Speaker Biographies
Valerie Forstman is the Guiding Teacher at Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, NM. An Associate Zen Master in the Sanbo Zen lineage, Valerie began studying with Ruben Habito Roshi in 1994. Since 2003, she has also trained under the guidance of Yamada Ryoun Roshi, abbot of Sanbo Zen.
A first-career classical musician with degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Stony Brook in New York, Valerie changed course in response to her practice and went on to earn a Master of Theological Studies and Ph.D. in Biblical Interpretation (Hebrew Bible). She retired from her work as Associate Dean for Common Life at Brite Divinity School in January 2020 and soon thereafter began teaching at Mountain Cloud. Alongside her guiding work at Mountain Cloud, Valerie leads sesshin annually at two Zen centers in Germany. She instructs students from all around the world, many of whom are women.
Tsunma Tenzin Dasel is Spiritual Director of Tashi Gatsel Ling. She recently served as assistant to Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo and her nunnery, Dongyu Gatsal Ling in northern, India and returned to Tashi Gatsel Ling in August 2021.
A 1988 graduate with a BA from Bates College, and an MA, Summa Cum Laude, from Bangor Theological Seminary, she has been studying and practicing Buddha Dharma with her root lama, HE Kyabje Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tsetan, since 2002 and was ordained by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama in 2017. Venerable Tenzin Dasel teaches and leads meditation workshops and retreats in the USA and internationally.
In 2024, Anita Feng (Zen Master Jeong Ji) was named as the guiding teacher at the Albuquerque Zen Center. Formerly she served at Blue Heron Zen Community in Seattle, Washington. She has practiced Zen in the lineage of Zen Master Seung Sahn since 1976. In the late 1970s she lived and studied intensively with Zen Master Seung Sahn at the Providence Zen Center. She received Inka from Zen Master Ji Bong 2008 and received final transmission as a Zen Master in 2015. Anita is a graduate of Brown University’s Creative Writing Program, where she earned an MFA in Poetry. Her publications include poetry and the book “Sid”, a narrative about what the life of Buddha would look like if it were lived today.
She is married with three children and two grandchildren.
Dr. Sarah Shaw is a faculty member in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford University, Honorary Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, and lecturer for the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. Her research interests include early Buddhist (Pāli) suttas and Abhidhamma material on meditation, early Buddhist narratives such as literary features of Jātakas and Dhammapada stories, Indian and Asian influences on British nineteenth-century writers, and modern south and southeast Asian Buddhist ritual, chant and meditation. She has taught and published numerous books and scholarly articles on the history and practices of Buddhism.
Dr. Maria Reis Habito is an authorized Zen Teacher in the Japanese Sanbo Kyodan tradition, and the guiding teacher of the Sophia Zen Center is South Bend. She has also been appointed as teacher by Dharma Master Hsin Tao, Abbot of the Wu-sheng Monastery on Ling-Jiou Mountain in Taiwan. After studies at Taiwan National University, LMU University in Munich and Kyoto University, she received her Ph.D. in Chinese Studies and Philosophy at LMU University in 1990. After teaching courses on Chinese and Japanese culture and spirituality at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, she was appointed International Program Director of the Taipei based Museum of World Religions in Taipei in 2001, organizing world-wide Interfaith conferences and symposia from her home in Dallas. Maria and her husband Ruben recently moved from Dallas to Santa Fe. They have two adult sons and divide their time between the US, Europe, and Taiwan/the Philippines
Karma Lekshe Tsomo, a Buddhist nun who teaches at the University of San Diego in the theology department, has life endeavors stretching far beyond the classroom. Her Buddhist path has taken her around the world, where she has studied the history and teachings of Buddhism and become an advocate for female advancement. Tsomo is a woman of faith and fortitude, as her path has led her on a pursuit to cultivate a world of peace, compassion, and gender equality.
Born in 1944, Tsomo was raised in Malibu, California, where she spent her early life attending school and surfing in the Pacific. Her birth surname, Zenn, was a misspelling of the German last name Zinn, a mistake made on a relative’s passport long ago. Although only slight, this misspelling had considerable impact on the trajectory of Tsomo’s life.
Jiun Hosen, Osho, began her formal training with Zen Master Joshu Sasaki Roshi in 1979 and has been in residence at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center since 1980. She was ordained as a Zen nun in April, 1983. Hosen’s devotion to practice led her to become a Zen Priest or “Osho” formally recognized in a “Suijishiki” Ceremony at the Rinzai-ji Zen Center in Los Angeles, California on July 21, 1988. The following year Jiun Hosen was first appointed as Abbess to the Bodhi Manda Zen Center, and carried on her work as Abbess and Director. The Board of Trustees reaffirmed her position of Abbess and Director of the Bodhi on April 10th, 2015.
With her warm, compassionate nature, child-like joy and impish sense of humor, Hosen has made lasting and vibrant relationships with the local communities of Jemez Springs and Jemez Pueblo. Jiun Hosen has established close relationship with Buddhist Centers locally and internationally. Hosen is known for her gracious welcome to guests who come to the Bodhi from all over the world. She is the mother of twins sons.
Along with her primary focus of manifesting and teaching the practice of her own Buddhist tradition, she has opened the Bodhi to hosting retreats for sincere seekers, students and groups from many diverse paths, which has endeared her to the hearts of many. In 2020, Hosen celebrated her 40th year at the Bodhi Manda as its Abbess, guardian, and spiritual teacher.