Guiding Teacher
The Nebraska Zen Center is conducting a search for a new Guiding Teacher, a full-time resident priest who will facilitate our practice and help set a future course for the Zen Center. In the meantime, we are grateful to have Rev. Daishin McCabe of the Zen Fields sangha in Ames, IA, providing priest services. In 2026, Rev. Koji Acquaviva of Clouds in Water Zen Center in Minneapolis will be sharing interim priest services with Daishin.
Interim Priest Daishin McCabe
Rev. Daishin McCabe is Nebraska Zen Center’s interim priest. Daishin is a dharma heir of Dai-en Bennage Roshi, with whom he studied in monastic residence for 15 years; he has also practiced in Japan at several training temples and with Thich Nhat Hanh in France. He has degrees in Religion and Biology from Bucknell University, has trained as a behavioral health chaplain and as a Trauma Sensitive Yoga instructor, and teaches World Religions at the Des Moines Area Community College and at the Shogaku Zen Institute. He and his wife Jisho Sara Seibert are the guiding teachers at Zen Fields in Ames and Clive, Iowa.
Since June 2022, Daishin has dedicated one weekend a month to providing in-person services at NZC, leading sesshins, retreats, and ceremonies like Fusatsu (the Full Moon precepts ceremony), giving dharma talks and meeting with students one on one. In addition, he has shared a dharma talk with us via Zoom one Sunday a month. Starting in 2026, Daishin has reduced his time with us in order to devote more time to his family, and will be dividing his NZC activities with Rev. Koji Acquaviva. Daishin will continue to provide important behind-the-scenes support and advice to NZC. NZC sangha members can still participate in online activities that Daishin offers in his role as Guiding Teacher at Zen Fields, including morning meditation and weekday evening dharma studies. Members of the Zen Fields sangha frequently join NZC retreats and other activities as well.
Guest Priest Koji Acquaviva
Koji Acquaviva (he/him) is a Soto Zen priest and teacher. He began practicing Zen at the age of twenty at the San Francisco Zen Center where he was a resident student for ten years. He co-founded the Mid City Zen Center of New Orleans, LA, and served regularly as visiting teacher at the Austin Zen Center in Texas. In addition to Soto Zen, he has studied Vedanta, Hatha Yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism in residential practice centers.
Koji encourages meditators to feel empowered to develop their own syncretic practice paths, availing themselves of the most supportive methods for their temperaments and needs. Koji is a member of the teacher ryo at Clouds in Water in St. Paul, MN, and is a staff member of Tergar International, a community of Tibetan meditation teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. As a queer and neurodivergent person, Koji makes his best effort to identify and confront spiritual teachings which re-inscribe harm for members of marginalized communities.
We are grateful that Koji has agreed to alternate with Daishin in providing in-person leadership and zoom dharma talks for the remainder of 2026.
NZC’s Teacher Residency
Nebraska Zen Center (NZC) offers an opportunity for ordained Soto Zen priests and priests-in-training to reside at our Zen center and experience living and working closely with an established sangha. In collaboration with NZC’s Interim Priest, Rev. Daishin McCabe, the Resident Teacher assumes responsibility for maintaining the Zen Center schedule and supporting the spiritual practice of sangha members.
Current Resident Priest-in-Training
Rev. Kanshin Carol Dougherty
Carol earned a BA from John Carroll University in 1977 and a JD from Duquesne University School of Law in 1982. She was a resident at San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) for a practice period in 2000 and then became a permanent resident, fulfilling various roles as a member of SFZC staff. Carol was ordained in the Shunryu Suzuki-roshi lineage by Teah Strozer in 2006, and in 2007 began attending Naropa University in Boulder, CO, where she earned a Master of Divinity degree. While there she served as a graduate assistant and completed a chaplaincy project. Carol is also a writer, and has offered many writers retreats and workshops over the years.
Former Resident Priests-in-Training
Rev. Jikan Evan Britzius
Evan Jikan Britzius came to us from Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, where he was a priest-in-training. He was recommended to NZC by his teacher Ted O’Toole, the Guiding Teacher at MZMC. Raised in a Christian tradition, Jikan started practicing meditation with his Thai grandmother, a practicing Buddhist, after high school graduation. This led to a deepening yearning and further exploration of Buddhist teachings. After engaging in Universalist and Yogic traditions, he began attending MZMC. The center and its teachers struck him as refreshing contemporary examples of embodied spiritual practice. He also found MZMC’s emphasis on transforming suffering through compassionate awareness, combined with the student teacher relationship, to be both immensely healing and grounding. Jikan received lay initiation in 2017 with Ben Connelly and was ordained as a Priest in Training with Ted O’Toole in the backyard of MZMC in November of 2020.
