Category Archives: Uncategorized

Joyful Mind Zendo, Rockville, Maryland For Martine Palmiter there is a natural connection between the contemporary concept of being “woke” to racial or gender injustices inherent in societal structures and the concept of awakening found in Buddhism.  “I was raised American Baptist, and I loved going to church with my mother. And it was oneContinue reading “Martine Taikai Palmiter”

[This is an abridgement of my chapter on Taizan Maezumi in The Third Step East.] Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi was in the unique position of having teaching authority in three lineages, Soto, Rinzai, and Sanbo Kyodan (later called Sanbo Zen). No one was more qualified to promote Zen in the West. Born in 1931, he wasContinue reading “Taizan Maezumi”

Stone Willow Zendo, Spokane, WA Daya (Dianne) Goldschlag explains how the Stone Willow Zendo in Spokane, Washington, got its name. “In front of my house in Spokane is a big rock named Shunryu.” She has a soft-spoken – at times, almost shy – voice. “And there’s a wonderful story behind the rock coming here. It’sContinue reading “Daya Goldschlag”

Village Zendo, NYC Pat Enkyo O’Hara, the Abbot Emerita of the Village Zendo in New York City, grew up in Tijuana. “My mother was one of those wild people in the ’40s, and, when I was three, she divorced my dad who was this strict Catholic – alcoholic but strict Catholic – and ran offContinue reading “Pat Enkyo O’Hara”

Manzanita Village Retreat Center, San Diego County, CA Caitriona Reed is one of the co-founders of the Manzanita Village Retreat Center in San Diego, California. I note the remnants of a British accent, and she admits that she’s from the UK. “I came here on holiday forty years ago and forgot to go back. IContinue reading “Caitriona Reed”

When, in 2013, I began the set of interviews which were the basis of Cypress Trees in the Garden, I was still pretty naïve about the state of Zen in North America. I had assumed that the sites I had arranged to visit would be more or less similar to the center where I hadContinue reading “Josh Bartok”

Zen Mountain Monastery [This is an abridgement of my chapter on ZMM in Cypress Trees in the Garden.] John Daido Loori, the founder of Zen Mountain Monastery, had been dead for four years when I visited ZMM in 2013 to conduct a series of interviews. On my second day, I was introduced to the monastery’sContinue reading “John Daido Loori”

Zen Center of Los Angeles Katherine Senshin Griffith is an actress, writer, and comic performer. She is also the current Head Teacher at the Zen Center of Los Angeles. She was raised in Texas and, on occasion, slips back into the regional accent. Her father had been a professor at Our Lady of the Lake,Continue reading “Katherine Senshin Griffith”

Bright Sea Zen Sangha, Weymouth, MA When Kate Hartland was growing up, her parents were atheists, but Kate wondered if she was missing something. “My neighbors were all involved in churches, and I felt the lack of something.” So at the age of ten, she walked to a local church, “maybe a mile away,” wentContinue reading “Kate Hartland”