Category Archives: Uncategorized

Adapted from The Third Step East – When telling me about Shunryu Suzuki’s arrival in the United States, David Chadwick pointed out that Suzuki “landed in the middle of the Alan Watts Zen boom.” Two men, in particular, can be credited with preparing the way for the extraordinary success of early Zen teachers like SuzukiContinue reading “D. T. Suzuki and Alan Watts”

Blue Mountain Zendo, Bethlehem, PA – When he was 25 years old, Joriki Baker dropped a set of keys and, when bending over to pick them up, fell to the ground and was unable to get up. “I’d damaged my back in my teens body surfing,” he tells me. The injury had been considered healed,Continue reading “Joriki Baker”

Open Mind Zen, Melbourne, Florida – There are more than a dozen teachers identified on the Open Mind International website. Fusho Al Rapaport is the founder and director of the general organization and remains a teacher at the Melbourne, Florida, zendo although he tells me he no longer works much with beginners. His students areContinue reading “Al Fusho Rapaport”

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”