ZEN BUDDHISM
Thursday, September 30, 2010
D T SUZUKI
Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, October 18, 1870 – July 12, 1966 was a Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin (and Far Eastern philosophy in general) to the West. Suzuki was also a prolific translator of Chinese, Japanese, and Sanskrit literature. Suzuki spent several lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at Western universities, and devoted many years to a professorship at Otani University, a Japanese Buddhist school.
D. T. Suzuki was born Teitarō Suzuki in Honda-machi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, the fourth son of physician Ryojun Suzuki. (The Buddhist name Daisetz, meaning "Great Simplicity" (The kanji of which can also mean "Greatly Clumsy"), was given to him by his Zen master Soyen Shaku[2].) Although his birthplace no longer exists, a humble monument marks its location (a tree with a rock at its base). The Samurai class into which Suzuki was born declined with the fall of feudalism, which forced Suzuki's mother, a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist, to raise him in impoverished circumstances after his father died. When he became old enough to reflect on his fate in being born into this situation, he began to look for answers in various forms of religion. His naturally sharp and philosophical intellect found difficulty in accepting some of the cosmologies to which he was exposed.
Suzuki studied at Tokyo University and simultaneously took up Zen practice at Engakuji in Kamakura studying with Soyen Shaku. Under Soyen Shaku, Suzuki's studies were essentially internal and non-verbal, including long periods of sitting meditation (zazen). The task involved what Suzuki described as four years of mental, physical, moral, and intellectual struggle.
During training periods at Engaku-ji, Suzuki lived a monk's life. He described this life and his own experience at Kamakura in his book The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk. Suzuki was invited by Soyen Shaku to visit theUnited States in the 1890s. Suzuki acted as English-language translator for a book written by him (1906). Though Suzuki had by this point translated some ancient Asian texts into English (e.g. Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana), his role in translating and ghost-writing aspects of this book was more the beginning of Suzuki's career as a writer in English.
While he was young, Suzuki had set about acquiring knowledge of Chinese, Sanskrit, Pali, and several European languages. Soyen Shaku was one of the invited speakers at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. When a German scholar who had set up residence in LaSalle, Illinois, Dr. Paul Carus, approached Soyen Shaku to request his help in translating and preparing Eastern spiritual literature for publication in the West, the latter instead recommended his disciple Suzuki for the job. Suzuki lived at Dr. Carus’s home, the Hegeler Carus Mansion, and worked with him, initially in translating the classic Tao Te Ching from ancient Chinese. In Illinois, Suzuki began his early work Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism.
Carus himself had written a book offering an insight into, and overview of, Buddhism, titled The Gospel of Buddha. Soyen Shaku wrote an introduction for it, and Suzuki translated the book into Japanese. At this time, around the turn of the century, quite a number of Westerners and Asians (Carus, Soen, and Suzuki included) were involved in the worldwide Buddhist revival that had begun slowly in the 1880s.
Besides living in the United States, Suzuki traveled through Europe before taking up a professorship back in Japan. In 1911, Suzuki married Beatrice Erskine Lane, a Radcliffe graduate and Theosophist with multiple contacts with the Bahá'í Faith both in America and in Japan[6]. Later Suzuki himself joined the Theosophical Society Adyar and was an active Theosophist.[7] Dedicating themselves to spreading an understanding of Mahayana Buddhism, they lived in a cottage on the Engaku-ji grounds until 1919, then moved to Kyoto, where Suzuki began professorship at Otani University in 1921. While he was in Kyoto, he visited Dr. Hoseki Shinichi Hisamatsu, a famous Zen Buddhist scholar, and discussed Zen Buddhism together at Shunkoin temple in the Myoshinji temple complex.
