Rev. Nonin Chowaney is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Soto Zen priest, brush calligrapher, and the current abbot and head priest of the Nebraska Zen Center at the Heartland Temple in Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

. A Dharma heir of the late Dainin Katagiri

Dainin Katagiri

Jikai Dainin Katagiri , aka Hojo-san Katagiri, was a Soto Zen roshi and the founding abbot of Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he served from 1972 until his death from cancer in 1990...

-roshi

Roshi

is a Japanese honorific title used in Zen Buddhism that literally means "old teacher" or "elder master" and sometimes denotes a person who gives spiritual guidance to a Zen sangha or congregation...

, Chowaney received Dharma transmission

Dharma transmission

Dharma transmission refers to "the manner in which the teaching, or Dharma, is passed from a Zen master to their disciple and heir...

 in 1989 and is the founder of an organization of Soto priests known as The Order of the Prairie Wind (OPW). Chowaney also has an affiliate center called the Lincoln Zen Group at the Unitarian Universalist Church in nearby Lincoln, Nebraska

Lincoln, Nebraska

The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....

. Having studied Zen in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 as well as at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

-External links:*...

, Chowaney is certified by the Soto School of Japan and also "chairs the Membership Committee of the American Zen Teachers Association

American Zen Teachers Association

The American Zen Teachers Association was founded in the late 1980s as the Second Generation Zen Teachers Group. It is a peer-group organization of ordained and lay Zen Buddhist teachers, all of whom have received either teaching authorization or dharma transmission from the mostly Asian Zen...

 and serves on the Priest Training Committee of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association."http://www.prairiewindzen.org/about_nzc.html

In 1999, Chowaney founded the Zen Center of Pittsburgh - Deep Spring Temple in Bell Acres

Bell Acres, Pennsylvania

Bell Acres is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 1,388 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Bell Acres is located at ....

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 and appointed Rev. Kyōki Roberts

Kyoki Roberts

Rev. Kyōki Roberts is an American Sōtō Zen priest and the current head priest of the at the Deep Spring Temple in Bell Acres, Pennsylvania. A Dharma heir and senior ordained student of Nonin Chowaney-roshi, Roberts received Dharma transmission in June 2001 and is a founding member of an...

 as the head priest. Then in 2001 he gave Dharma transmission

Dharma transmission

Dharma transmission refers to "the manner in which the teaching, or Dharma, is passed from a Zen master to their disciple and heir...

to Roberts, his senior ordained student."http://www.prairiewindzen.org/zcp/kyoki.htm