Teacher

Sangen Salo sensei

"What would it feel like if I had never been born?"

This question, asked in childhood, led — through many twists and turns — Sangen Salo-sensei to a weekend retreat in 2004. The teacher there was Sante Poromaa-roshi, visiting Finland from Sweden. The retreat inspired Sangen-sensei to attend his first sesshin at Zengården in January 2005. He began regular visits to Zengården, working under the guidance of Sante-roshi and the centre's second teacher, Kanja-roshi. In autumn 2012, Salo moved to Sweden and to Zengården.

He completed the formal koan practice at the end of 2013 (Mumonkan, Hekiganroku, Shoyoroku, Jujukinkai). In spring 2014 he was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest. After serving for three and a half years as the first zendo leader at Zengården, he moved back to Finland and Helsinki.

In January 2018, Sante-roshi gave him permission to teach. Since summer 2020, Sangen-sensei has been working at Sanneji, where he lives permanently.

Visits to the Zen temple Bukkokuji in Japan in 2008, 2009, 2024 and 2025 have been an important inspiration for the practice. He is also a dedicated practitioner and member of Myoanji — a sub-temple of Tofukuji temple within the Rinzai Zen tradition — in Kyoto, where he belongs to the Komuso group, which plays shakuhachi flutes as a spiritual practice rather than a performed art.

Sangen Salo (b. 1967) studied at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts 1992–97, graduating as a sculptor. He worked as a sculptor for fifteen years and also at the Amos Anderson Art Museum for seventeen years. He has two adult children and lives together with his partner, Josephine — a long-time Zen practitioner — at Sanneji in Karjaa.

Read sensei Sangen Salo's story of his coming to the path of Zen

Sangen-sensei's teishos (dharma talks) on the Sanneji Zen Temple Teisho Podcast