Zen Master Jok Um (Ken Kessel) and Tony Sager, JDPSN

Our Guiding Teacher is Zen Master Jok Um (Ken Kessel) who received transmission in April 2017. He began studying with Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1975. He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a psychotherapist, working with children and families in foster care, substance abuse, outpatient and inpatient mental health and therapeutic preschool settings as well as in private practice. He specializes in infant and early childhood mental health.

Zen Master Jok Um is the guiding teacher for the Ten Directions Zen Community, and he also teaches at the Chogye International Zen Center of New York as well as other Zen Centers and affiliates.

Tony Sager JDPSN began practicing in the Kwan Um School of Zen in 1978 while attending college at Brown University. After graduating college he lived and worked at the Providence Zen Center for some years and was ordained by Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1986; he was a monk for 21 years, serving in both the United States and Europe. Tony presently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he runs the Albuquerque Open Sky Zen group and works as a psychotherapist. He received inka on December 13, 2025 at Providence Zen Center, U.S.A.