Judith Bossert

Judith Bossert, 2016

Judith W. Bossert (born June 16, 1937 in Utrecht , Netherlands ; † April 6, 2020 in Waxweiler ) was a Dutch-German Zen teacher.

Life

Bossert experienced her childhood without a father in the Netherlands occupied by Nazi Germany. She later worked as a chemical technician. During this time she entered a convent of the Dominican Sisters of Neerbosch in Nijmegen . She later lived with five other Dominican women in Nijmegen in a shared apartment and studied medicine. In search of more silence and depth, she met some Dutch Zen teachers who became very important to her: Father Smorenburg (OP), Maarten Houtman and Nora Houtman . During these encounters, she discovered her love for Zen and, together with Annie Oonk, planned the establishment of the first Dutch Zen center. In 1974 the order made Thersiahoeve , a former small monastery in Langenboom , available to her for her Zen center. In 1977 she resigned from the Dominican Order, but was allowed to continue running Therasiahoeve. She then invited famous teachers of Zen and Buddhist meditation, including Taizan Maezumi Roshi , Seung Sahn , Chime Rinpoche , Prabhasa Dharma Roshi, and Thich Nhat Hanh . The latter two became her personal teacher in 1983 and Thich Nhat Hanh gave her permission to teach as Dharmācārya.

In 1988, the board of the Dominican Sisters dissolved the Theresiahoeve center, and Bossert moved to the German Eifel to live with her long-time Zen friend Adelheid Meutes-Wilsing . At the same time, she made herself internally independent of Prabhasa Dharma Roshi and Thich Nhat Hanh and, together with Adelheid Meutes-Wilsing, began planning for the Zenklausen in the Eifel, which opened in Lautzerath near Leidenborn in 1992 . These Zenklausen were and are intended as a non-denominational lay monastery for people who want to withdraw into silence for a while, but at the same time feel a need for spiritual support. In addition, Bossert was very active in the fields of painting and writing. Her friend and partner Adelheid Meutes-Wilsing died in 2019 and Judith Bossert, who had to spend her final years in a nursing home due to increasing dementia, died in 2020 in the Herz-Jesu nursing home in Waxweiler. Meanwhile, the Zen clauses are being continued by Markus Wilsing and a team of students from the two Zen teachers Judith Bossert & Adelheid Meutes-Wilsing.

   Schritt vor Schritt
   - manchmal zögernd -
   gehe ich über die Brücke
   zwischen Nichts und Nirgendwo.
                                 
              Mienh Judith (1990)

Works

In 1980 Bossert started the Dutch quarterly magazine ZEN, which was also available in German from 1988 and which was continued in both languages until issue 59 in 2014. Bossert also worked as a translator, author and editor. Published by her in German:

Thích Nhat Hanh - Smile at your own heart. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 1995.
Thích Nhat Hanh - times of mindfulness. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 1996.
Thích Nhat Hanh - words of mindfulness. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 1997.
The ease of Zen. Adelheid Meutes-Wilsing, Judith Bossert. Theseus, Berlin 2000.
Zen for every day. Adelheid Meutes-Wilsing, Judith Bossert. Gräfe and Unzer, Munich 1994.
Feel good : more energy, balance, harmony; the 10 best methods for body & soul . With texts by Judith Bossert. Gräfe and Unzer, Munich 1998.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Bossert, Judith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mienh Judith; Bossert, Judith W.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dutch-German Zen teacher
DATE OF BIRTH	June 16, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH	Utrecht
DATE OF DEATH	April 6, 2020
Place of death	Waxweiler