In the same year he joined Otani University, he and his wife, Beatrice, founded the Eastern Buddhist Society; the Society is focused onMahayana Buddhism and offers lectures and seminars, and publishes a scholarly journal, The Eastern Buddhist. Suzuki maintained connections in the West and, for instance, delivered a paper at the World Congress of Faiths in 1936, at the University of London (he was an exchange professor during this year). Besides teaching about Zen practice and the history of Zen (Chinese Chán) Buddhism, Suzuki was an expert scholar on the related philosophy called, in Japanese, Kegon, which he thought of as the intellectual explication of Zen experience. Still a professor of Buddhist philosophy in the middle decades of the 20th century, Suzuki wrote some of the most celebrated introductions and overall examinations of Buddhism, and particularly of the Zen school. He went on a lecture tour of American universities in 1951, and taught at Columbia University from 1952 to 1957.
Suzuki was especially interested in the formative centuries of this Buddhist tradition, in China. A lot of Suzuki's writings in English concern themselves with translations and discussions of bits of the Chan texts the Biyan Lu (Blue Cliff Record) and the Wumenguan (Gateless Passage), which record the teaching styles and words of the classical Chinese masters. He was also interested in how this tradition, once imported into Japan, had influenced Japanese character and history, and wrote about it in English in Zen and Japanese Culture. Suzuki's reputation was secured in England prior to the U.S. In addition to his popularly oriented works, Suzuki wrote a translation of the Lankavatara Sutra and a commentary on its Sanskrit terminology. Later in his life he was a visiting professor at Columbia University. He looked in on the efforts of Saburō Hasegawa, Judith Tyberg, Alan Watts and the others who worked in the California Academy of Asian Studies (now known as the California Institute of Integral Studies), in San Francisco in the 1950s.
Suzuki is often linked to the Kyoto School of philosophy, but he is not considered one of its official members. Suzuki took an interest in other traditions besides Zen. His book Zen and Japanese Buddhism delved into the history and scope of interest of all the major Japanese Buddhist sects. In his later years, he began to explore the Jodo Shinshu faith of his mother's upbringing, and gave guest lectures on Jodo Shinshu Buddhism at the Buddhist Churches of America. D.T. Suzuki also produced an incomplete English translation of the Kyogyoshinsho, the magnum opusof Shinran, founder of the Jodo Shinshu school. However, Suzuki did not attempt to popularize the Shin doctrine in the West, as he believed Zen was better suited to the Western preference for Eastern mysticism[citation needed], though he is quoted as saying that Jodo ShinshuBuddhism is the "most remarkable development of Mahayana Buddhism ever achieved in East Asia".[8] Suzuki also took an interest in Christian mysticism and in some of the most significant mystics of the West, for example, Meister Eckhart, whom he compared with theJodo Shinshu followers called Myokonin. Suzuki was among the first to bring research on the Myokonin to audiences outside Japan as well.
Suzuki's books have been widely read and commented on by many important figures. A notable example is An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, which includes a 30-page commentary by famous analytical psychologist Carl Jung. Other works include Essays in Zen Buddhism (three volumes), Studies in Zen Buddhism, and Manual of Zen Buddhism. Additionally, American philosopher William Barrett has compiled many of Suzuki's articles and essays concerning Zen into a volume entitled Studies in Zen.
Suzuki's Zen master, Soyen Shaku, who also wrote a book published in the United States (English translation by Suzuki), had emphasized the Mahayana Buddhist roots of the Zen tradition. Suzuki's contrasting view was that, in its centuries of development in China, Zen (or Chan) had absorbed much from indigenous Chinese Taoism. Suzuki believed that the Far Eastern peoples had a more sensitive or attuned to nature than either the people of Europe or those of Northern India. Suzuki subscribed to the idea that religions are each a sort of organism, an organism that is (through time) subject to "irritation" and having a capacity to change or evolve. It was Suzuki's contention that a Zen satori (awakening) was the goal of the tradition's training, but that what distinguished the tradition as it developed through the centuries in China was a way of life radically different from that of Indian Buddhists. In India, the tradition of the mendicant (holy beggar, bhikku in Pali) prevailed, but in China social circumstances led to the development of a temple and training-center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks. These included food gardening or farming, carpentry, architecture, housekeeping, administration (or community direction), and the practice of folk medicine. Consequently, the enlightenment sought in Zen had to stand up well to the demands and potential frustrations of everyday life.
