Udumbara Zen Sangha

“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.” – Eihei Dogen

The mission of Udumbara Zen Sangha is to express, make accessible, and embody the wisdom compassion of Shakyamuni Buddha.

We are a welcoming and vibrant community of Buddhist practitioners who are supportive of all Buddhist schools and particularly devoted to the practice of Zen. We are dedicated to the teaching of original enlightenment and to the liberation of flowering of all beings.

Udumbara Zen Sangha acknowledges and values equally the expression of practice in formal settings and in daily life: thus we affirm both lay and monastic practice as expressions of the bodhisattva path.

Guiding Teacher

Sensei Nehan Myoshin Tricia Teater is the Director and Guiding Teacher of Udumbara Zen Sangha. She received Dharma Transmission from Roshi Sojun Diane Martin in 2012.

A lifetime commitment to volunteerism and chaplaincy work, Sensei has served for over 20 years as a team member of Horizon Hospice and Palliative Care of Chicago (now JourneyCare), and has supported incarcerated men and women in maximum security prisons and on death row in Indiana and Illinois. She currently has students from prisons around the country offering Buddhist mediation instruction, lay and chaplaincy ordinations, spiritual support and guidance, dharma teachings and hospice care. She also supports the prison chaplaincy staff in their work with the Buddhist community. Sensei is the former President, Death Row Visiting Team Coordinator, and ongoing Board Member for the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

She has traveled to Calcutta, India, working with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity at the Shishu Bhavon Children’s Home and she recently traveled to Poland to bear witness at the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau.

Sensei received her Master’s Degree from Chicago’s Roosevelt University and is certified in conflict resolution and mediation. She is retired from her post as Director of Human Resources for Cook County Clerk and dedicates her time to the Udumbara Sangha.

If you are interested in learning more or participating in Udumbara Sangha, email udumbara@udumbarazen.org.

Udumbara Sangha meets on Tuesdays @ 6:30pm and Saturdays @ 9:00am. Check their website by clicking the button below to see if there will be virtual sessions during UCE’s closure.