The way The "goal" Background Chinese texts Classical Post-classical Contemporary Zen in Japan Seon in Korea Thiền in Vietnam Western Zen Hōun Jiyu-Kennett (Japanese: 法雲慈友ケネット, 1 January 1924 – 6 November 1996), born Peggy Teresa Nancy Kennett, was a British roshi most famous for having been the first female to be sanctioned by the Sōtō School of Japan to teach in the West.

[citation needed] Hōun Jiyu-Kennett was born as Peggy Teresa Nancy Kennett in St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, England on January 1, 1924.

In 1960, when chief abbott Kōho Keidō Chisan Zenji of Sojiji in Japan came to the society, she was asked to make the arrangements for his stay.

[1][note 1] In January 1962, Kennett traveled to Malaysia to accept an award she had been honored with for setting a Buddhist hymn, "Welcome Joyous Wesak Day" by Sumangalo,[3] to music.

According to Jiyu-Kennett's account, I have never done a ceremony with more terror inside me than that one with twelve men down each side, each one with curtains drawn as if to say 'I'm not here.'

After the death of Chisan Koho, in November 1967, the Soto Administration Section became ambivalent to her, and "Kennett's title of Foreign Guest Hall Master was deleted from the list of Sojiji office appointments".

In 1972, Jiyu-Kennett's British chapter of the Zen Mission Society established Throssel Hole Priory in Northumberland, England.

[19][23] Stephen Batchelor describes these episodes, The visions lasted for 12 months, until 26 January 1977, the first twelve occurring in Oakland, the rest at Shasta, where she returned on 25 October.

She compared the series of visions to an elaborated contemporary version of the classical Zen images of the ten 'ox-herding' pictures.

'"[14]Around four months into her 'third kensho', Jiyu-Kennett regained her health and again assumed her position as Abbess of Shasta Abbey for the next 20 years until her death on November 6, 1996.

[21] According to Kay, "Kennett's visionary experiences – and also her ambivalence about the status of their content – are not unprecedented within the Zen tradition.

[29] According to Jiyu-Kennett the accumulation of insight happens in three stages of kensho, along with a fourth that can occur at the time of death:[21][note 4] The third stage can include a "Zen sickness", best known from Hakuin Zenji's account in Yasen kanna, translated into English under the title Wild Ivy[31]『夜船閑話』 (Quiet conversations on an evening boat) Jiyu-Kennett had a commanding presence about her, both intellectually as well as physically.