Interestingly, later in life Suzuki was more inclined to Jodo Shin (True Pure Land) practice on a personal level, seeing in the doctrine of Tariki, or other power as opposed to self power, an abandonment of self that is entirely complementary to Zen practice and yet to his mind even less willful than traditional Zen.
Suzuki received numerous honors, including Japan's national Cultural Medal.
"New Buddhism," Japanese nationalism, and Buddhist modernism
Scholars such as Martin Verhoeven[citation needed] and Robert Sharf, as well as Japanese Zen monk G. Victor Sogen Hori, have argued that the breed of Japanese Zen that was propagated by New Buddhism ideologues, such as Imakita Kosen and Soen Shaku, was not typical of Japanese Zen during their time, nor is it typical of Japanese Zen now. Although greatly altered by the Meiji restoration, Japanese Zen still flourishes as a monastic tradition. The Zen Tradition in Japan, in its customary form, required a great deal of time and discipline from monks that laity would have difficulty finding. Zen monks were often expected to have spent several years in intensive doctrinal study, memorizing sutras and poring over commentaries, before even entering the monastery to undergo koan practice in sanzen with the roshi.[11] The fact that Suzuki himself was able to do so (as a layman) was largely the invention of New Buddhism.
At the onset of modernization in the Meji period, in 1868, when Japan entered into the international community, Buddhism was briefly persecuted in Japan as "a corrupt, decadent, anti-social, parasitic, and superstitious creed, inimical to Japan's need for scientific and technological advancement."[12] The Japanese government intended to eradicate the tradition, which was seen as a foreign "other", incapable of fostering the nativist sentiments that would be vital for national, ideological cohesion. In addition to this, industrialization led to the breakdown of the parishioner system that had funded Buddhist monasteries for centuries. However, a group of modern Buddhist leaders emerged to argue for the Buddhist cause.[13] These leaders stood in agreement with the government persecution of Buddhism, accepting the notion of a corrupt Buddhist institution in need of revitalization.
This movement, known as shin bukkyo, or "New Buddhism", was led by university-educated intellectuals who had been exposed to a vast body of Western intellectual literature. Advocates of New Buddhism, like Suzuki's teachers Kosen and his successor Soen Shaku, saw this movement as a defense of Buddhism against government persecution, and also saw it as a way to bring their nation into the modern world as a competitive, cultural force.
Several scholars have identified Suzuki as a Buddhist Modernist. As scholar David McMahan describes it, Buddhist Modernism consists of "forms of Buddhism that have emerged out of an engagement with the dominant cultural and intellectual forces of modernity." Most scholars agree that the influence of Protestant and Enlightenment values have largely defined some of the more conspicuous attributes of Buddhist Modernism. McMahan cites "western monotheism; rationalism and scientific naturalism; and Romantic expressivism" as influences.[17] Buddhist Modernist traditions often consist of a deliberate de-emphasis of the ritual and metaphysical elements of the religion, as these elements are seen as incommensurate with the discourses of modernity. Buddhist Modernist traditions have also been characterized as being "detraditionalized," often being presented in a way that occludes their historical construction. Instead, Buddhist Modernists often employ an essentialized description of their tradition, where key tenets are described as universal and sui generis.
Suzuki's depiction of Zen Buddhism can be classified as Buddhist Modernist in that such traits can be found in it. That he was a university-educated intellectual steeped in knowledge of Western philosophy and literature allowed him to be particularly successful and persuasive in presenting his case to a Western audience. As Suzuki portrayed it, Zen Buddhism was a highly practical religion whose emphasis on direct experience made it particularly comparable to forms of mysticism that scholars such as William James had emphasized as the fountainhead of all religious sentiment. McMahan states, "In his discussion of humanity and nature, Suzuki takes Zen literature out of its social, ritual, and ethical contexts and reframes it in terms of a language of metaphysics derived from German Romantic idealism, English Romanticism, and American Transcendentalism." Drawing on these traditions, Suzuki presents a version of Zen that can be described as detraditionalized and essentialized: Zen is the ultimate fact of all philosophy and religion.
