Ciska Shizuka Matthes (b. 1964) studied social psychology in Amsterdam. She worked initially as a social skills trainer, and then as a journalist in South Africa. In 1996 she discovered Zen meditation, which would further define her life path. She stayed at periods at the Noorder Poort since 1998 and has always remained a grateful student of Jiun Hogen roshi.

From 1999-2005 Ciska stayed in Japan for intensive Zen training. About this time she later published the book ‘Memories of Harada Tangen roshi – my years in a Japanese Zen monastery’ with Asoka publishers.

Later Ciska deepened her knowledge of Vipassana through long retreats at home and abroad. She took up the training to become a mindfulness trainer in 2011 and since then this has been her work, in addition to giving meditation and yoga classes (yin and hatha/vinyasa) for which she took courses in India and the Netherlands.

Another important source of inspiration for Ciska is advaita; especially the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and Sri Mooji.

She gets great satisfaction from guiding retreats with her partner Stef, in which they bring all these traditions together. Their website in Dutch: www.hetoogvandeorkaan.nl.