Bernie Glassman | |
---|---|
Religion | Zen Peacemakers |
School | Zen Peacemaker Order |
Lineage | White Plum Asanga |
Education |
Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute University of California, Los Angeles |
Other names | Bernie Glassman |
Dharma names | Tetsugen |
Personal | |
Nationality | American |
Born |
Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York, United States |
January 18, 1939
Spouse | Eve Marko |
Senior posting | |
Title | Roshi |
Predecessor | Taizan Maezumi |
Successor |
Joan Halifax Father Robert Kennedy Wendy Egyoku Nakao Pat Enkyo O'Hara Lou Nordstrom Don Singer Grover Genro Gauntt Anne Seisen Saunders Francisco "Paco" Lugoviña |
Religious career | |
Website | www.zenpeacemakers.org |
Bernie Glassman (born January 18, 1939) is an American Zen Buddhist roshi and founder of the Zen Peacemakers (previously the Zen Community of New York), an organization established in 1980. In 1996, he co-founded the Zen Peacemaker Order with his late wife Sandra Jishu Holmes. Glassman is a Dharma successor of the late Taizan Maezumi-roshi, and has to date given inka and Dharma transmission to several people.
Glassman has become known as a pioneer of social enterprise, socially engaged Buddhism and "Bearing Witness Retreats" at Auschwitz and on the streets.
According to author James Ishmael Ford, as of 2006 he has,
...transferred his leadership of the White Plum Asanga to his Dharma brother Merzel Roshi and has formally "disrobed," renouncing priesthood in favor of serving as a lay teacher.
Bernie Glassman was born to Jewish immigrants in Brighton Beach,Brooklyn, New York in 1939. He attended university at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and received a degree in engineering. Following graduation he moved to California to work as an aeronautical engineer at McDonnell-Douglas. He then received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Glassman first encountered Zen when he was assigned Huston Smith's The Religions of Man for an English class in 1958. From there, he continued reading including books by Alan Watts, Christmas Humphreys, and D.T. Suzuki. In the early 1960s, Glassman began meditating and soon after sought a local Zen teacher. He found Taizan Maezumi in Los Angeles, California and Glassman became one of the original founding members of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. He received Dharma transmission in 1976 from Maezumi and then inka in 1995 shortly before Maezumi's death.