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Mary Jise Jaksch (1947-)
Mary Jaksch was born in London in 1947 of a reserved British mother and a passionate Bohemian father, whose political career began in Czechoslovakia and continued in Germany where he was elected a Member of Parliament and wrote a series of books about European political history. Her son Sebastian, born in 1981, currently lives in England. She lives with her partner, David Bagshaw.
She began her career in Germany as a concert flautist and university lecturer. Before studying music she worked part-time as an Outward Bound ski instructor. She immigrated to New Zealand in 1981 to take up the position as Director of the Nelson School of Music. Later she trained as a psychotherapist and counsellor, specializing on relationship work. Her relationship book All about Love (UK) and Learn to Love (USA) was published in 2001. She holds a 4th Dan Blackbelt in Seido karate and is a talented tango dancer and keen mountain biker.
After many years of practice in the Christian contemplative tradition, Mary Jaksch took up Zen practice in 1986. She first started training with John Daido Loori, Roshi and then found her home in the Diamond Sangha* with Robert Aitken, Roshi as her Root Teacher. In 1993 she founded the Maitai Zendo in Nelson and invited Ross Bolleter Roshi to lead regular sesshins there. She was appointed as an Apprentice Zen Teacher in 1999.
In March 2004 Mary Jaksch received Dharma Transmission from Ross Bolleter Roshi and became New Zealand's first Zen Master.
*Diamond Sangha
Robert Aitken Roshi and his wife Anne founded the Diamond Sangha in 1959 in Hawaii.
This lineage now has thirty-seven teachers world-wide including Ross Bolleter Roshi in Perth; Mary Jaksch Roshi, Glenn Wallis Roshi and Arthur Wells Roshi in New Zealand.
Diamond Sangha teachers lead retreats in the USA, Chile, Argentina, Australia, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, England and Germany.
As the lineage has roots in both the Soto and Rinzai schools of Zen, Diamond Sangha teachers offer both Koan study, and Shikantaza ('just sitting').
Diamond Sangha is a lay lineage, not a monastic lineage, with the ideal of bringing to our practice the joy and pain of everyday life, the great 'monastery without walls'.
PDF: The Road to Nowhere
Koans and the Deconstruction of the Zen Saga
by Mary Jaksch
University of Sunderland, M.A. Buddhist Studies Dissertation, June 2007
Articles by Mary Jaksch Roshi
Falling in love with the ordinary
On Ritual - an interview by Michelle Spuler
