Ama Samy
Indian Zen master and Jesuit priest
Ama Samy (Arul Maria Arokiasamy), born in 1936, is an Indian Zen master.
Biography
Ama Samy was born to Christian parents in Burma in 1936 and grew up in India. After becoming a Jesuit in 1972, he began visiting Hindu ashrams and Buddhist meditation centers. He was introduced to Ramana Maharshi's teachings by Swami Abhishiktananda. His searching led him to become a wandering beggar for a period and to settle down as a hermit. With the help of Father Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle, he visited Japan and trained with Yamada Koun Roshi of Sanbo Kyodan. In 1982, Yamada Roshi authorized him to teach Zen. He received the Japanese Dharma name Gen'un-ken (Gen: dark, obscure, mystery; Un: cloud).
Ama Samy founded the Bodhi Sangha, the community of his disciples, in 1986. Bodhi Sangha became an independent Zen school when he left the Sanbo Kyodan organization in 2002.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5548414. VIAF identifies the subject as 107997789. The Library of Congress control number is nb2010007711. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1936, 1972, 1982 and 1986.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ama Samy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.