the Master’s indications and example.

The Master arrived in Paris in 1967 after crossing Siberia, Russia and Poland by train from Japan. He wore a single robe, that of his Master. Before his arrival, the Soto Zen Buddhist school and its technique were practically unknown in France. Jean Herbert had already edited a book on Japanese Buddhism, including excerpts from Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zuimonki, translated by General Renondeau, but that book set out primarily rules of conduct and offered the reader too few notions about the technique of zazen. After arriving in Paris, Master Deshimaru began giving conferences in which he demonstrated the zazen posture. It was not, as often happens in the West, a simple discourse made only of words, but a technique, in the Greek sense of the term, “an art”: the art of meditation.

More details about Master Taisen Deshimaru are available here. Event poster: You are warmly welcome!