Bonnie Myotai Treace

Bonnie Myotai Treace is a Zen priest, the founder, and teacher of Hermitage Heart Zen, and was previously the Abbot of the Zen Center of NYC and Vice Abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery. She has studied and taught Zen since the 1980s and has had ("the honor and constant challenge!") of working with thousands of students on the Zen path. Her Zen teaching draws from her experiences as a nun ("24 years of a 4 am-9 pm schedule of group training, vows of poverty, and a shiny head...") as well as her life as a layperson, ("happily married, with grandkids, dogs, a mortgage, and a required sense of humor."). She is also an essayist, poet, and advocate for women and the environment. Sensei lives and teaches in Black Mountain, North Carolina. She was the first Dharma successor of John Daido Loori, Roshi, in the Mountains and Rivers Order, and also studied with Taisen Maezumi Roshi and Peter Muryo Matthiessen Roshi. Serving and training in the Order for over two decades, she was the establishing teacher and first Abbot of the Zen Center of New York City. At the Monastery she was also the first director of Dharma Communications and longtime editor of the famous ("in certain albeit small circles...") Mountain Record journal. Prior to the Monastery, Treace taught in the English Department at Florida State University ("adjuncts unite!"), was a lobbyist for women's issues, helped run a small-town newspaper, and for several years ("oddly enough") worked as an analyst with the Potomac Research Institute specializing in hydromechanics. She is the author of several books: "Winter Moon: A Season of Zen," and "Empty Branches." She's also had chapters in "Water: Its Spiritual Significance" (Fons Vitae Press), The Art of Just Sitting: Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza, and "Lotus Moon: The Poetry of Rengetsu", along with many other writings. Myotai's teachings have appeared in various Buddhist publications, including Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, The Mountain Record and in several editions of The Best Buddhist Writing.