Located in a quiet rural setting in San Diego’s North County under historic hundred-years-old California Oaks, the Hidden Valley Zen Center is a place for inner spiritual quest, using the forms of Rinzai Zen, which emphasizes the practice of zazen (seated meditation), and includes working with susok’kan (the extended out-breath) and koans.

Hidden Valley Zen Center was founded in 1968 by American Tien-li Lola Lee, Osho, long-time student of Dr. Henry Chikuen Kugai Platov, whose primary teacher was Sokei-an [Shigetsu Sasaki, founder of the First Zen Institute of America in New York City].

In 1996, her health deteriorating, Lola Lee, Osho, requested that her students search for a new teacher. Mitra-roshi was asked to visit and lead a retreat, at the end of which Lola Lee as well as her students asked Roshi to take over as the Center’s teacher. Thus, the tradition of practicing Rinzai Zen found a continuation at Hidden Valley Zen Center in both Mitra-roshi, and since 2013 Sozui-sensei.

We are a culturally diverse group and welcome sincere Zen practitioners of any ethnic background. Our monastery is a part of the One Drop Zen Sangha, which is under Japanese Zen master Shodo Harada Roshi.