Blanche Hartman
Zenkei Blanche Hartman (née Gelders; 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 Kasaya (clothing), 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. Biography Blanche Hartman was born in Birmingham, Alabama to non-practicing Jewish parents, Joseph Gelders and Esther Frank in 1926. Educated in the Catholic schools, 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 biochem ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Alabama, second-most populous city in Alabama, and estimated at 196,357 in 2024. The Birmingham metropolitan area, Alabama, Birmingham metropolitan area had a population of 1.19 million in 2020 and is the largest metropolitan area in Alabama and List of metropolitan statistical areas, 47th-most populous in the US. Birmingham serves as a major regional economic, medical, and educational hub of the Deep South, Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion, Piedmont, and Appalachian regions. Founded in 1871 during the Reconstruction Era of the United States, Reconstruction era, Birmingham was formed through the merger of three smaller communities, most notably Elyton, Alabama, Elyton. It quickly grew into an industrial and transportation ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an international border with the Mexico, Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With almost 40million residents across an area of , it is the List of states and territories of the United States by population, largest state by population and List of U.S. states and territories by area, third-largest by area. Prior to European colonization of the Americas, European colonization, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization by the Spanish Empire. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821, following Mexican War of Independence, its successful war for independence, but Mexican Cession, was ceded to the U ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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James Ishmael Ford
James Ishmael Ford (Zeno Myoun, Roshi) is an American Zen Buddhist priest and a retired Unitarian Universalist minister. He was born in Oakland, California on July 17, 1948. He earned a BA in psychology from Sonoma State University, as well as an M.Div. and an MA in the Philosophy of Religion, both from the Pacific School of Religion. Biography Ford began his Zen studies in 1968 at the Berkeley Zen Center under the direction of Mel Weitsman, later Weitsman, Roshi. He was ordained unsui and received Dharma transmission from the late Jiyu Kennett Roshi . After leaving Kennett Roshi's Shasta Abbey and for a brief time exploring other religious traditions including the Episcopal Church, the western Gnostic tradition and Inayat Khan Sufism, Ford pursued Zen koan introspection for nearly twenty years in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition with John Tarrant Roshi, with whom he completed formal training and from whom he received Inka Shomei (formal recognition as an authorized Zen teache ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tenshin Reb Anderson
Tenshin Zenki Reb Anderson (born 1943) is an American Zen Buddhist teacher in the Sōtō Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. He is a senior dharma teacher at the San Francisco Zen Center and at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in Marin County, California, where he lived for many years. According to author James Ishmael Ford, "Reb Anderson is one of the most prominent of contemporary Western Zen teachers." Biography Reb Anderson was born as Harold Anderson in Mississippi in 1943 and grew up in Minnesota. His father left the family when Anderson was eleven. In his youth, he was a Golden Gloves boxer. Anderson developed an interest in Buddhism while still in his teens. In 1967, he abandoned his graduate studies in psychology and mathematics to study Soto Zen under Shunryu Suzuki at the San Francisco Zen Center. Anderson was then ordained as a priest in 1970 by Suzuki, who gave Anderson the Buddhist name Tenshin Zenki 天眞全機 (''Naturally Real, The Whole Works''). After Suzuki Roshi's ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Buddhist Name
A Dharma name is a new name acquired during both lay and monastic Buddhist initiation rituals in Mahayana Buddhism and monastic ordination in Theravada Buddhism (where it is more proper to call it Dhamma or Sangha name). The name is traditionally given by a Buddhist monastic, and is given to newly ordained monks, nuns and laity. Dharma names are considered aspirational, not descriptive. Most of the well-known Buddhist teachers are known to have had many different Dharma names in the course of their careers, and often each name represents a stage of their career. For example, Prince Shotoku was also known as Prince Umayado and Prince Kamitsumiya. Shinran's original name was Matsuwakamaru; he was also known as Hanen, Shakku, Zenshin, Gutoku Shinran and Kenshin Daeshi. Nichiren's original name was Zennichi and his Dharma names were Zenshobo Rencho and Rissho Daishi. Similarly, the tradition of various Dharma names was also used by Zen monks, who also used art to promote Buddhis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Zentatsu Richard Baker
