Our Mission

Shogaku  Zen Institute’s Masters of Divinity (M. Div.) program has been designed for student-practitioners who wish to apply their hours of Buddhist practice and training, along with formal studies and pastoral care experience, towards a Masters of Divinity.

The Masters of Divinity is a religious degree awarded directly from Shogaku Zen to students in Zen and Mindfulness/ Insight Buddhist traditions as a necessary credential to working in a ministerial capacity, such as professional chaplaincy.

Shogaku Zen ensures that the M.Div diploma, equivalent to a standard 72-unit graduate-level theology program, is consistent with the widely accepted guidelines for the professional training of Western religious ministers, while accounting for different Buddhist needs and practices. 

To foster the beneficial application of Buddhist ideas and practices in the West, Shogaku Zen Institute facilitates ongoing ethics and standards dialogue among its affiliated Zen and Mindfulness/ Insight institutions, and authorized teachers.

Shogaku Zen Institute, the dba educational entity of Central Valley Zen Foundation, is a religious organization lawfully operating in California as a nonprofit religious corporation.