Kanzeon Big Mind Zen Dennis Genpo Merzel is the founder and abbot of the international Kanzeon Big Mind Sangha. He was the second person – after Bernie Glassman – to whom Taizan Maezumi gave Dharma transmission. Susan Myoyu Andersen was the tenth. “Well, Genpo is complex,” she tells me. “But one thing that I willContinue reading “Genpo Merzel”
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Anita Feng (Zen Master Jeong Ji)
Albuquerque Zen Center – When the founding abbot of the Albuquerque Zen Center – Seiju Mammoser – let it be known that he was contemplating retirement, the board of directors began looking for someone to succeed him. Seiju had been a disciple of Joshu Sasaki in the Japanese Rinzai tradition. The search process – accordingContinue reading “Anita Feng (Zen Master Jeong Ji)”
Susan Myoyu Andersen
Great Plains Zen Center, Monroe, Wisconsin – Susan Myoyu Andersen was the tenth person to whom Taizan Maezumi gave Dharma transmission. She later received full authorization – inka – from Dennis Genpo Merzel. Currently she is the resident teacher at Great Plains Zen Center in Wisconsin. She is also a good old-fashioned activist. After aContinue reading “Susan Myoyu Andersen”
Michael Kieran
Palolo Zen Center, Hawaii The Zen boom of the 1960s and ’70s was largely a youth phenomenon. It’s said that one of the reasons Dainin Katagiri established his Zen Center in Minneapolis was because he had not been at ease with the counter-culture young people who flooded the San Francisco Zen Center. He wanted hisContinue reading “Michael Kieran”
Barry Magid
Ordinary Mind Zendo, New York – “Like a lot of people in the 1960s,” Barry Magid tells me, “I encountered Zen through the Beats, in reading Kerouac and Gary Snyder. I found Alan Watts and D. T. Suzuki and those folks. So at some point I noticed the characters who were still alive – whoContinue reading “Barry Magid”
Kurt Spellmeyer
Cold Mountain Sangha, New Jersey “I’m from a mixed background/heritage, and religion really wasn’t an important part of my upbringing,” Kurt Spellmeyer tells me. “I became interested in all kinds of religious traditions, but it wasn’t part of our family’s experience.” I ask what the mix was. “Well, I was really ‘all of the above’Continue reading “Kurt Spellmeyer”
Flint Sparks
Appamada – Austin, Texas I begin my conversation with Flint Sparks by asking if that was, indeed, his birthname or perhaps a nickname “It’s my real name,” he tells me. “I grew up in Texas as my dad did, and he was a real fan of the cowboy novel genre. There was one series heContinue reading “Flint Sparks”
Peter Levitt
Salt Spring Zen Circle, British Columbia In early 1967, at the age of 21, New York-born Peter Levitt and his wife heard something was happening in San Francisco, so they headed west. “We rented a place in the Mission District that had four apartments, which was a great find,” he tells me. “Rent was $80Continue reading “Peter Levitt”
Ted O’Toole
Minnesota Zen Meditation Center – Ted O’Toole is the current Guiding Teacher at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis founded by Dainin Katagiri. It was a not an obvious location for a Zen Center in 1972. Dosho Port tells me that Katagiri had not been entirely comfortable with the hippies who were coming toContinue reading “Ted O’Toole”
Richard Bryan McDaniel 