Jan Chozen Bays

Who is Jan Chozen Bays?

Jan Chozen Bays, MD, is a pediatrician and Zen teacher practicing in Oregon. With her husband Laren Hogen Bays, since 1985 she has been a teacher at the Zen Community of Oregon, a Zen center or sangha in Portland, Oregon. Chozen and Hogen Bays are also co-founders of the Great Vow Zen Monastery of Clatskanie, Oregon, which opened in 2002 and where she is now co-abbot. She was a student of Venerable Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi, from 1977 until the time of his death in 1995, and from whom she received dharma transmission in 1983. From 1990 until the present she has continued to deepen and expand her practice with Shodo Harada, a Rinzai Zen teacher. She is also interested in interfaith dialogue and currently sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for the Elijah Interfaith Institute.