Master Tetsugen Serra

The Zen Master Carlo Tetsugen Serra

Master Tetsugen Serra is Kokusai Fukyōshi , a recognized teacher of the Sōtō Zen tradition, and one of the pioneers of Zen in Italy. After academic and monastic studies in Japan at the Toshoji Monastery in the lineage of Master Harada Daiun Sogaku, in 1988 he opened the Ensoji Zen Temple – Il Cerchio, a center of Zen practice and culture, in Milan.

In 1996 he founded Sanboji – Temple of the Three Jewels, a Zen hermitage in Berceto (PR), in the Tuscan-Emilian hills, a place of monastic training, intensive retreats and practice open to all.

Today he is the spiritual master of the six Temples and Monasteries of the Circle: L20 Il Cerchio (Milan), Sanboji (Berceto), Gyosho (Cecina), OraZen (Padua), Ten Shin (Naples), UnSui (Pesaro).

He is the author of numerous books and articles on Zen: from Zen psychology to daily living, up to the organization of work according to the principles of the Way. A nationally recognized spiritual guide, minister of worship of the Italian State,
He is a board member of the Italian Buddhist Union (UBI).

He created the Three-Year Zen Course of the Zen Buddhist Training Institute Dharma Academy, of which he is co-founder. He is a teacher in the Master in Contemplative Studies of the University of Padua.
He is also among the signatories of the Italian religious manifesto for peace.

His teachings are born from the depths of tradition and meet the present time, offering tools of presence, simplicity, and fulfillment in life.

A shot of the Urban Zen Flash Mob in Milan

Master Tetsugen Serra is personally responsible as abbot for running the life of the monastery and teaching the practice of meditation in the temples he founded.

2013

He created the MindfulZen program , a synthesis of cognitive psychology and the Zen experience collected in his books “Zen2.0” and “Zen3.0” (ed. Cairo 2014 and 2015).

2015

He founded the #URBANZEN movement , a Zen movement steeped in Western cultural roots, as a social commitment to an ecology of the mind, with his guidebook "Urban Zen" (Cairo edition 2018). He is the curator of the #URBANZEN exhibition at MUDEC, the Museum of Cultures (Milan), with the video #URBANZEN.

2018-19

He holds the position of scientific director for the series: “Mindfulness & Meditation” 30 volumes, and “Quaderni di meditation” 20 volumes all unpublished for Corriere della Sera

2018

He is co-author of the play “Sette passi Zen” performed at the Triennale – Teatro Dell'Arte in Milan.

2020

He is the creator and director of "CBZen" (three-year course of study in Zen Buddhism), whose teachers all come from the most prestigious Buddhist universities

2021

Co-founder and director of the web portal "Dharma Academy", a portal for the diffusion of Inter-Buddhist culture.
Author of numerous books and articles on Zen. Latest book published: “Uncertainty is Zen” (ed.Damiani 2021)
Master Tetsugen Serra is minister of Buddhist worship for the Italian state, member of the UBI Board of Directors (Italian Buddhist Union) in charge of the Culture Agenda and member of the EBU European Buddhist Union.