Philip Kapleau was an American teacher of Zen Buddhism in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition, which is rooted in Japanese Sōtō and incorporates Rinzai-school koan-study. He also strongly advocated for Buddhist vegetarianism.
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".
Sanbo Kyodan is a lay Zen sect derived from both the Soto (Caodong) and the Rinzai (Linji) traditions. It was renamed Sanbo-Zen International in 2014. The term Sanbo Kyodan has often been used to refer to the Harada-Yasutani zen lineage. However, a number of Yasutani's students have started their own teaching lines that are independent from Sanbo Kyodan. Strictly speaking, Sanbo Kyodan refers only to the organization that is now known as Sanbo-Zen International.
Ryushin Paul Haller, a Soto Zen roshi, is a former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center—a position he held from 2003 until February 2012. Leaving his homeland of Belfast in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s, Haller spent time in Russia, Afghanistan and Japan. He then went to Thailand for two years where he was ordained as a Buddhist monk. Coming to California in 1974, he entered Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and was later ordained as a priest by Zentatsu Richard Baker in 1980. He received shiho from Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1993, giving him authority to teach. Since 2000 Haller has also been the teacher of Black Mountain Zen Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Hakuyū Taizan Maezumi was a Japanese Sōtō Zen Buddhist priest who substantially contributed to development of Zen in the USA.
Dai Bai Zan Cho Bo Zen Ji is a Rinzai-style Zen temple located on North Beacon Hill in Seattle, Washington. Its name translates from Japanese as "Listening to the Dharma Zen Temple on Great Plum Mountain."
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.
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.
Berkeley Zen Center (BZC), temple name Shogakuji, is an Sōtō Zen Buddhist practice centre located in Berkeley, California currently led by Hozan Alan Senauke. An informal affiliate to the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), BZC was founded in 1967 by Sojun Mel Weitsman and Shunryu Suzuki as a satellite group for the SFZC. Despite founding the centre, Weitsman was not installed as an abbot there until 1985, one year after receiving Dharma transmission from Hoitsu Suzuki. Weitsman's Dharma heir, Alan Senauke, lives on-site with his wife Laurie Senauke and also works for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Another former teacher at BZC was Maylie Scott, who died in 2001. In 1969 Zenkei Blanche Hartman began sitting zazen at BZC, receiving Dharma transmission from Weitsman in 1988. In 1979 the centre relocated to its current location on Russell Street—and today houses a small group of residents who live on site. BZC has an active community and a full schedule of zen service, student talks, dharma talks, and zazen.
Zenkei Blanche Hartman was a Soto Zen teacher practicing in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. From 1996 to 2002 she served two terms as co-abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center. She was the first woman to assume such a leadership position at the center. A member of the American Zen Teachers Association, Blanche was especially known for her expertise in the ancient ritual of sewing a kesa. Hartman became known for her attention to issues faced by women; she and her late husband Lou Hartman had four children, eight grandchildren, and a number of great-grandchildren.
Dr. Soyu Matsuoka, along with Sokei-an and Nyogen Senzaki, was one of the early Zen teachers to make the United States his home.
Stephen Tokan "Steve" Hagen, Rōshi, is the founder and former head teacher of the Dharma Field Zen Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a Dharma heir of Dainin Katagiri-roshi. Additionally, he is the author of several books on Buddhism. Among them as of 2003, Buddhism Plain & Simple was one of the top five bestselling Buddhism books in the United States. In 2012, Hagen updated and revised How the World Can Be the Way It Is and published it as Why the World Doesn't Seem to Make Sense—an Inquiry into Science, Philosophy, and Perception.
Below is a timeline of important events regarding Zen Buddhism in the United States. Dates with "?" are approximate.
Wendy Egyoku Nakao Roshi is the abbot emeritus and head teacher of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. She moved into the center in 1978 and later received Dharma transmission and inka from Bernard Glassman. She assumed her abbotship in 1999. According to James Ishmael Ford, "Under her leadership, the center expanded its mission to be family-friendly and socially active, creating an important experiment in the development of Western Zen." Nakao also conferred Dharma transmission to the first ever African-American woman, Merle Kodo Boyd. Nakao is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association. In May 2019 Egyoku Nakao stepped down as abbot, but remains its head teacher, to devote herself to further developing ZCLA's teaching curriculum. She at that time installed Deborah Faith-Mind Thoresen as the ZCLA's fourth abbot. Her book of modern koans, co-written with rōshi Eve Marko, was published in 2020.
Gyokuko Carlson is a Soto Zen roshi and abbess of Dharma Rain Zen Center in Portland, Oregon, United States.
The Atlanta Soto Zen Center (ASZC) is a Soto Zen practice center founded in 1977 by Zenkai Taiun Michael Elliston-sensei, a dharma heir of the late Soyu Matsuoka and guiding teacher of the Mokurai Silent Thunder Order. Rev. Elliston has also received transmission in the Uchiyama lineage through Shohaku Okumura, roshi. The Atlanta Soto Zen Center is recognized by the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and serves as the main training center for the order which has affiliate centers throughout the United States and Canada.
The Pacific Zen Institute (PZI), is a Zen Buddhist school centered in Santa Rosa, California, with affiliates in Oakland, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, and Waco, Kentucky. Its students live and practice throughout North America, South America, and Asia. Established in 1999, Pacific Zen's stated mission is to "create a culture of transformation through meditation, koans, conversation, and the arts." Its founding director, John Tarrant, was the first dharma heir to Robert Baker Aitken, in the line of the Sanbo Kyodan school of koan Zen.
Sante Poromaa Roshi is a Zen Buddhist priest and teacher, in the lineage of Harada-Yasutani. He was born in 1958 in Kiruna, Sweden, and commenced his Zen training in the early eighties, as a student of Roshi Philip Kapleau. When Roshi Kapleau went into semi-retirement, he also became a student of Kapleau's successor, Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede.
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.
