Zen Master. Abbot. Visionary. Author.

Hinnerk Polenski is Zen Master and Abbot of the European Dashin Zen Order and the Zen Monastery Buchenberg in the Allgäu region in South Germany. He is an ordained monk of Syoko-ji in Japan. "Syobu” (jap. Zen warrior) is his dharma name, which was given to him by Zen Master Oi Saidan Roshi in 1992. Hinnerk Polenski (born 1959) has been practicing the Zen way for more than 40 years. He is Dharma successor (Inca) for Dashin-Rinzai Zen of Reiko Mukai (Shi- ln Kutsu Roshi). Together with his teacher, he founded the Daishin Zen lineage, a Zen school whose focus is on the development of a European Zen way. Zen leadership is one of three focus areas of Daishin Zen. Meetings with Father Enomiya-Lassalle (Christian Zen) and Count Dürckheim (Zen and psychology) complement his traditional Zen training of the Japanese Rinzai school, as well as fourteen trips to his teacher in Japan, who on his part repeatedly visits the Zen Monastery Buchenberg. Hinnerk Polenski has been leading Zen seminars for executives in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, and Switzerland for over 25 years. After more than ten years as an independent corporate consultant, he has devoted himself entirely to Zen training since 1999. His series “Zen-Meditation”, broadcast by Bayerischer Rundfunk and other regional programs since 2001 and now venerably outdated, has reached millions of viewers and thus became the model for today's Youtube channel, which currently has nearly 50,000 subscribers. Zen seminars and sesshins with him and/or his team of teachers are held almost continuously each year. More than 10,000 men and women from all areas of life are introduced to meditation through Daishin Zen each year. Beside 25 Daishin Zen meditation groups in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, there are more and more larger Zen centers. In addition to women entrepreneurs, board members and business executives, Hinnerk Polenski has recently also been supporting young people fulfilling themselves as entrepreneurs in startups in areas of sustainability, climate, and impact investment. His main objective is to help people open the Zen path first for themselves, and out of this to recognize that we humans are all connected, and thus to develop a movement for more awareness and wholesome impact.