Dennis Merzel | |
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| Born | June 3, 1944 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of Southern California |
| Occupation | Author |
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Dennis Merzel (born June 3, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American Zen and spirituality teacher, also known as Genpo Roshi.
Dennis Paul Merzel was born on June 3, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised and schooled in Long Beach, California. His family was Jewish (his grandfather was a Rabbi), [1] but he was raised as an agnostic by his father and as an atheist by his mother. [2] He was a champion swimmer and an all-American water polo player. He was a lifeguard and began teaching public school while obtaining a master's degree in educational administration from the University of Southern California. [web 1] [news 1]
While on a trip in 1971 to the Mojave Desert in California with two friends, Merzel had what he described as an "awakening experience". [web 2] [web 3] Following this, he left his career as a school teacher for a year to live in the mountains alone in a cabin near San Luis Obispo. In 1972 [web 2] he met the Japanese-born Zen teacher Taizan Maezumi, and moved to Los Angeles to study under him. [web 1] [news 2] [news 3] Merzel was ordained as an unsui , or novice priest, in 1973. [3] In 1980, a year after completing kōan study, Merzel received dharma transmission, becoming Maezumi's second Dharma successor. [3] [web 2] In 1981 Merzel underwent zuise [note 1] in Japan, [3] and in 1988 he was officially installed as abbot of Hosshinji Zen temple in Bar Harbor, Maine. [web 4] [note 2] In 1995 Merzel received the title of Dendō-kyōshi Kenshuso, a now defunct category officially recognizing Western Zen priests by the Sōtō School Headquarters in Japan (Sōtō-shū) . [web 5] In 1996 Merzel received Inka from Bernie Glassman, [3] [web 2] after Maezumi's death in 1995. [web 4] [note 3] This made Merzel Bernie Glassman's first Inka successor and made him the second in Maezumi Roshi's lineage to be recognized as a Zen Master. [web 2] Merzel is the founder [news 4] and former Abbot of Kanzeon Zen Center. [news 5]
In 1983 Merzel began studying Voice Dialogue—a Jungian therapeutic technique designed to expand the individual's ability to make choices in life rather than to behave in an automatic and unconscious fashion [web 8] —with Hal and Sidra Stone. Shortly thereafter, he began to experiment with integrating Voice Dialogue with the Zen tradition, [web 9] and in 1999 he introduced the Big Mind Process™. [web 4] The aim of the Big Mind Process is to combine "Eastern, Buddhist insights with Western psychoanalytical ideas," [news 6] [note 4] [note 5] and according to Merzel:
It allows a person to step out of their ego and have a universal mind or mystical experience, to attain what is commonly called enlightenment, self realization, Christ mind, or Buddha mind. [web 9]
Merzel has organized Big Mind™ retreats and events nationally and internationally, such as an annual event in the Netherlands that has attracted hundreds of participants. [news 6] Responses to Big Mind have been variously negative [web 11] [web 12] and positive. [web 13] [note 6]
A randomized clinical trial of Merzel's Big Mind process has been carried out as part of a masters thesis "to test the hypothesis that a Zen training method using a self-based dialogue approach called Big Mind (Merzel, 2007) produces significant changes in subjective experience that are similar to the spiritual experiences of long-term meditators during deep meditation and, second, to examine whether the effect brings about any lasting positive psychological improvements in both spirituality and well-being measures." [6] The participants appeared to score higher on various measures after participation, but the reported effects may also result from factors such as group effect, suggestibility, and/or simple expectation, [6] and the study may have limited generalizability due to the high level of education of the participants. [6] [note 7]
In 1988 Merzel was installed as abbot at Hosshinji, a Zen temple in Bar Harbor, Maine. [web 2] [web 5] [7] He was alleged to have had a romantic relationship with a student, leading to the dissolution of the temple. [web 5]
In August 1992, a group of 12 American Zen teachers sent a letter to Taizan Maezumi, expressing concern about Merzel's relationships with a number of female students, his lack of remorse, and his lack of responsibility. They asked Maezumi to withdraw Merzel's sanction to teach. [web 14]
In February 2011, after admitting to three extra-marital affairs, Merzel said he would disrobe as a Buddhist priest, resign as an elder of the White Plum Asanga, step down as Abbot of Kanzeon, and stop teaching for an indefinite period to seek counseling. [news 7] [news 8] [web 15] [news 9]
Forty-four American Buddhist teachers wrote a letter [news 10] suggesting that Merzel take a minimum one-year break from teaching and seek therapy. [letters 1] [letters 2]
By April, Merzel had reversed his position, saying that too many students and his organizations depended on him financially and spiritually. [news 11]
Sixty-six American Buddhist teachers responded with a public letter to Merzel requesting that he follow through with his stated intention to stop teaching for some time. [news 11] [letters 3] [letters 4] Merzel continued to lead retreats. [news 11] [letters 5] It was reported that he and his wife were divorcing. [news 11]
He continues to serve as president and abbot of Kanzeon Zen Center, now called Big Heart Zen Sangha. [web 2]
Dennis Merzel has given Dharma transmission ( shiho ) to twenty-three students heirs, and inka (final acknowledgement) to fifteen Zen-teachers. He has given Jukai to 518 students and ordained 139 priests. [web 2]
Zazen is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition.
