Carlo Zendo Tetsugen Serra

After a short career in the world of photography and cinema, Carlo Serra arrived in Japan in 1983, and was ordained monk (出家 shukke), with the Dharma name (戒名, kaimyō) Tetsugen, at the Tosho-ji (東照寺) monkery of Tokyo.

After five years of training in Toshoji, Tetsugen was sent as a Buddhist missionary in Italy, and in 1988 founded the first monastery in Milan, Enso-ji il Cerchio.

Initially used as a location for zen retreats and shiatsu seminaries, in the last years Sanbo-ji became the seat of a monastic "Sangha", that opened to the lay people also to practise a monk's daily life for a short time.

The confirmation of this title accompanied the acknowledgement of Tetsugen as an independent master by the international association "Sōtōshū shumucho" (曹洞宗宗務庁), to which belong many of the Soto temples and monasteries in Japan and in the World.

The work of Tetsugen Serra spreads itself also to experimentations that make Zen teaching and cognitive psychology a lay path of self-improvement with the offering of counselling sessions, helping to solve daily problems about the attitude to life.