Author Archives: Rick McDaniel

Kwan Um School of Zen – The Kwan Um School of Zen (or Seon in Korean) began in Providence Rhode Island in 1983 and is now a global phenomenon. Its founder was the Korean monk, Seung Sahn, originally a member of the Chogye Order in Korea. He came to the United States in the 1970sContinue reading “Seung Sahn”

Dharma Rain, Portland, Oregon – When I was in high school, I became involved with the Mormons for a bit. It had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with a girl, but I acquired a basic knowledge of their belief system. It’s hard to believe someone attracted to it would also beContinue reading “Sallie Jiko Tisdale”

Day Star Zendo – Wrentham, Massachusetts – I met Sister Madeleine Tacy in 2016 when I visited the Day Star Zendo in Wrentham, Massachusetts. That visit is described in the final chapter of my book, Catholicism and Zen. Seven years later, she is now the guiding teacher of Day Star. The group had been startedContinue reading “Sr. Madeleine Tacy”

Adapted from The Third Step East – The story is told that in 1876, a Japanese fisherman—or possibly an itinerant Kegon monk— named Senzaki came upon the body of a recently deceased woman on the Russian Kamchatka peninsula which extends southward towards the archipelago of Japan. At the woman’s breast, there was a newborn childContinue reading “Nyogen Senzaki”

Mu Sang Sa Temple, Korea – When I was gathering background material on the Korean Zen Master, Seung Sahn – founder of the Kwan Um School – I was advised to interview Dae Bong Sunim, the former abbot and current guiding teacher of Mu Sang Sa Temple in Korea. I only had his Dharma name,Continue reading “Dae Bong Sunim”

Crimson Gate Meditation Community, Oakland, CA – Megan Rundel is a Dharma heir of Joan Sutherland and the guiding teacher of the Crimson Gate Meditation Community in Oakland, California. She grew up in Houston, where her father was a member of the Physics Department at Rice University. The family religion, she tells me, was science.Continue reading “Megan Rundel”

Adapted from The Story of Zen – The transference of Buddhism to the west began in the post-Darwinian period at the end of the 19th century when rationalists began to have difficulty accepting the absolutes of the Christian creed but still  wanted to believe that there was a spiritual dimension to human life. As aContinue reading “Shaku Soen”

Howling Dragon Zen, Vermont – A book on physics first drew Jim Bastien to Zen Practice. He was working at Boys Town – the Catholic orphanage in Nebraska – “when I came across this book called The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that book, but he wroteContinue reading “Jim Daikan Bastien”

Clear Water Zendo – Vallejo, California In 1875, a Russian woman named Helena Blavatsky and an American Civil War veteran, Colonel Henry Olcott, established the Theosophical Society in New York City. The term “theosophy” was coined from the Greek words theos (god) and sophia (wisdom) and was intended to convey the idea of a “divineContinue reading “Mary Mocine”