Dharma Transmitted Priest
Maria Shinzai, was a Zen student for over a decade before being transmitted by Shoji Roshi in 2022. She is the temple priest in training at Smiling Buddha Zen Center and is also unlucky enough to be married to Kijo Sensei, whom she keeps in line with a chancla whenever he takes himself too seriously, which is often. Shinzai has written for Out Front Magazine in Colorado and is particularly interested in bringing Zen practice into the community through Zen at work programs, as well as through offering weddings, Buddhist naming and other such ceremonies. Shinzai is also actively engaged in offering Zen practice to the Hispanic and undocumented community in the US.