Zen Master Carlo Tetsugen Serra was born in Milan in 1953. During his stay at the “Tosho-Ji Stella del Sud” Monastery in Tokyo, he began his Zen training with Master Tetsugyu Soin Ban Roshi and received the Dharma in the lineage of Harada Roshi from Master Tetsujyo Deguchi.
Upon his return to Italy in 1988, he founded the “Enso-Ji Il Cerchio” City Zen Monastery in Milan. In 1996, Master Tetsugen founded the Zen mountain hermitage “Sanbo-Ji Temple of the Three Jewels” in Berceto, in the province of Parma, where intensive meditation retreats and residential seminars are periodically held.
In the following years, Master Tetsugen expanded the educational initiatives aimed at deepening the practice, addressing Western demands.
In 2013, he created the MindfulZen program, a synthesis of cognitive psychology and Zen experience, as documented in his books “Zen2.0” and “Zen3.0” (Cairo Editions 2014 and 2015).
In 2015, he founded #URBANZEN, a Zen movement immersed in Western cultural roots, as a social commitment to an ecology of the mind, with its guiding book “Urban Zen” (Cairo Editions 2018).
In 2018-19, he served as the scientific director for the series: “Mindfulness & Meditation” (30 volumes) and “Meditation Notebooks” (20 volumes), all unpublished works for Corriere della Sera.
In 2018, he co-authored the theatrical script “Seven Zen Steps,” which was performed at the Triennale – Teatro Dell’Arte in Milan.
In 2020, he conceived the three-year course of study in Zen Buddhism, with instructors from the most prestigious universities specializing in Buddhism. A year later, he co-founded the "Dharma Academy" website, a portal dedicated to the dissemination of Buddhist culture.
Master Tetsugen Serra is a Buddhist Minister for the Italian Nation, a member of the Board of Directors of the Italian Buddhist Union with responsibility for the Culture Agenda, and a member of the European Buddhist Union (EBU).
Today, he is the abbot of five Zen temples in Italy with his community "The Bamboo Forest Sangha."
