Sr. Elaine’s life path can be divided into 3 parts of a circle. The early years prior to Japan, the “Zazen” or (“just sitting”) years in Japan and the Prison ministry years. A few highlights.

A. The early years.

*Born in a musical family in Canada she studied violin at the famous Julliard Musical school in New York and played for the Calgary Philharmonic.

*She joined Our Lady’s Missionaries in 1953 and read about St. Francis Xavier and his failure to encounter a Zen monk on Mt. Hiei near Kyoto in Japan.

* As luck would have it, in 1961 her first missionary assignment was to Japan!
B. The “Zazen” or ‘just sitting’ years in Japan.

* Thanks to the guidance of Fr. Hugo Enomiya Lasalle the Jesuit Zen Master, she climbed Mt. Hiei and met a Zen monk where Xavier had failed..

*She then went on to join the Buddhist nuns at Enkoji under a strict novice mistress, Fukogai in Kyoto, where she practised zazen (just sitting meditation) for 8 years.

*She then did koan study in Kamakura under the tutelage of Yamada Koun Roshi, where she became a Zen Roshi or Master in 1980.
C. The Prison Ministry Years.

*In 1976, Sister Elaine was transferred to the Philippines during the worst years of the Marcos regime. By opening a Zen centre for meditation in a Church in Manila she ended up teaching meditation to political prisoners. Her work in prisons would now become her main vocation.

*In 1992, Sister Elaine was invited to become the director of the Prison Phoenix Trust in Oxford, UK, She set up a network of 86 yoga and meditation teachers who still go into penitentiaries across the UK and Eire.

*Some years ago she returned to Canada and she decided to set up a similar organization there. In 2001, Sister Elaine was awarded the Order of Canada for her humanitarian work.

“Zwn is a discipline that leads to Nothingness and Union through Silence.It then expresses itself in compassion.”
Sr. Elaine Maxinnes