Sitting in the center of our lives, giving ourselves to body and breath, letting go beyond knowledge or knowing, we find a steadfast and fierce confidence to not turn away from the One Heart of the world.
~ Chris Fortin

“Chris Fortin is one of the remarkable ones. A person for whom caregiving and teaching are a natural expression of her life. She has a wealth of professional skills as a seasoned therapist, years of study and dedicated practice as a Zen priest and the all important common sense that arrives with maturity. Chris has a bright and cultivated mind but she transmits her wisdom through an ever expanding, open heart."
- Frank Ostaseski, Founder, Metta Institue, Co-Founder, Zen Hospice Project

Hoka Chris Fortin

Chris Fortin is a Soto Zen priest and teacher. She founded Dharma Heart Zen to share the path of wholehearted living and awakening with others and is the guiding teacher for the Sangha and for Sky Island Zen.

Chris began practicing Buddhism in 1976 while living at the San Francisco Zen Center. After many years of practice she received Dharma Transmission from Zoketsu Norman Fischer of Everyday Zen, in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.

She practiced as a licensed psychotherapist for many years, specializing in trauma and the intersection of psychotherapy and spirituality.

She is a senior teacher in the Everyday Zen Foundation.

Her life time commitment is to living and embodying the Bodhisattva Vows, with and for all beings.

CONTACT CHRIS

DANA

“Chris hears what you say with her heart as well as her ears, and she holds it gently. She honors and responds to the particular in each person at the same time that she constantly brings forward the big picture, reminding us that we are already beautiful and perfect. Her laugh is contagious, her smile infectious, and her concern for others deepens us all. I am moved by her commitment to creating community, working with Vets, and to women's empowerment. It's clear that meeting other human beings heart to heart is her true vocation and her great joy. She's a wonderful gardener, and flowers bloom bright in her care.”
- Sue Moon, writer, lay Zen teacher, co-editor of Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women (2013)

Thank you to Kaz Tanahasi for the Ensos, Mayumi Odi and Ed Brown for artwork, Layla Smith Bockhorst for creating and caretaking of original website.
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