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Peggy Rowe Ward
Lotus Institute Peggy Rowe Ward and her late husband, Larry Ward, established the Lotus Institute in the tradition of the Vietnamese teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh. “As a little girl, I had a real connection with Jesus,” she tells me, “I really felt he was my friend. And I had a lot of insights being in…
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Zenshuji
A conversation with Shumyo Kojima – In 1922 – two years before Sokei-an Sasaki began his lectures on Buddhism at the Orientalia Bookstore in New York City, and a full thirty-seven years prior to Shunryu Suzuki’s arrival in San Francisco – the Japanese Soto-shu established the Zenshuji Soto Mission in Los Angeles, the first Zen…
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Ed Brown
Peaceful Sea Sangha – When we begin our conversation, Ed Brown tells me that the circumstances of his birth are a significant part of his Zen story. “I was born prematurely, and I was in the incubator for three weeks, and that has come to be a subject of my Zen practice. Because if you’re…
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Norman Fischer
Everyday Zen Foundation – While at college, Norman Fischer came upon an anthology of essays by D. T. Suzuki. “It was introduced by a professor who was an expert on existentialism, and he presented Zen Buddhism in the light of existentialist philosophy, which was very current in the late ’60s. So that was what I…
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Martine Taikai Palmiter
Joyful Mind Zen Community, Rockville, Maryland There are factions in the US currently resisting the concept of political “wokeness,” in the sense of being “awakened” to racial or gender injustices inherent in societal structures. But for Martine Palmiter spiritual and the political “awakening” are intertwined. “I was raised American Baptist, and I actually loved going…
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Joan Halifax
Upaya Zen Center – I have a spiel I use before starting an interview. I assure the person interviewed that I am less interested in what they say than in what they intended to say and that I recognize there may be a difference between the two. Therefore, I will send them a transcript of…
