Our Vision We are here to help all people find inner peace and improve the quality of their lives. History What started out as a small weekly Sunday service from a house soon grew into a community…

• 2005 The first weekly Sunday session begins at the Liu residence
• 2016 Official opening of Pure Land Hall
• 2016 Official Opening of Earth Treasury Hall, Children’s Sunday School
• 2017 Grand Opening and ribbon cutting of Wisdom Hall

Teachers

Khenpo Paljor Gyatso Khenpo Paljor Gyatso is a lama from the Nyingma school of Tibet who attained the highest level (Khenpo) of education in the theory and practice of Buddhism at the great Larung Gar Buddhist Academy in Serta. At the young age of 9, he was under the guidance of his first spiritual teacher, Choktrul Kadag. At the age 16, he was admitted to Larung Gar Buddhist Academy where he studied for 12 years with many great masters and distinguished professors, especially his root Guru, Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok and his successor Khenchen Tsultrim Lodro. During these years of intensive study, he distinguished himself as an excellent scholar among the 9000 students at the Academy, and at the young age of 25 he received the title of Khenpo.

Daishin Eric McCabe Reverend Daishin Eric McCabe is a priest in the Soto Zen school of Buddhism in Japan. With a keen interest in Ecology and the World’s Religious traditions, he received his B.A. in Religion and Biology at Bucknell University in 1995. His early mentors were Prof. John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker with whom he studied Inter-religious Dialogue with a special interest in Indigenous lifeways. He subsequently apprenticed with Patricia Dai-En Bennage Roshi of Mount Equity Zendo for 15 years. During this time, he trained at several Soto Zen Monasteries in Japan as well as in France with the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. In 2013, he continued training in the art of spiritual direction and Chaplaincy at Wellspan Hospital in Pennsylvania. He is recognized as an International Zen Teacher (Kokusaifukyoshi) by the Soto Shu. At present Daishin teaches at the Pure Land of Iowa, offers Trauma Sensitive Yoga for mental health at Broadlawns Hospital, and lectures on the World Religions at Des Moines Area Community College. He resides with his wife, Reverend Sara Jisho Siebert, and their son, Malcolm, in Ames, Iowa.

Venerable Dr. Douglas Cheolsoeng Gentile Venerable Dr. Douglas Cheolsoeng Gentile is an award-winning psychology professor, author, researcher, and is a Zen monk (bhikṣu). Named one of America’s best 300 professors by the Princeton Review, he is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. He is also a meditation teacher and Dharma holder in the Five Mountain Zen Order. With decades of scientic research and training in several styles of Buddhism, he has a dual expertise in Western psychological science and Eastern philosophy.

Bhante Dhammapala Bhante Dhammapala ordained with a Theravāda bhikkhu from Sri Lanka in 1979. Along with a group of 19 others, he practiced in the forestlands of northern California for two years. However there was extremely little support for a Theravāda saṅgha at that time and place, so the group disrobed, and disbanded, and pursued education and a livelihood. Bhante’s commitment was strong however, and he continued to practice religiously, daily for the next 30 years. In July, 2011 Bhante re-ordained as a bhikkhu, and set forth as a missionary, taking the Dhamma to the people. A vocation he continues to energetically pursue.

Jisho Sara Siebert Jisho Sara Siebert is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest who was led to Buddhism by the suffering around her and in her work to prevent domestic and sexual violence. Her path to understand suffering and joy led her to Los Angeles – where she first met her teacher, Gengo Akiba Roshi, then to Papua New Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, monasteries in Japan, and Haiti. At present she works for Beyond Borders, an organization working in Haiti, committed to preventing violence against girls and women and ending child slavery. She is recognized as an International Zen Teacher (Kokusaifukyoshi) by the Soto Shu and teaches at Zen Fields in Ames, Iowa.

Venerable Chuan Yang Ven. Chuan Yang was born in 1956 in a Buddhist family in China. He learned about Buddhism from a young age and became a monk at the age of 14. This was especially rare since his ordination occurred during the Cultural Revolution, a tumultuous era in China where religions were forbidden by the government. For more than a decade, he diligently practiced at several ancient temples. From 1982, Ven. Chuan Yang became an attendant for the great master Ven. Ming Yang at Shanghai Longhua temple. In 1986, following Ven. Ming Yang’s instruction, he went abroad to study with Ven. Yong Xing and Ven. Sheng Yi at Hong Kong, and Ven. Miao Feng and Ven. Meng Can when they were in New York. These were all great contemporary Buddhist masters. Ven. Chuan Yang currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. He has been invited to lead the Amitabha retreat across America including Georgia, Minnesota, California, Massachusetts, and Iowa.