Criticism
Despite Suzuki's pioneering efforts, he has been criticized on the grounds that:
- He was not an ordained Zen monk
- He was not an academic historian working within a secular academic institution
- His conceptions of Zen were often overly inclusive and general, and
- His work merely employed the Zen Buddhist tradition to rewrite nativist Kokugaku ideas characteristic of Shintoist studies, and use these ideas to define Japanese identity as a unique one (cf.nihonjinron).
Robert H Sharf has written "The nihonjinron [cultural exceptionalism] polemic in Suzuki's work—the grotesque caricatures of 'East' versus 'West'—is no doubt the most egregiously inane manifestation of his nationalist leanings"[20] and that "one is led to suspect that Suzuki's lifelong effort to bring Buddhist enlightenment to the Occident had become inextricably bound to a studied contempt for the West."[21]
However, some clearly credible Western scholars, such as Heinrich Dumoulin, have acknowledged some degree of debt to Suzuki's published work, and, quite significantly, some of the most important figures of the 20th century have praised him unreservedly (see below — "About D. T. Suzuki") Nevertheless, Suzuki's view of Zen Buddhism is certainly his very own; as philosopher Charles A. Moore said: "Suzuki in his later years was not just a reporter of Zen, not just an expositor, but a significant contributor to the development of Zen and to its enrichment." This is echoed by Nishitani Keiji, who declared: "...in Dr. Suzuki's activities, Buddhism came to possess a forward-moving direction with a frontier spirit... This involved shouldering the task of rethinking, restating and redoing traditional Buddhism to transmit it to Westerners as well as Easterners... To accomplish this task it is necessary to be deeply engrossed in the tradition, and at the same time to grasp the longing and the way of thinking within the hearts of Westerners. From there, new possibilities should open up in the study of the Buddha Dharma which have yet to be found in Buddhist history... Up to now this new Buddhist path has been blazed almost single-handedly by Dr. Suzuki. He did it on behalf of the whole Buddhist world". Carl G. Jung said of him: "Suzuki's works on Zen Buddhism are among the best contributions to the knowledge of living Buddhism… We cannot be sufficiently grateful to the author, first for the fact of his having brought Zen closer to Western understanding, and secondly for the manner in which he has achieved this task."
The Cambridge Buddhist Association was informally founded in 1957 when D.T. Suzukimoved to Cambridge, Massachusetts and befriended John and Elsie Mitchell, who ran a vast library of books on Buddhism and held zazen for various practitioners. The institution was incorporated in 1959 and remains active. In 1979 Maurine Stuart, a Rinzai roshi, became President of the organization, and several influential Buddhist teachers in theUnited States have been members
Below is a timeline of important events regarding Zen Buddhism in the United States. Dates with "?" are approximate.
TIME LINE OF ZEN
- 1893: Soyen Shaku comes to the United States to lecture at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago
- 1905: Soyen Shaku returns to the United States and teaches for approximately one year in San Francisco
- 1906: Sokei-an arrives in San Francisco
- 1919: Soyen Shaku dies on October 29 in Japan
- 1922: Zenshuji Soto Mission is established in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles, California
- 1922: Nyogen Senzaki begins teaching in California with his "floating zendo"
- 1930: Sokei-an establishes the Buddhist Society of America (now First Zen Institute of America)
- 1945: Sokei-an dies
- 1949: Soyu Matsuoka establishes the Chicago Buddhist Temple (now the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago)
- 1949: Soen Nakagawa makes his first trip to the United States to meet with Nyogen Senzaki
- 1950s
- 1951: DT Suzuki begins teaching seminars on Japanese culture, aesthetics, and Zen atColumbia University in New York. Among the students are many influential artists and intellectuals, including Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, John Cage, and Allen Ginsberg.[1]
- 1953: Philip Kapleau begins formal Zen training in Japan.
