SOTOZEN-NET > Soto Zen Temples > Organization and temples outside Japan > Kokaiji
Address: Parc Pompidou, CP 3402, 56034, Vannes Cedex, France
Kokaiji is situated in Vannes, Brittany, a town of 60,000 inhabitants in the west of France, near the ocean. Primarily a simple practice dojo founded in 1995, it became a temple in 2003.
It is a non-residential temple that is able to receive up to fifty people for Zen practice. There is daily practice, either in the morning or the evening and there are also practice weekends every month. This practice is the traditional Sôtô Zen practice in Europe: zazen, kin hin, sutra chanting, ceremonies for the Buddha and the founding ancestors, meals with oryoki, samu, spoken teaching (teisho, kusen, mondo), kesa sewing, the study of doctrine and tradition, receiving precepts and ordination, simplicity and attention in the moment, peacefulness without pretention; an ancient path, always new.
The Kokaiji Association has around hundred members. There are about ten monks and nuns practising at the temple as well as several practice groups in neighbouring towns.
The head of the temple is the Reverend Dôkan Crépon. He was ordained a monk in 1975 by Taisen Deshimaru Roshi, the founder of Zen in Europe, and was one of his close disciples. He received Dharma transmission from Shinzan Egawa Roshi, and is the author of many works on Buddhism. He is helped by Brigitte Seijô Crépon. She too was a disciple of Deshimaru Roshi and received transmission from Yuzan Otsuka Roshi. Other monks at the temple contribute to the teaching.
Click on the national flags on the map, or on those at the left, to zoom to each country and see a list of its temples.
