Who is the leader of the Zen Buddhist monks?

Answer 1

There is no "pope" or "Dalai Lama" in Zen Buddhism. In monasteries, the term Rōshi (lit. "older teacher") is used as a respectful honorific to a significantly older Zen teacher considered to have matured in wisdom and to have attained a superior understanding and expression of the Buddhist teachings. Zen emphasizes the relation between teacher and student, and a direct transmission of the core of the teachings between the two.

Answer 2

There is no Zen Buddhist leader in the way that, for example, the Pope is the spiritual leader of Roman Catholic Christians or the Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. Zen Buddhism is the meditation school of Buddhism. The emphasis is on a practitioner's direct experience--not on accepting any specific creed or dogma or teachings. Though there are helpful ideas associated with the practice, they do not ultimately count. What counts is a student mastering the practice.

Answer 3

There is no one leader. There are a number of different schools of Zen, each with its own leader. For example, my Zen Center's lineage leads back to Myoshin-ji, a temple in Kyoto, Japan. The leader of our school is Joshu Sasaki-roshi.

Answer 4

There is no one leader of all Buddhists monks. Some Buddhist lineages have heads, such as the Dalia Lama, who leads the Gelug lineage of Tibetan Buddhism; but Buddhism is a not a centrally controlled religion, like Roman Catholicism.

Each monk, when they have learned the teachings of the Buddha (the Dharma) sufficiently and have reach sufficient stage of spiritual development will be given permission to teach others. Once a Monk receives transmission they could go to another location and being teaching other there.