- 1956: Taizan Maezumi arrives in Los Angeles to serve at the Zenshuji Soto Mission
- 1956: The Zen Studies Society is established by Cornelius Crane
- 1957: Alan Watts' "The Way of Zen" is published, the book first popularizing zen with an American audience
- 1957: The Cambridge Buddhist Association is founded by John and Elsie Mitchell inCambridge, Massachusetts
- 1958: Nyogen Senzaki dies on May 7
- 1959: Shunryu Suzuki arrives in San Francisco to lead Sokoji
- 1959: Hsuan Hua arrives in the United States and establishes the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association
- 1959: Robert Baker Aitken and Anne Hopkins Aitken found the Diamond Sangha in Honolulu, Hawaii
1960s
- 1962: Kyozan Joshu Sasaki arrives in California
- 1962: Rinzai monk Eido Tai Shimano moves to Hawaii to assist Diamond Sangha and Robert Aitken.
- 1962: The San Francisco Zen Center is incorporated, led by Shunryu Suzuki
- 1964: Eido Tai Shimano moves to New York and becomes guiding teacher of the Zen Studies Society
- 1965: Philip Kapleau finishes The Three Pillars of Zen and returns to United States with permission from Haku'un Yasutani to teach Zen to Westerners.
- 1966: San Francisco Zen Center acquires Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
- 1966: Philip Kapleau establishes the Rochester Zen Center with the help of Chester Carlson (founder of Xerox), and Carlson's wife. Original Sangha consisted of 22 members.
- 1966: D.T. Suzuki dies on July 12 in Japan
- 1966: Yvonne Rand begins practicing at the San Francisco Zen Center
- 1967: The Zen Center of Los Angeles is founded by Taizan Maezumi and his students
- 1967: Kobun Chino Otogowa arrives in San Francisco to assist Shunryu Suzuki
- 1967: Sojun Mel Weitsman and Shunryu Suzuki co-found the Berkeley Zen Center
- 1968: Samu Sunim founds the Zen Lotus Society in New York (aka Buddhist Society for Compassionate Wisdom)
- 1968: New York Zendo Shobo-Ji of the Zen Studies Society of New York is officially inaugurated by Soen Nakagawa on his 7th trip to the USA
- 1969: Shunryu Suzuki gives Zentatsu Richard Baker Dharma transmission; begins transmission with Jakusho Kwong, but dies before completing process
1970s
- 1970: Edward Espe Brown publishes the Tassajara Bread Book
- 1970: Shunryu Suzuki's book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is published by Weatherhill
- 1970: Shasta Abbey is established in Mount Shasta, California by Jiyu Kennett
- 1970: James Ishmael Ford received Dharma transmission from Houn Jiyu Kennett 2 May 1971
- 1971: Shunryu Suzuki dies.
- 1971: Yamada Koun moves to Diamond Sangha in Hawaii to lead sesshin
- 1971: Kobun Chino Otogowa becomes abbot of Haiku Zen Center
- 1971: Kyozan Joshu Sasaki founds Mount Baldy Zen Center
- 1972: Seung Sahn Soen Sa Nim arrives from Korea in Providence, Rhode Island and founds the Providence Zen Center
- 1972: Green Gulch Farm opens in Muir Beach, CA as part of the San Francisco Zen Center
- 1972 First meeting of the Zen Center of Syracuse founded by graduate students of Syracuse University
- 1972 Toronto Zen Center is formed with help of Philip Kapleau
- 1972: Dainin Katagiri founds the Minnesota Zen Center
- 1972: Eido Tai Shimano receives Dharma transmission from Soen Nakagawa
- 1973: Haku'un Yasutani dies
- 1973: Kyozan Joshu Sasaki founds Bodhi Manda Zen Center
- 1973: Jakusho Kwong founds the Sonoma Mountain Zen Center
- 1973: The Cambridge Zen Center is founded as part of the Kwan Um School of Zen
