User:Mattbcullen/Nissim Amon

Nissim Amon (Hebrew: נִיסִים אַמוֹן, born April 1963) is a Zen Master, developer of the Trilotherapy therapeutic system, founder of Tao's center in Greece and author of five books. He also teaches meditation and instructs groups of various kinds.

Amon was born in Jerusalem, Israel. At age 18, he joined the Israeli Defense Forces and fought in the 1982 Lebanon War. After finishing his service, he travelled to the East, where he first encountered Buddhism.

After his trip, Amon returned to Israel but in 1987 travelled eastward again to join the Korean Song Wang Sa Zen monastery. On March 1988, Amon moved to Hwa Gye Sa Monastery, where he was ordained as a monk, and thus became the first Israeli to formally obtain this title in Korea. He was also qualified as a Dharma teacher and meditation instructor by Zen Master Seung Sahn.

Amon then proceeded to Japan, where in 1992 he joined a Dojo ran by Master Gudo Wafu Nishijima of the Soto Zen sect. Master Nishijima ordained him as a Zen Master.

Amon's final stop in the East was the Osho Ashram in Poona (Pune), India, where he became a staff member of the ashram and taught Zen for a year. While in the ashram, Amon had first witnessed therapeutic methods, especially the Gestalt theory.

In 1994, Amon returned to Israel and started teaching in Tel-Aviv. He founded and directed the Higher Consciousness Course of Study in Medicin College of alternative medicine and taught Buddhism to groups, sometimes collaborating with other teachers. While doing that, he started crystallizing the techniques he studied and taught into a whole new theory.

In 2001, Amon moved to the Greek island of Paros, where he established a meditation and retreat center called Tao's. To this day, Tao's hosts various activities such as: meditation, Qi Gong, Yoga and dance workshops, seminars, retreats, and a long-stay work and study program - all led by qualified and experienced instructors.

Amon developed Trilotherapy and started putting it into practice. In a therapeutic method, the therapist addresses two different characters – the inner children – representing the Heart and the Mind. By communicating with each one of them and causing them to understand each other better. A third character is awakened from a long sleep. This third character is the balanced center and the mediating parent of the inner children, known in Zen as the True Self.

Along the years, Amon had published five books in Hebrew (one of them is a translation to the Taoist classic Tao Te Ching by Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu). He also collaborated with Uri Ophir in producing a meditation music CD called Kwan Se Om under the label: Primary Music and hosted a TV show: The Secret to Inner Bliss on the Israeli Channel 8.

Amon got married on 2001 and has two children: a daughter (born 2001) and a son (born 2006). Since 2008, Amon and his family are living in Israel.