Located in a quiet rural setting in San Diego’s North County under historic hundred-years-old California Oaks, the Hidden Valley Zen Center (Yūkoku-san Sogenji One Drop Zen Monastery) is a place for inner spiritual quest, using the forms of Rinzai Zen, which emphasizes the practice of zazen (seated meditation), and includes working with susok’kan (the extended out-breath) and koans.
Hidden Valley offers online zazen six days a week. Additionally, there is a weekend retreat once a month, and three week-long retreats in a year. For more information, and to see a schedule, visit https://hvzc.org.
SOZUI SCHUBERT ROSHI was born in Germany in 1965. After receiving a Master’s degree in architecture, she went to Japan and found her teacher in Harada Shodo-roshi, abbot of Sogen-ji Monastery. She remained there for the next 20 years for full-time training.
At the request of Harada-roshi, she was sent to Hungary in 2002 to help the fledgling Zen Buddhist sangha, and also worked with groups in Latvia, Italy, and Russia. She was also asked to establish a One Drop Zen group in Munich, returning regularly to Sogen-ji for intensive training.
Mitra-roshi has known Sozui-roshi since training at Sogen-ji in the early 1990’s, and assisted in her ordination as a Zen Buddhist nun in October 1995. Her Buddhist name, Sozui, means “the Origin of True Happiness.”
After a visit to HVZC in 2012, she was asked to return as junior teacher. Arriving May 15, 2013, she leads daily sittings, introductions to Zen practice, weekend and longer sesshin, offers private instruction, Dharma talks, serves as liaison to the Interfaith Network, and writes for the Hidden Valley Zen Center’s journal.
Sozui-roshi continues to train with Shodo Harada-roshi whenever possible.