- 1973: The New Haven Zen Center is founded as part of the Kwan Um School of Zen
- 1974: Robert Baker Aitken receives teaching permission from Yamada Koun
- 1974: The Chicago Zen Center is founded by Philip Kapleau
- 1975?: Taizan Maezumi founds the White Plum Asanga
- 1975: The Chogye International Zen Center is founded by the Kwan Um School of Zen in New York
- 1975: The Nebraska Zen Center is founded by Dainin Katagiri in Omaha, Nebraska, currently led by Rev. Nonin Chowaney
- 1976: Shohaku Okumura helps found Pioneer Valley Zendo in Charlemont, MA
- 1976: Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-Ji opens in the Catskill Mountains of New York State
- 1976: Tetsugen Bernard Glassman becomes Taizan Maezumi's first Dharma successor
- 1976: The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is built, the largest and first Chinese Ch'an community in the United States
- 1976: Heng Sure is ordained by Hsuan Hua, becomes one of the first Western Chinese Ch'an monks
- 1977: Kyogen Carlson receives Dharma transmission from Jiyu Kennett
- 1977?: The Atlanta Soto Zen Center by Zenkai Taiun Michael Elliston is established
- 1978: The Buddhist Peace Fellowship is founded
- 1978: Genki Takabayashi becomes resident teacher at the Seattle Zen Center
- 1979: Maurine Stuart becomes President of the Cambridge Buddhist Association
- 1979: Omori Sogen Roshi of Tenryu-ji founds Daihonzan Chozen-ji in Honolulu, the first Rinzai Zen temple headquarters established outside of Japan.
1980s
- 1980: Ch'an master Sheng-yen begins teaching in the United States
- 1980: Dennis Genpo Merzel receives shiho from Taizan Maezumi
- 1980: Hartford Street Zen Center is established
- 1980: Zen Mountain Monastery in founded in Mount Tremper, New York by Taizan Maezumi and John Daido Loori
- 1981: Toni Packer leaves Rochester Zen Center and founds her own non-Buddhist retreat
- 1981: Taizan Maezumi founds Yokoji Zen Mountain Center
- 1982: Maurine Stuart receives the informal title roshi from Soen Nakagawa in a private ceremony
- 1982: The Rinzai temple Daiyuzenji is founded in Chicago, Illinois as a betsuin (branch) of Daihonzan Chozen-ji by Tenshin Tanouye Roshi and Fumio Toyoda.
- 1983: Jan Chozen Bays receives Dharma transmission from Taizan Maezumi
- 1983?: Charlotte Joko Beck receives Dharma transmission from Taizan Maezumi
- 1983: The Kwan Um School of Zen is established by Seung Sahn Soen Sa Nim
- 1983: Zentatsu Richard Baker confers Dharma transmission to Tenshin Reb Anderson
- 1983: Dai Bai Zan Cho Bo Zen Ji is founded in Seattle, Washington by Genki Takabayashi
- 1983: Zentatsu Richard Baker resigns as abbot of San Francisco Zen Center amidst controversy
- 1983: Taizan Maezumi enters alcoholism treatment and is confronted about his sexual relationships with some students
- 1984: The Kanzeon Zen Center is founded by Dennis Genpo Merzel in Salt Lake City, Utah
- 1984: The New Orleans Zen Temple is founded by Robert Livingston in New Orleans, Louisiana
- 1984: Nonin Chowaney is ordained a priest by Dainin Katagiri
- 1984: Sojun Mel Weitsman receives Dharma transmission from Hoitsu Suzuki, son of Shunryu Suzuki
- 1985: Robert Baker Aitken receives Dharma transmission from Yamada Koun
- 1986: Bodhin Kjolhede is installed as abbot of Rochester Zen Center as Philip Kapleau retires
- 1986: Furnace Mountain is founded in Clay City, Kentucky by Dae Gak and Seung Sahn as part of the Kwan Um School of Zen
- 1986: Toronto Zen Center is incorporated.
