Pia Gyger

Pia Gyger (born 2 November 1940 in Schaffhausen; died 14 July 2014 in Basel ) was a Swiss specialist for special education, psychologist and Zen master of the White Plum Sangha lineage.

In the years 1976–1999, she was educated in Zen in Kamakura, Kanagawa/Japan with Hugo Makibi Enomiya-Lassalle and Yamada Kôun Roshi in Hawaii.

On behalf of the Federal Department of Justice and Police she founded 1976 a therapy home near Horw for particularly difficult young persons which she led until 1982.

In 1986, she founded a project for meetings of the world’s religions and in 1989 she initiated in a slum on the outskirts of Manila a school for the spiritual and political awareness of young people.

1995, back in Switzerland, she founded together with Niklaus Brantschen the Lassalle-Institute of Zen – Ethics – Leadership which they led until 2002 and at which she is teaching.