Hermitage Heart – Myotai Treace was John Daido Loori’s first Dharma successor. She served for many years as vice abbess of Zen Mountain Monastery and later as abbess of Fire Lotus Temple in New York City. She is the founder of Hermitage Heart where she now teaches from the mountains of North Carolina. “I onceContinue reading “Myotai Treace”
Author Archives: Rick McDaniel
Peggy Rowe Ward
Lotus Institute Peggy Rowe Ward and her late husband, Larry Ward, established the Lotus Institute in the tradition of the Vietnamese teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh. “As a little girl, I had a real connection with Jesus,” she tells me, “I really felt he was my friend. And I had a lot of insights being inContinue reading “Peggy Rowe Ward”
Zenshuji
A conversation with Shumyo Kojima – In 1922 – two years before Sokei-an Sasaki began his lectures on Buddhism at the Orientalia Bookstore in New York City, and a full thirty-seven years prior to Shunryu Suzuki’s arrival in San Francisco – the Japanese Soto-shu established the Zenshuji Soto Mission in Los Angeles, the first ZenContinue reading “Zenshuji”
Ed Brown
Peaceful Sea Sangha – When we begin our conversation, Ed Brown tells me that the circumstances of his birth are a significant part of his Zen story. “I was born prematurely, and I was in the incubator for three weeks, and that has come to be a subject of my Zen practice. Because if you’reContinue reading “Ed Brown”
Norman Fischer
Everyday Zen Foundation – While at college, Norman Fischer came upon an anthology of essays by D. T. Suzuki. “It was introduced by a professor who was an expert on existentialism, and he presented Zen Buddhism in the light of existentialist philosophy, which was very current in the late ’60s. So that was what IContinue reading “Norman Fischer”
Martine Taikai Palmiter
Joyful Mind Zen Community, Rockville, Maryland There are factions in the US currently resisting the concept of political “wokeness,” in the sense of being “awakened” to racial or gender injustices inherent in societal structures. But for Martine Palmiter spiritual and the political “awakening” are intertwined. “I was raised American Baptist, and I actually loved goingContinue reading “Martine Taikai Palmiter”
Joan Halifax
Upaya Zen Center – I have a spiel I use before starting an interview. I assure the person interviewed that I am less interested in what they say than in what they intended to say and that I recognize there may be a difference between the two. Therefore, I will send them a transcript ofContinue reading “Joan Halifax”
Sara Jisho Siebert
Zen Fields, Ames, Iowa – Sara Jisho Siebert is a Soto Zen priest who teaches at Zen Fields in Ames, Iowa. Her back story is striking. “When I was fourteen, a number of people in my life experienced sexual violence and talked to me about it. My mom is a great listener, and I guessContinue reading “Sara Jisho Siebert”
Thomas Hand
In addition to the Soto missions established for the benefit of the immigrant populations on the West Coast, and the Asian-trained teachers who sought to introduce a new spiritual tradition to the West, there was a third route by which Zen came to North America: Catholic missionaries who returned from their tours of service inContinue reading “Thomas Hand”