- 1986: Village Zendo is established in New York in the apartment of Pat Enkyo O'Hara
- 1987: Maitri Hospice begins caring for AIDS patients at the Hartford Street Zen Center (the first Buddhist hospice of its kind in the United States)
- 1987: Issho Fujita becomes abbot of Pioneer Valley Zendo in Charlemont, Massachusetts
- 1988: Blanche Hartman receives Dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman
- 1988: Yamada Koun gives Dharma transmission to Ruben Habito
- 1988: Zoketsu Norman Fischer receives Dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman
- 1988: Hsi Lai Temple is built, the largest Chinese Chan community in Southern California, a Triple Platform Monastic Ordination is convened
- 1988: The Kwan Um School of Zen is rocked by revelations that Seung Sahn had sexual relationships with students
- 1989: Issan Dorsey becomes abbot of Hartford Street Zen Center
- 1989?: The American Zen Teachers Association is founded
- 1989: Nonin Chowaney receives Dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri
- 1989: Yamada Koun dies
1990s
- 1990: Issan Dorsey dies of AIDS
- 1990: Maurine Stuart dies of cancer
- 1990: Gerry Shishin Wick receives Dharma transmission from Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi
- 1990: Joan Halifax receives Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh
- 1990: Dainin Katagiri dies
- 1990: The Upaya Zen Center is founded by Joan Halifax in Santa Fe, New Mexico
- 1991: The Maria Kannon Zen Center is founded by Ruben Habito in Dallas, Texas
- 1991: Poet Philip Whalen becomes the new abbot of Hartford Street Zen Center
- 1992: Mary Farkas of the First Zen Institute of America dies
- 1992: Caitriona Reed receives teaching authorization from Thich Nhat Hanh
- 1992: George Bowman receives Dharma transmission from Seung Sahn
- 1992: Soeng Hyang receives Dharma transmission from Seung Sahn
- 1992: Su Bong receives Dharma transmission from Seung Sahn
- 1992: Shi Yan Ming arrives in the United States
- 1993: Wu Bong receives Dharma transmission from Seung Sahn
- 1993: Wu Kwang receives Dharma transmission from Seung Sahn
- 1994: Dae Gak receives Dharma transmission from Seung Sahn
- 1994: Charles Tenshin Fletcher receives Dharma transmission from Taizan Maezumi in the White Plum Asanga
- 1994: Su Bong dies on October 11 of unknown causes at a retreat while conducting an interview with a student in Hong Kong
- 1994: Still Mind Zendo founded by Janet Jiryu Abels Sensei and Father Robert Kennedy in New York City
- 1994: Enkyo Pat O'Hara receives shiho from Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
- 1994: Taigen Dan Leighton founds Mountain Source Sangha
- 1994: Shi Yan Ming founds the USA Shaolin Temple
- 1995: Taizan Maezumi dies on May 15
- 1995: Charles Tenshin Fletcher appointed abbot of Yokoji Zen Mountain Center
- 1995: The Ordinary Mind School is founded by Charlotte Joko Beck
- 1995: Hsuan Hua dies on June 7 at age 77
- 1995: Taitaku Pat Phelan receives shiho from Sojun Mel Weitsman
- 1995: Zoketsu Norman Fischer becomes abbot of San Francisco Zen Center, and serves until 2000
- 1995: Shodo Harada establishes One Drop Zendo on Whidbey Island in Washington state.
- 1996: Blanche Hartman becomes co-abbot of San Francisco Zen Center
- 1996: The Zen Peacemaker Order is founded by Bernard Glassman and his wife, Sandra Jishu Holmes.
