Monja Coen, born in Sao Paulo in 1947, is the founder of the Zen Buddhist Community in Brazil, created in 2001 and based in Sao Paulo. Her first contact with Zen Buddhism occurred at the Zen Center in Los Angeles, where she took monastic vows in 1983. She lived for eight years at a nunnery in Nagoya, Japan, where she graduated as a Special Nun, qualified to give classes in Buddhism to monastics and lay people. Under the guidance of her master, Shundo Aoyama Roshi, she became First Principal Nun of the centre. She returned to Brazil in 1995, as a missionary of the Soto Zen tradition, serving at the Busshinji Temple in the Liberdade area of São Paulo for six years. She has published six books with Planeta Brasil.