Yves Shoshin Crettaz

Yves Shōshin Crettaz (b. 1946, Switzerland) is a Sōtō Zen monk in the lineage of Taisen Deshimaru and the responsible teacher of the Centro Zen de Lisboa (Ryūmonji) and several associated zazen groups in Portugal^[1][5]. Originally from the canton of Valais, he studied philosophy and worked as a teacher, trade unionist, and journalist before dedicating himself fully to Zen^[1].

Crettaz was ordained as a Zen monk in 1988 and trained for decades under his teacher Raphaël Dōkō Triet, a close disciple of Taisen Deshimaru. He received Dharma transmission (shihō) from Triet in 2013, confirming him as an authorised successor in the European Sōtō tradition^[1][2]. In 1997 he moved to Portugal with Triet to establish Zen practice there; he has been responsible for the Lisbon dōjō since 2005^[1][2].

Beyond Lisbon, Crettaz sits on the board of the Association Zen Internationale (AZI), is one of the responsible teachers for the Seikyūji temple near Seville, and represents the Lisbon dōjō in the Sōtō Zen Buddhism Europe Office of the Sōtōshū^[2][6]. His teaching emphasises shikantaza, the spirit of mushotoku, and the practice of the present instant, in continuity with the kusen tradition of Deshimaru — a continuation Triet has explicitly identified, naming Crettaz alongside Hugues Yūsen Naas and Begoña Kaidō Agiriano as one of the three successors he has formally authorised^[7].

His written work includes the book *O Gosto Simples da Vida*^[3] and a study, "The Young Dōgen in China," circulated through AZI^[4], which traces Dōgen Zenji's formative years of Chan training in the lineages of Tiāntóng Rújìng before his return to Japan and the founding of Eihei-ji.