Sōtō Zen or the Sōtō school is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism. It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dòngshān Liánjiè. It emphasizes Shikantaza, meditation with no objects, anchors, or content. The meditator strives to be aware of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference.
Rōshi (老師) is a title in Zen Buddhism with different usages depending on sect and country. In Rinzai Zen, the term is reserved only for individuals who have received inka shōmei, meaning they have completed the entire kōan curriculum; this amounts to a total of fewer than 100 people at any given time. In Sōtō Zen and Sanbo Kyodan it is used more loosely. This is especially the case in the United States and Europe, where almost any teacher who has received dharma transmission might be called rōshi, or even use it to refer to themselves, a practice unheard of in Japan.
In Chan and Zen Buddhism, dharma transmission is a custom in which a person is established as a "successor in an unbroken lineage of teachers and disciples, a spiritual 'bloodline' (kechimyaku) theoretically traced back to the Buddha himself." The dharma lineage reflects the importance of family-structures in ancient China, and forms a symbolic and ritual recreation of this system for the monastical "family".
Kanzeon Zen Center was a Zen Buddhist center located in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was an affiliate of the White Plum Asanga, an association of Zen centers stemming from the tradition of Taizan Maezumi. The founder and Abbot of Kanzeon Zen Center was Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi, who resigned in 2011 amidst controversy. Kanzeon Zen Center was the home temple and the hub of Kanzeon Sangha International, founded by Genpo Roshi in 1984, with affiliate teachers, centers and groups in the US and seven European countries. The center was housed at 1274 E. South Temple, a historic building listed as a contributing property in the South Temple Historic District. It closed in the wake of the sex scandals involving Merzel. News reports stated that the center was deeply financially in debt to Merzel.
John Daido Loori was a Zen Buddhist rōshi who served as the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery and was the founder of the Mountains and Rivers Order and CEO of Dharma Communications. Daido Loori received shiho from Taizan Maezumi in 1986 and also received a Dendo Kyoshi certificate formally from the Soto school of Japan in 1994. In 1997, he received dharma transmission in the Harada-Yasutani and Inzan lineages of Rinzai Zen as well. In 1996 he gave dharma transmission to his student Bonnie Myotai Treace, in 1997 to Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, and in 2009 to Konrad Ryushin Marchaj. In addition to his role as a Zen Buddhist priest, Loori was an exhibited photographer and author of more than twenty books and was an avid naturalist.
Hakuyū Taizan Maezumi was a Japanese Sōtō Zen Buddhist priest who substantially contributed to development of Zen in the USA.
Japanese Zen refers to the Japanese forms of Zen Buddhism, an originally Chinese Mahāyāna school of Buddhism that strongly emphasizes dhyāna, the meditative training of awareness and equanimity. This practice, according to Zen proponents, gives insight into one's true nature, or the emptiness of inherent existence, which opens the way to a liberated way of living.
Bernie Glassman was an American Zen Buddhist roshi and founder of the Zen Peacemakers, an organization established in 1980. In 1996, he co-founded the Zen Peacemaker Order with his late wife Sandra Jishu Holmes. Glassman was a Dharma successor of the late Taizan Maezumi-roshi, and gave inka and Dharma transmission to several people.
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Hakuryu Sojun Mel Weitsman, born Mel Weitsman, was an American Buddhist who was the founder, abbot and guiding teacher of Berkeley Zen Center located in Berkeley, California. Weitsman was a Soto Zen roshi practicing in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, having received Dharma transmission in 1984 from Suzuki's son Hoitsu. He was also a co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, where he served from 1988 to 1997. Weitsman was also editor of the book Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai, based on talks given by Suzuki on the Sandokai.
Hakuun Yasutani was a Sōtō priest and the founder of the Sanbo Kyodan, a lay Japanese Zen group. Through his students Philip Kapleau and Taizan Maezumi, Yasutani has been one of the principal forces in founding western (lay) Zen-practice.
White Plum Asanga, sometimes termed White Plum Sangha, is a Zen school in the Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi lineage, created by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi. It consists of Maezumi's Dharma heirs and subsequent successors and students. A diverse organization spread across the United States and with a small presence in Europe, the White Plum Asanga
[I]ncludes teachers who represent the spectrum of styles to be found to American Zen—socially engaged Buddhism, family practice, Zen and the arts, secularized Zen, and progressive traditionalism."
John Tesshin Sanderson is a Soto Zen roshi of the White Plum Asanga and spiritual director of the Centro Zen de México in Coyoacán, Mexico City, one of twelve Dharma Successors of the late Taizan Maezumi. He moved to Mexico in 1987 at the request of Maezumi, and has been teaching there ever since.
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Below is a timeline of important events regarding Zen Buddhism in the United States. Dates with "?" are approximate.
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Zen institutions have an elaborate system of ranks and hierarchy, which determine one's position in the institution. Within this system, novices train to become a Zen priest, or a trainer of new novices.
Zen was introduced in the United States at the end of the 19th century by Japanese teachers who went to America to serve groups of Japanese immigrants and become acquainted with the American culture. After World War II, interest from non-Asian Americans grew rapidly. This resulted in the commencement of an indigenous American Zen tradition which also influences the larger western (Zen) world.
Zen lineage charts depict the transmission of the dharma from one generation to another. They developed during the Tang dynasty, incorporating elements from Indian Buddhism and East Asian Mahayana Buddhism, but were first published at the end of the Tang.
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