Taigen Dan Leighton

Taigen Dan Leighton
Religion	Sōtō
Education	Columbia University, B.A. California Institute of Integral Studies, M.A. Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, Ph.D.
Dharma names	Taigen Shizan
Personal
Nationality	American
Senior posting
Based in	Ancient Dragon Zen Gate Loyola University, Chicago Institute of Buddhist Studies
Predecessor	Tenshin Reb Anderson
Religious career
Teacher	Kando Nakajima Tenshin Reb Anderson Zenkei Blanche Hartman
Website	ancientdragon.org/taigen_dan_leigton

Taigen Dan Leighton (b. 1950, grew up in Pittsburgh, PA) is a Soto Zen priest and teacher, academic, and author. He is an authorized lineage holder and Zen teacher in the tradition of Shunryu Suzuki, and is the founder and Guiding Teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, Illinois.

Leighton began his Zen practice in 1975 at the New York Zen Center, training under Kando Nakajima roshi. He studied at Columbia University, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in East Asian studies. Leighton worked as a television and film editor in New York City, and then San Francisco.

In 1978, he moved to California and eventually became a resident at San Francisco Zen Center, where he worked at Tassajara Bakery and other of Zen Center's businesses. In subsequent years, Leighton practiced in residence at all of the San Francisco Zen Center facilities, including Green Gulch Farm Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. In 1986, Leighton was ordained as a priest by Tenshin Reb Anderson (in the latter's first ordination ceremony).

Leighton lived in Japan from 1990–1992, translating Dōgen texts with Shohaku Okumura and training under various masters. In 1994, Leighton founded the Mountain Source Sangha in Bolinas, San Rafael, and San Francisco, California (of which Ancient Dragon Zen Gate is a sister temple).

In 2000, Leighton received shiho, or Dharma transmission, from Tenshin Anderson.

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