December 2, 2025
Christina Lehnherr on Buddha Body, Buddha Mind

 

By Tova Green

Senior Dharma Teacher Kikū Christina Lehnherr, who will lead the City Center Winter 2026 Practice Period, chose the topic, “Buddha Body—Buddha Mind” to affirm that “it is possible to practice with exactly the body we have, as it is. Limitations are not hindrances; instead they are opportunities to be creative and find adaptations.” Participants with physical limitations are welcome to participate; the renovated 300 Page Street building is now more accessible than ever, with ramps at two entrances, an elevator, and private gender-neutral and accessible bathrooms.

The focus of the practice period will be the body as a path, a journey, or means. “The body isn’t an object,” says Christina. “It is how we are alive. We wouldn’t have this life, with all its complexity, without our bodies. The body is wise. It is connected to everything and like everything in this universe, is in a constant state of transformation—in continuous flux and change, whether we notice it or not.”

In order for the Practice Period to be “a spacious event” Christina designed it to be ten weeks long, “to give participants enough time to integrate what we will practice and learn into their own daily lives.”

Her wish for the Practice Period is “that these weeks [can] be a deepening process of relaxation and stillness, so that everyone leaves more in touch with the unique being they are.” She says she will support the participants to listen to their bodies, to engage their own agency, and to be strengthened in their capacity to make decisions and find out for themselves what works for them.

Christina also says she will ”draw on the wisdom of the participants and bring their experiences into the mix. The presence of each participant in the practice period will co-create the shape, the Gestalt, this practice period will take. All, with their unique bodies, are welcome.”

In support of these intentions Christina would like to “cultivate a culture of stillness in our bodies as well as in the 300 Page Street building, at least during the duration of the practice period, so that we can begin to see, hear, and feel a bigger picture.”

Christina Lehnherr served as Abiding Abbess at City Center from 2012 to 2014. A student of Tenshin Reb Anderson, she was ordained as a priest in 1993 and received Dharma Transmission in 2005. From 2003 to 2006 she served as Tanto (Head of Practice) at City Center. Since 2006 Christina has lived in Marin with her spouse, and continues to support students as a non-residential teacher. She has degrees in physical therapy and clinical psychology, and practiced both in Switzerland.

Christina sees Buddhist practice as a practice of embodiment. “There is no awakening of the mind that doesn’t include the embodiment of the awakening. Soto Zen is a practice of chopping wood, carrying water, taking care of our spaces. When I go to Japan I see body awareness embedded in the culture.”

“Our culture treats the body as an object rather than the subject. From early on we are taught to disregard the messages of our body and thereby disconnect from it. We teach little children to sit still in the classroom, [instead of] teaching them to listen and respond to the information from their bodies, to move, to go to the bathroom, to rest when they need to in order to be fully present. When we are ill, we don’t stop and rest; instead we take pills and continue on, often mistaking this as strength and virtue. Rest and resting are not really valued.” Christina continued, “If we were more intimate with our bodies we would have fewer conflicts. We would respect other bodies more and have greater capacity to harmonize—even with discrepancies and differences, like playing in an orchestra rather than all being soloists.”

“I have learned and continue to learn everything through my body,” Christina said. Her path to Zen practice began in in 1976 when, as a Physiotherapist with training in Gestalt Movement Therapy, she participated in an “Introductory week in Existential Psychotherapy “ in Todtmoos-Rutte, Karlfried Graf Durckheim’s place in the Black Forest in Germany. There she was instructed in Zen meditation and sat in a zendo for the first time. “It was a homecoming experience for me, which led to an almost continuous path of practice.”

While studying Clinical Psychology, Christina participated in several Sensory Awareness workshops that Charlotte Selver had offered in Europe. Charlotte was also offering three-month study groups at Green Gulch Farm. In 1988 Christina signed up for a Sensory Awareness study group, and ended up spending a whole year at Green Gulch Farm and Tassajara. There, she received lay ordination from Zoketsu Norman Fischer, her root teacher, and Sojun Mel Weitsman in January 1989.

She was given the Dharma name JōShin HōEtsu, Pure Faith, Dharma Joy/ecstacy. Later, in 1993, when she was ordained as a priest by Tenshin Reb Anderson, the first part of her name was changed to KiKū, Loom of Emptiness. She experiences all her Dharma names to be very dynamic. “The names are illuminating.”

In her online description of the Practice Period, Christina writes: “Whether or not we believe that there will be future lives for us, it is during this life, here and now, that we have the opportunity to wake up and live in peace and harmony with ourselves and with all beings—a capacity that is urgently needed in these times, in which we all—through the intricate interconnection of our bodies—feel the hum of anxiety and stress running through this country and the whole world.”

Learn more and apply to participate in the City Center Winter 2026 Practice Period here.