Louisville Zen Center
Venerable Jissai (Jeanette) Prince-Cherry, born in North Carolina in 1967, served in the United States Air Force for eight years and earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Southern Illinois University. She worked in engineering for nearly 15 years before dedicating her life to the Buddhadharma.
Jissai began practicing Zen in 1994 and has since maintained a daily personal practice, regularly participating in group sittings, residential training, and intensive Zen meditation retreats (sesshin). She has also undertaken residential training and participated in sesshins at Sogenji, a Rinzai Zen monastery in Japan.
In 1999, Jissai began instructing others in Zen meditation. She now offers meditation workshops, group and private instruction, Zen talks, and leads sesshin.
In 2022, she was ordained as a Zen Buddhist Priest of the Three Jewels Order of the Cloud-Water Sangha. The name "Jissai" (pronounced JEE-sigh) means “true encounter". Click here to view photos of her ordination. Click here to hear her 50-minute "Coming to the Path" talk about her journey to the Dharma and to the Rochester Zen Center.
On August 17, 2025, Ven. Jissai-Prince Cherry will be formally sanctioned by her teacher, Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, as a fully authorized Zen teacher. At that time, the Louisville Zen Center will become an independent sister center to Rochester Zen Center.
Jissai is honored to serve as Group Leader for the Louisville Zen Center and Online Head of Zendo for the Rochester Zen Center. You can support her Dharma work through financial gifts via PayPal.Me or Cashapp (cash.app/$jissaipc) or by contributing personal items or study materials on her Amazon wish list.