TEACHERS
Venerable Samu Sunim
"Sunim", as he is known to many, is the Founding Teacher of the Buddhist Society for Compassionate Wisdom and its five Zen Buddhist Temples in North America. He is a superior meditation teacher, a poet and storyteller who transforms run-down buildings into beautiful temples. As a teacher, he is a disciplinarian with an eye for detail coupled with a great understanding of his students' Western ways. His frank, straightforward manner, ready smile, helpful attitude and compassionate heart combined with a tireless enthusiasm and determination for seemingly impossible tasks have earned him the respect of whoever comes across his path. Sunim resigned from all his teaching duties in summer 2019, leaving Toan Sunim as Dharma Master of the Society. Sunim passed away August 6, 2022 at his Toronto temple. Read more on Sunim's Life
Toan Sunim
Toan Sunim (Jose Maria Castelao Camara) was born 1957 in Mexico City. In August of 1984, while still an art student at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, he began practicing Zen meditation at an acupuncture center run by a Japanese monk, Ejo Takata Sensei. In December of that year, he met Ven. Samu Sunim during Sunim’s second Yongmaeng Jeongjin retreat in Mexico. Accepting Sunim’s invitation to come to the Toronto temple for three months of training, Toan left his last semester of art school and arrived in Canada in March of 1985, staying on for the next seven years as resident monk and later as priest. In December of 1992, Toan left for the newly-purchased Chicago temple, which was badly in need of renovations, and worked there until December of 1993. While renovating the Toronto and Chicago temples, Toan was a “true monk,” living at the subsistence level and working very hard in difficult circumstances, often with no heat, no shower, and alone―but with joy, clarity and focus.
Toan was ordained a priest in July of 1989 at the Toronto temple at 86 Vaughan Road. He has made spiritual pilgrimages with Sunim to Korea in 1995, 2002 and 2004, 2005 and 2006 visiting dozens of mountain temples during each trip. In the spring of 1994, nine years from the time he left home for Toronto, Toan returned to Mexico to lead the Mexican sangha and to again take up his art-making. For seven years, Toan pursued solitary Zen training and painting in the Sonoran Desert. Since November of 2003 he has lived as resident priest at the Zen Buddhist Temple in Mexico City. Toan Sunim has inherited Samu Sunim's Dharma (Dharma Heir) and serves as Dharma Master of the Society since July 2019.
Samu Sunim praises Toan with his following remarks:
Toan is an embodiment of true and sincere heart. His presence in everyday life reveals the Way of Buddha.
Humility and being constant are his second nature, genuine and authentic.
Haju Sunim
Haju Sunim (Linda Lundquist) has been a student of Samu Sunim since she first showed up on a motorcycle for morning meditation in Toronto in 1976. Haju Sunim is the resident priest for the Ann Arbor Zen Buddhist Temple in Michigan, where she has lived since 1982. Much loved, Haju is an example of "an ordinary Buddha, a Buddha of deep humility and compassion" according to Samu Sunim.
She was ordained as a priest by Ven. Samu Sunim in 1989 and received Dharma transmission in July 3, 1999. On this occasion, Samu Sunim gave this verse to Haju Sunim:
Dharma is the Universe.
Earthworms and flies are Sangha;
Rocks and soil, Buddha.
Play with your boundless heart
Enjoy unlimited action.
Haju Sunim was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1944. She taught in alternative schools in British Columbia and in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser College. As a single mother Haju raised two daughters.
Sanha Sunim
Sanha Sunim (Jung-Soon Park) is Resident Priest for the Toronto Temple. She first showed up at the Ann Arbor temple in 1998 while working on her dissertation project in Detroit. She took up the seminary training in 1999 and upon graduation she moved into the Chicago Temple in 2000. She was ordained as Priest in 2004. She lives at the Toronto temple with her partner Jeongdo Sami Ouyed. She loves to use her hands, sewing, gardening and cooking. The professional skills she brings to the role of temple director support the engagement of the membership, within the organization and in the wider community.
Samu Sunim says:
Sanha Sunim is a little happy buddha with a big and open heart. Like natural colors of flowers it is blessing to be around her and an inspiration to practice Dharma with her.
Ilch'o Ed Keenan writes:
A Tiger Lilly growing in the gravel,
A Spring wind blowing down the alleyway
Sanha has taken the Dharma to the marketplace
And has cultivated a Temple garden of the Sangha
Maum Gloria Cox
Maum Gloria Cox grew up in the rolling hills of western Iowa. When her work led her to Michigan, she came to the Zen Buddhist Temple, where her commitment to the Dharma deepened over several years. She was ordained as a lay Dharma Teacher in 2010 and then as a resident Zen Priest in 2016. With a heart of loving kindness and peaceful dedication, Maum teaches meditation classes, leads retreats, and oversees the temple schedule.
Kohye Jeff Boland
Kohye Jeff Boland joined our Ann Arbor temple while a doctoral student at the University of Michigan. Pursuing careers in mathematics and the financial industry, he trained at our Toronto temple and helped establish the New York City temple in 2007, while overseeing Buddhist Society for Compassionate Wisdom administrative work. He was ordained as a Dharma Teacher in Toronto in 2009, and served as a visiting teacher to the Chicago & NYC temples. Living in Los Angeles, he serves to help lead the Chicago temple. As a secular bodhisattva with multiple helping hands and an utmost sincere heart, Kohye is known for his beautiful, straightforward mind and his dedication to study of the Dharma.
