Sante Poromaa

Sante Poromaa Roshi (born 1958) is a Swedish Zen Buddhist teacher (Roshi) in the tradition of Philip Kapleau and Bodhin Kjolhede. Together with his co-teacher Kanja Odland Roshi, he leads Zenbuddhistiska Samfundet, one of the major traditions of Zen Buddhism in Sweden with centers in several European countries.

Zen training He commenced his Zen training in the early eighties as a student of Philip Kapleau. When Roshi Kapleau went into semi-retirement, he also became a student of Kapleau's successor, Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede. Poromaa was ordained as a Zen priest in 1991. He finished his formal koan training in 1993. In 1998, he was authorized to teach by Roshi Kjolhede, and has been teaching full-time since then. He is authorized as an independent teacher (Roshi) in the “Cloud-Water Sangha” lineage.

Work and teaching Poromaa and Odland jointly lead Zenbuddhistiska Samfundet from Zengården, Zenbuddhistiska Samfundet's training temple in Fellingsbro in rural Sweden. ZBS also has centers in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Lund, Tampere (Finland), Cologne (Germany) and Glasgow (Scotland). and is a member organisation in the Swedish Buddhist Community, which he was involved in founding in 1992.

Poromaa offers regular sesshin (meditation retreats) at Zengården, in English. He also gives public talks on Zen and contributes to Swedish public life through participation in panel discussions on current social, philosophical and religious issues.

Although an artist by training, Poromaa has had a lifelong interest in science. His investigations of the possibility of finding common ground between the Buddhist and scientific worldviews led to the publication in 2009 of his book “The Net of Indra – Rebirth in Science and Buddhism”.

Lineage Poromaa and Odland have sanctioned five of their students as Zen teachers: Karl Kaliski Sensei, Sangen Salo Sensei, Dharman Ödman Sensei, Mitra Virtaperko Sensei och Kansan Zetterberg Sensei.