Title: Sensei

Gender: Male

Age: 66

Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Here is part of the blurb from the Kanzeon Zen Center in Salt Lake City's website.   More can be found at http://www.thebouldermountainzendo.org or http://www.bigmind.org/Lineage.html.

Michael Mugaku Zimmerman, Sensei, was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1943. He moved to Arizona as a teenager, where he finished high school and began college. Moving to Utah, he graduated from the University of Utah and then attended its law school. Following graduation, he moved to Washington, D.C., for a judicial clerkship with Chief Justice Warren E. Burger of the United States Supreme Court, then to Los Angeles, where he worked for a large law firm until 1976, when he returned to Utah to teach law briefly. He served as part-time special counsel to the Governor, had a litigation law practice, and for sixteen years served as a Justice and then Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court. In 2000, he returned to the practice of law and is a partner in a multi-state firm.

Mugaku Sensei came to Zen relatively late. He first ventured into meditation in 1993 as a way to find some grounding during his first wife’s year-long struggle with terminal cancer. Shortly thereafter, he met Diane Hamilton, now Musho Sensei, through their working together for the Utah courts. At her suggestion, he attended an introductory class at Kanzeon in early 1997. Soon after, he began to study with Genpo Roshi. He and Diane were married by Genpo Roshi in 1998, the year he received Jukai. They received Tokudo and became monks together in 2003, were joint Shushos during the Spring Ango in 2005, received Denkai in early 2006, and he received Dharma Transmission in December 2006, seven months after Diane. Together, they have four children, and Ali, the Wonder Dog.

Michael and Diane have a place in Torrey, Utah, where they conduct retreats.  It is called The Boulder Mountain Zendo, and more information is available at their website, http://www.thebouldermountainzendo.org. 

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