Richard Dudley Baker (born March 30, 1936) is an American Soto Zen master (or roshi), the founder of Dharma Sangha—which consists of Crestone Mountain Zen Center located in Crestone, Colorado and the ''Zen Buddhist Center Black Forest'' (Zen-Buddhistisches Zentrum Schwarzwald, or, Johanneshof) in Germany's Black Forest. As the American Dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki, Baker assumed abbotship of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) shortly before Suzuki's death in 1971. He remained abbot there until 1984, the year he resigned his position after it was disclosed in the previous year that he and the wife of one of SFZC's benefactors had been having an affair. Despite the controversy connected with his resignation, Baker was instrumental in helping the San Francisco Zen Center to become one of the most successful Zen institutions in the United States. Early life and education Richard Baker was born in Biddeford, Maine, on March 30, 1936, the son of Harold Baker and Elisabeth Dudley.. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Green Gulch Farm
Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, or Sōryu-ji (蒼龍寺 ''Azure Dragon, Green Dragon Temple'') is a Soto Zen practice center located near Muir Beach, California, that practices in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. In addition to its Zen training program, the center also manages an organic farm and gardens. Founded in 1972 by the San Francisco Zen Center and Zentatsu Richard Baker, the site is located on in a valley north of San FranciscoMcCormick, 45 and offers a variety of workshops and classes throughout the year. The land is an inholding of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and has much wildlife within its borders. In addition to meditation retreats, offerings include classes and workshops on the Japanese tea ceremony and gardening.Cooper, 233 While Green Gulch Farm has a residential monastery and retreat center, guest house, and conference center,Ricci, 14-15 it has also become recognized as a place where organic farmers can come to learn the tools of their trade.Davis, 170 O ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
The Tassajara Zen Mountain Center is the oldest Japanese Buddhist Sōtō Zen monastery in the United States. It is on the border of the Ventana Wilderness and within the Los Padres National Forest, southeast of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. The center is only accessible over Chews Ridge via a narrow, steep, one-lane dirt road from Jamesburg. During the winter months the center can be inaccessible due to snow and rain. Practitioners live and study on site. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the center is open to day and overnight guests. The natural hot springs have been developed into Japanese-style baths. A steam bath is built over a hot spring in Tassajara Creek. The center is the first Zen monastery established outside Asia. History The name is a corruption of ''Tasajera'', a Spanish-American word derived from an indigenous Esselen word, which means "place where meat is hung to dry". The 126-acre mountain property surrounding the Tassajara Hot Springs was purchased by the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, California, Oakland and Emeryville, California, Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany, California, Albany and the Unincorporated area, unincorporated community of Kensington, California, Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County generally follows the ridge of the Berkeley Hills. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded a population of 124,321. Berkeley is home to the oldest campus in the University of California, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is managed and operated by the university. It also has the Graduate Theological Union, one of the largest religious studies institutions in the world. Berkeley is ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Berkeley Zen Center
Berkeley Zen Center (BZC), official temple name , is a residential Sōtō Zen Buddhist practice centre located in Berkeley, California which has been led since 2024 by Shinchi Linda Galijan and Zenshin Greg Fain. Founded as an affiliate temple of San Francisco Zen Center in 1967 in a house on Dwight Way by Hakuryu Sojun Mel Weitsman and Shōgaku Shunryu Suzuki,Dimidjian, 137 Weitsman became BZC's abbot in 1985 after receiving Dharma transmission from Suzuki's son Hoitsu Suzuki.Gach, 230 Weitsman's Dharma heir Hozan Alan Senauke took over as abbot in 2021, living on-site with his wife and fellow ordained Zen priest Laurie Senauke until his passing in 2024.Prebish, 108 In 1979, BZC relocated to a dedicated temple on Russell Street which houses resident priests, students and lay practitioners. BZC has an active community and a full schedule of zen service, student talks, dharma talks, and zazen Notable People Blanche Hartman, Zenkei Blanche Hartman began sitting zazen in 1969, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Zazen
''Zazen'' is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. The generalized Japanese term for meditation is 瞑想 (''meisō''); however, ''zazen'' has been used informally to include all forms of seated Buddhist meditation. The term ''zuòchán'' can be found in early Chinese Buddhist sources, such as the Dhyāna sutras. For example, the famous translator Kumārajīva (344–413) translated a work termed ''Zuòchán sān mēi jīng'' (''A'' ''Manual on the Samādhi of Sitting Meditation'') and the Chinese Tiantai master Zhiyi (538–597 CE) wrote some very influential works on sitting meditation. The meaning and method of zazen varies from school to school, but in general it is a quiet type of Buddhist meditation done in a sitting posture like the lotus position. The practice can be done with various methods, such as following the breath (anapanasati), mentally repeating a phrase (which could be a koan, a mantra, a huato ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |