Sensei Jody Hojin Kimmel

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei received the priestly transmission (the transmission of the Precepts) from John Daido Loori Roshi, who began the process in 2009, and from Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Roshi, who completed the transmission in 2012. In 2017, she received full dharma transmission from Shugen Roshi. She serves as the Training Director for the Mountains and Rivers Order and Abbot of the Zen Center of NYC-Fire Lotus Temple . Hojin Sensei began her artistic career early and has taught drawing, ceramics, and painting, opening people up to the wonders and mysteries of the creative process and continues to offer Art Practices as part of her teaching. She has been in full-time residential training at Zen Mountain Monastery since 1990 and now shares her time at the Brooklyn temple.

Zen training in the Mountains and Rivers Order includes taking up creative expression—both the traditional Zen arts as well as contemporary arts—to deeply study the self through using our inherent human creativity.