Jikan arrived at Nebraska Zen Center May 1, 2025 and remained through October 2025.
Rev. Shinkyu Brian Coté
Rev. Shinkyu Brian Coté was a resident at NZC from June 2024 through January 2025. He met his teacher, Rev. Shuji Valdene Mintzmyer, at Just Sit Zendo in Grand Rapids, MI, in 2019. In 2020 he received jukai from her, followed by lay entrustment in 2022. He began giving dharma talks to the Just Sit Sangha, the Grand Rapids Buddhist Temple, and the Nebraska Zen Center. In 2023 Shinkyu officially joined the Grand Rapids Buddhist Temple as a dharma teacher and a member of the Dharma Council, where he was responsible for giving talks, shaping the education calendar, and teaching classes. In 2024 Shinkyu received shukke tokudo, or home leaving ordination, from Rev. Shuji. Afterward he completed a short stay at the San Francisco Zen Center as a guest student.
Shinkyu is particularly interested in investigating karma, finding ways to alleviate suffering, weaving Soto Zen practice into everyday life, and opening dialogue between the various schools of Buddhism. In addition to being a Zen priest, Shinkyu is a father, a musician, an artist, and an avid reader. He formerly lived in West Michigan and worked in the automotive industry.
Rev. Taizan Alford
Rev. Taizan Alford was the first priest-in-training to assume the position of Resident Teacher under our priest residency program. He was with us from January to June 2024. Taizan received jukai from his teacher, Rev. Sosan Flynn of Clouds in Water Zen Center in St. Paul, MN, in 2014, and received shukke tokudo, or home-leaving ordination, from her in the fall of 2016. In early 2020 he completed a six-week ango, or intensive practice period, at Hokyoji Zen Practice Community in Eitzen, MN. He spent four months at Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, NY, later that year. In 2021, Taizan was shuso, or head student, at Clouds in Water.
Taizan’s meditation journey began in the early 1980s. His focus as a Zen practitioner and priest-in-training is on how zazen, taking refuge, and loving-kindness can heal old wounds and help individuals and communities experience more joy and less suffering. Sober since 1982, Taizan is also a singer-songwriter, deeply grateful for his loving and supportive husband, Tom. He has taught therapeutic and restorative yoga since 1998.
Teacher Residency Applications for 2026-27 Open Now
Nebraska Zen Center Teacher Residency Position
Nebraska Zen Center is currently accepting applications for its teacher residency program for Soto Zen priests and priests-in-training. With guidance from NZC’s Interim Head Priest, Rev. Daishin McCabe, Resident Teachers will gain experience leading an established and supportive sangha for a four- to six-month period.
Applicants must have a referral from their teacher. NZC provides reasonable compensation and housing.
You can find the full Resident Teacher description here. To learn more or apply, email teacher@nebraskazencenter.org.
Visiting Teachers
Nebraska Zen Center is grateful to the many teachers from across the country who have shared their presence with us in person and via Zoom. Thanks to their wisdom and compassion, we have experienced many wonderful dharma talks, workshops, and retreats.
Rev. Koji Acquaviva: Clouds in Water Zen Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
Rev. Choro Antonaccio: Austin Zen Center, Austin, Texas
Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi: Great Vow Monastery, Clatskanie, Oregon
Shoryu Bradley: Gyobutsuji, Kingston, Arkansas
Rev. Jodo Cliff Clusin: Prairie Mountain Zen Center, Longmont and Fort Collins, Colorado
Amy Kisei Costenbader: Earth Dreams, Columbus, Ohio
Doug Kanho Dittman: Lay Entrustee from Raymond, Nebraska, and the Lincoln Zen Group
Rev. Sōsan Flynn: Clouds in Water Zen Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
Rev. Myo-O Marilyn Habermas-Scher: Marilyn Myo-O
Rev. Busshō Lahn: Flying Cloud Zen, Eagan, Minnesota
Debra Seido Martin: Zen West – Empty Field, Eugene, Oregon
Rev. Shuji Valdene Mintzmyer: Just Sit Soto Zen, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Rev. Teijo Munnich: Great Tree Temple, Alexander, North Carolina
Bill Woywod, Priest in training: Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
To have a friend come
from afar; isn’t it a joy?
Calligraphy by Nonin Chowaney
Dharma Talks
See here for recordings of dharma talks by friends of the Nebraska Zen Center.