Daniel Kōjin Gallagher Sensei is an ordained Sōtō Zen teacher. He received Dharma Transmission (Denkai and Shiho) from Dr. David Keizan Scott Rōshi, founder of StoneWater Zen Centre in Liverpool, England. He has extensive training in both shikantaza (just sitting) and kōan practise, having completed the Takuju Rinzai kōan curriculum in the Harada-Yasutani lineage through Taizan Maezumi Rōshi.

Kōjin experienced early glimpses of insight as a teenager and throughout his twenties while meditating with Sunyana Graef in Vermont. While studying at the Sorbonne in France, a series of spontaneous awakenings transformed the course of his life. He then dedicated himself to rigorous Zen practise and intensive kōan study with Genno Roshi in Paris, attending retreats throughout Europe. His Zen training also included several extended residencies at Kanzeon Zen Center in Utah, and Yokoji Zen Mountain Center in California.

Kōjin emphasises the innate potential of every person to awaken to their true nature and to recognise the infinite, absolute dimension of existence. Living in harmony with this awakening is the very manifestation of realisation itself — intimate, unending, continuously unfolding beyond all measure.

Born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts, Kōjin earned a BA and an MA from Saint Michael’s College in Vermont. He spent over twenty years living in France, where he worked as a translator and university lecturer while obtaining master's degrees and a doctorate in Comparative Literature at the Université de Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle. 

Diagnosed with autism as an adult, Kōjin welcomes all cognitively diverse people who would like to practise meditation. 

Alongside his academic publications, he is the author of Meeting the True Dragon: Zen Master Dogen’s Fukanzazengi (2019), and Striking Emptiness: Zen Master Dogen’s Bendowa (2024).