Zenkei Blanche Hartman
| Blanche Hartman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Religion | Zen Buddhism |
| School | Sōtō |
| Lineage | Shunryu Suzuki |
| Education | B.A. |
| Dharma names | Zenkei |
| Personal | |
| Nationality | American |
| Born | 1926 Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | May 13, 2016 (aged 89–90) San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Spouse | Lou Hartman |
| Senior posting | |
| Title | Roshi |
| Predecessor | Sojun Mel Weitsman |
| Successor |
Seirin Barbara Kohn Kosho McCall, Ryumon Gutierrez-Baldoquin, Jana Drakka, Cathleen Williams, Tony Patchell, John King (deceased). |
| Religious career | |
| Website | http://www.sfzc.org/ |
Zenkei Blanche Hartman (1926 – May 13, 2016) 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 women face, and as of 2011 she and her late husband Lou Hartman had four children, eight grandchildren, and a number of great-grandchildren.
Blanche Hartman was born in Birmingham, Alabama to non-practicing Jewish parents in 1926. Educated in the Catholic school system in the early 1930s—and impressed with the religiosity and faith of one teacher—in 1943 she moved to California, where her father served in the military. After taking up biochemistry and chemistry at the University of California she married Lou Hartman in 1947, giving birth to four children, one of them being Nina Hartley, a porn actress. In the late 1950s she found work as a chemist, though by 1968 she began questioning the direction of her life. She and her husband began sitting zazen regularly at the Berkeley Zen Center in Berkeley, California in 1969, and in 1972 the two entered Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. The couple lived at all of the other San Francisco Zen Center sites, including City Center and Green Gulch Farm. (Lou died in 2011 and Blanche now lives at AgeSong.) During the 1970s, Blanche received training in Nyoho-e – a traditional method for sewing Buddha's robe—in the lineage of Sawaki Kodo Roshi from Kasai Joshin Sensei, formerly of Antaiji. Blanche was fundamental to the spread of devotional sewing practice throughout North America. She and Lou were both ordained as priests by Zentatsu Richard Baker in 1977, and Blanche was given the Buddhist name Zenkei (meaning inconceivable joy). In 1988 she received shiho from Sojun Mel Weitsman, and in 1996 she became installed as co-abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center. This was the first female abbess of the City Center, having served just after Tenshin Reb Anderson and Sojun Mel Weitsman. One reason Blanche accepted the position of co-abbess, serving two terms from 1996 to 2002, is that she understood the need for women to have a role model.
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