Amala WrightsonSensei Amala Wrightson is the resident teacher and Spiritual Director of the Auckland Zen Centre. She began practicing Zen in 1982 after she and her husband, Richard von Sturmer, attended a workshop with Philip Kapleau, author of The Three Pillars ofZen. In the late 80s she and Richard left New Zealand and their work in experimental theatre to pursue residential Zen training at the Rochester (NY) Zen Center (the centre founded by Kapleau), as no similar training was then available in New Zealand. Working in Rochester with Kapleau's successor, Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, Wrightson was ordained as a Zen priest in 1999 and authorised to teach Zen in 2004. She then returned to Auckland with the intention to make available in New Zealand the training she had received, and was sanctioned as a full Dharma Heir of Roshi Kjolhede in 2012. Sensei Wrightson has offered meditation instruction, talks on Zen, and opportunities for practice and retreat both at the Centre and at other locations around New Zealand for the past fifteen years. She was a founding member of the New Zealand Buddhist Council as well as its chairperson for a decade, and she is a member of the American Zen Teachers' Association. Read More Read Less