Tana Thom Vacca
[text in preparation]
Kongyi Elena Centeno Garcia
Kongyi Elena Centeno Garcia is a Dharma teacher of the Mexico City temple ordained in 2010. Kongyi attended the Mexico City temple in 2002 and took precepts in 2003. She has often lived in residence at the temple keeping the schedule, teaching classes, and offering Sunday services when Toan Sunim was away.
Kongyi continues to help with the Mexico City temple while her hands and heart are full. She cares for her aging parents and is Director of the Institute of Geology of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. She writes, "Sometimes, all together is overwhelming, but taking a pause with hands in Hapjang and breathing, reading just one verse of a sutra, or holding at night the mala and reciting the three refuges have become the way I connect with my heart, the way I connect with the world."
Kusa Ivan Mayerhofer
Kusa Ivan Mayerhofer first entered the temple gate in January of 2007 while a graduate student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He continues to enter the temple gate to practice with the teachers and Sangha of the Buddhist Society for Compassionate Wisdom sharing clear seeing, skillful dharma teaching, and a wide perspective. He was ordained as a Dharma Teacher in 2014 at our New York City Temple.
Bopkong Juanita Ochoa
In l994 Bopkong Juanita Ochoa attended her first retreat with Ven. Samu Sunim in Mexico City and came to understand the importance of regular practice in daily life, vowing not to waste any day of her life. In 2001 she entered the Maitreya Buddhist seminary and was ordained as a Dharma Teacher in 2015 and as Priest in 2020. Now living and serving at our Mexico City temple she also teaches Sociology at Mexico City Autonomous University (UACM). Bopkong is often the head cook at our Yongmaeng Jeongjin retreats and is much appreciated for her simple, nutritious meals and caring guidance of the kitchen.
Konggan Petra Meyer
Konggan is a Dharma teacher of the Mexico City temple, ordained in 2015. She is from Germany and has been living in Mexico since 1981. She lives in Acatipa, Morelos where she bakes, cooks, gardens and guides a meditation group. Frequently she takes a bus to Mexico City and works with "a wonderful bunch of lovely members" of the Mexico City Zen Buddhist Temple.
Noan Javier Alvarez
Noan Javier Alvarez was born in Zamora, Michoacan, Mexico in 1987. His journey with the Zen Buddhist Temple began when he attended the Introductory Meditation course at the Mexico City Temple in September 2006. Three years later, in December 2009, he took precepts following the winter Yongmaeng Jeongjin retreat in Tapalehui, Morelos. He went on to enroll in Maitreya Buddhist Seminary in September 2010, studying under the guidance of Toan Sunim. In the summer of 2017, he was ordained as a Dharma Teacher by Ven. Samu Sunim at the Chicago Temple. In August 2018, Noan relocated to the south of the Netherlands to pursue an MSc degree, and has since made it his home, where he now works as a software engineer. Despite the thousands of miles between them, he remains an active member of the Mexico Sangha, participating in virtual meetings and returning for retreats at least once a year.
Jajin Stephen Bincarowsky
[pending]
Gagjeong Ben Henry
[pending]
Tana Thom Vacca
Rev. Tana (Thom Vacca) is resident Priest at the Chicago temple. Tana first arrived at the Chicago temple in the spring of 2004 while pursuing improv and sketch comedy in the city. Hailing originally from Westerly, Rhode Island, Tana was a competitive downhill skier as a youth and then a comedy performer in San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Most recently he was an elementary school teacher at an outdoor school in Topanga Canyon, California. Tana took his precepts in 2006, and was ordained as Dharma Teacher in 2022 and then as Priest in 2025.
As resident Priest, Tana enjoys meditation retreats with the sangha, the practice of East Asian calligraphy, and dharma study of our Korean Buddhist tradition. He is a veteran Buddhist pilgrim to China and Korea, and more recently finds city and mountain adventures in and around Chicago with his family Samso, Dharani, and their temple dog Rufus.
Jagwa Kelly Davenport
Jagwa (Kelly Davenport) is a lay dharma teacher at the Ann Arbor Zen Buddhist Temple. She completed teacher training in 2021 and has been a sangha member since 2013. Inspired by the Zen saying, "Even the hedgerows teach the dharma," Jagwa finds glimmers of Buddhist teachings woven into everyday life—from baking bread, to working in software development, to weightlifting. As a teacher, she uses the material of her life to make the case that we can always come home to our fundamental stability, discovering the joy and juiciness of interconnection. She lives in Ann Arbor with her husband, Ian, and a lot of books.
Magamok Mike Umbriac
Magamok (Mike Umbriac), whose Dharma name means "Mountain Ash Tree" in Korean, grew up in the mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania. He took a course about Buddhism in college in the 1990’s, then tried to study Zen on his own using books and began attending the Zen Buddhist Temple in 2003. After several years of volunteering in different capacities, he began studying in the Temple's formal training programs in the fall of 2019. At the University he is a lecturer in engineering, where he does his best to help his students approach engineering projects with a calm and systematic mindset. He volunteers at the temple on some weekends.
Mosamsam Lisa Inoue
[pending]
Tongsan Catherine Brown
[pending]