- 1996: The Sanshin Zen Community is founded by Shohaku Okumura in Bloomington, Indiana
- 1996: Jiyu Kennett dies on November 6
- 1996: Jiko Linda Cutts receives Dharma transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson
- 1996: The Hazy Moon Zen Center is founded by William Nyogen Yeo in Los Angeles, California
- 1996: Dae Kwang receives Dharma transmission from Seung Sahn
- 1996: Bonnie Myotai Treace receives Dharma transmission from John Daido Loori in the Mountains and Rivers Order
- 1996: Bernard Glassman gives Inka to Dennis Genpo Merzel
- 1996: Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association is established by Sheng-yen
- 1997: Dharma Drum Retreat Center is established in Pine Bush, New York by Sheng-yen and followers
- 1997: Shambhala Publications publishes The Compass of Zen by Seung Sahn
- 1996: Ji Bong receives Dharma transmission from Seung Sahn
- 1997: Catholic priest Father Robert Kennedy receives inka from Bernard Glassman
- 1997: Soyu Matsuoka dies
- 1997: Geoffrey Shugen Arnold receives shiho from John Daido Loori
- 1998: Sherry Chayat receives inka from Eido Tai Shimano, becoming the first officially sanctioned female zen teacher in the Rinzai school in America
- 1998: Maylie Scott receives Dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman
- 1998: Hozan Alan Senauke receives Dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman
- 1999: Genjo Marinello becomes abbot of Chobo-ji
- 1999: Joan Halifax receives inka from Bernard Glassman
- 1999: John Tarrant establishes the Pacific Zen Institute
- 1999: Zen Center of Pittsburgh - Deep Spring Temple is founded by Nonin Chowaney in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2000—present
- 2000: Deer Park Monastery is founded in Escondido, California as part of Thich Nhat Hanh's Order of Interbeing
- 2000: Groundbreaking at Chapin Mill, the rural Zen Retreat center part of the Rochester Zen Center, donated by Ralph Chapin
- 2000: White Plum Asanga acknowledges Gerry Shishin Wick as a roshi
- 2000: Taigen Daniel Leighton receives inka from Tenshin Reb Anderson.
- 2000: Bon Yeon receives Dharma transmission from Seung Sahn
- 2001: Maylie Scott dies on May 10 at age 66
- 2002: Peter Schneider (zen priest) receives Dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman
- 2002: Philip Whalen, abbot of Hartford Street Zen Center, dies on June 26
- 2002: Great Vow Zen Monastery is founded by Jan Chozen Bays and Hogen Bays in Clatskanie, Oregon
- 2002: Kobun Chino Otagowa dies of drowning in Switzerland
- 2002: Seirin Barbara Kohn becomes head priest and guiding teacher of The Austin Zen Center in Austin, Texas
- 2003: Jy Din Shakya opens the Hsu Yun Temple in Honolulu before passing away on March 13
- 2003: Paul Haller becomes abbot of San Francisco Zen Center
- 2003: Brad Warner publishes the book Hardcore Zen
- 2004: Philip Kapleau dies on May 6 from complications of Parkinson's disease
- 2004: Seung Sahn dies on November 30
- 2004: Soeng Hyang succeeds Seung Sahn as Guiding teacher of the Kwan Um School of Zen
- 2004: Angie Boissevain receives Dharma transmission from Vanja Palmers, a Dharma heir of Kobun Chino Otagowa
- 2004: Enkyo Pat O'Hara receives inka from Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
- 2004: Golden Wind Zen Order is founded by Ji Bong in Long Beach, California
- 2005: Daiyuzenji (formerly a branch temple of Daihonzan Chozen-ji in Hawaii) is established as an independent Rinzai temple in Chicagoby Dogen Hosokawa Roshi.
- 2006: Gerry Shishin Wick receives inka from Bernard Glassman
- 2006: Merle Kodo Boyd received Dharma transmission from Wendy Egyoku Nakao, becoming the first African-American woman to do so.
- 2006: The Nashville Mindfulness Center is founded by Tiếp Hiện in Nashville, Tennessee
- 2007: Zendo is completed at the 135 acre Chapin Mill Zen Retreat center Batavia NY.
- 2008: Roko Sherry Chayat is formally recognized as a Roshi during a shitsugo ceremony.
- 2008: Genjo Marinello receives Dharma transmission from Eido Tai Shimano on May 21
- 2008: Hsi Lai Temple celebrates 20th anniversary
- 2009: Sheng-yen dies on February 3 at age 80
- 2009: Ancient Dragon Zen Gate [1] is founded by Taigen Daniel Leighton in Chicago.
- 2009: John Daido Loori dies in New York at age 78
- 2010: Eido Tai Shimano resigns from the board of the Zen Studies Society due to allegations of misconduct.
- 2010: Robert Aitken dies in Hawaii at age 93
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)