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”
Tag Archives: zen
Thomas Hand
Abridged from Catholicism and Zen – 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 returnedContinue reading “Thomas Hand”
Bodhin Kjolhede
Rochester Zen Center – At one point in the course of our Zoom conversation, Bodhin Kjolhede has to get up from his desk and leave the room. As he comes back, I notice he is wearing a t-shirt with the Latin phrase: Ego Sum Abbas. “My students give me a lot of gag gifts,” heContinue reading “Bodhin Kjolhede”
Philip Whalen
Adapted from The Third Step East – For many people in the 1950s and early ’60s, their first encounter with Zen came not from reading Philip Kapleau’s Three Pillars of Zen or Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginners Mind but rather from reading Jack Kerouac’s 1958 novel, The Dharma Bums. By the 1940s, information about ZenContinue reading “Philip Whalen”
John Tarrant
Pacific Zen Institute – I first interviewed John Tarrant at his home in Santa Rosa in 2013. His was the third interview I conducted in this project, and I was still finding my way as an interviewer. I did a second interview with him last November; it was my 289th. He is Australian and grewContinue reading “John Tarrant”
Walter Nowick
Moonspring Hermitage – Walter Nowick was one of seven children born to Russian immigrants who were potato farmers on Long Island. It was a cultured family. Walter’s mother insisted that her children take piano lessons. A local teacher came to the farm every Saturday from 9:00 in the morning until 6:00 in the evening toContinue reading “Walter Nowick”
Nicole Baden
Dharma Sangha – Nicole Baden succeeded Richard Baker as the abbot of the two Dharma Sangha practice centers, the Crestone Mountain Zen Center in Colorado, and the Zen Buddhistisches Zentrum Schwarzwald in Germany. Her first encounter with Richard, however, was not particularly auspicious. “I was born in Northern Germany in a small village just southContinue reading “Nicole Baden”
Lou Nordstrom
“Memoirs of an American Zen Pioneer” I have not interviewed Lou Nordstrom. This profile is gleaned, in part, from his book, Memoirs of an American Zen Pioneer.[1] My only communication with him was through a student who replied to my request to quote material from that book. The student wrote back: “Lou says of courseContinue reading “Lou Nordstrom”
Stephen Zenki Salad
American Zen Facebook Page Zenki Salad has cycled through a number of careers. He was a New York cab driver, he was a teacher of the deaf, he taught English in Japan, he held a number of adminstrative posts both in hospitals – including the Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles – and with the enterntainmentContinue reading “Stephen Zenki Salad”
Richard Bryan McDaniel 