Archives: Authors
Daniel Scharpenburg
Daniel Scharpenburg lives in Kansas City with two kids and two cats. He runs the Monday Night Zen Group at the Rime Buddhist Center. Daniel has a BA in English from KU and he works for the federal government. Once a novice monk in the Rinzai Tradition, he dropped out of monk school to become a regular person. He has taken his inspiration mainly from Zen renegades and madmen like Ikkyu and Han Shan. He is a frequent guest teacher on Daily Dharma Gathering.
Myokei Caine-Barrett
Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin, was the first American woman and the first person of African Japanese descent to receive full ordination as a Nichiren priest. Today, she is the bishop of the Nichiren Shu Buddhist Order of North America. Based in Houston, where she is the guiding teacher of Myoken-ji Temple, she also leads two prison sanghas and has been active in Healing Warrior Hearts (a program for veterans returning home) and The Gathering: Buddhist Teachers of Black African Descent.
Cheryl Wilfong
Cheryl Wilfong is the author of <em>The Meditative Gardener: Cultivating Mindfulness of Body, Feelings, and Mind</em>.
Alex Cline
A native of Los Angeles, drummer-percussionist-composer Alex Cline has been a mainstay on the creative music scene in that city for almost forty years. He has released seven albums under his own name as well as many more collaborative projects. He is ordained in the Plum Village lineage of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.
Regina Valdez
Regina Valdez is a freelance writer, Engaged Buddhist, and outreach coordinator for Buddhist Global Relief and Compassion NYC. A recent graduate of One Earth Sangha's EcoSattva Training Program, she organized the Triple Gem Rolling Retreat for those wishing to attend the Peoples Climate March in Washington, DC.
Ray Buckner
Ray Buckner is a PhD Student in Religious Studies at Northwestern University. His research examines sexual violence in American Buddhism and transgender experiences with Buddhism in the United States. Ray's article, “Buddhist Teachers’ Responses to Sexual Violence: Epistemological Violence in American Buddhism” (2020), was published in <em>The Journal of Global Buddhism</em>. Ray's article, “Zen in Distress: Theorizing Gender Dysphoria and Traumatic Remembrance within Sōtō Zen Meditation” (2020), was published in <em>Religions</em>.
Peter Aronson
Peter Aronson is a freelance journalist and former NPR contributor currently living in Dharamsala. In addition to his writing, he is attending courses in Buddhism at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.
Ajahn Buddhadasa
Ajahn Buddhadasa (1906–93) was one of Thailand's most influential Buddhist teachers. In 1932 he founded Suan Mokkhablarama, the first modern forest monastery in Thailand. His work would eventually inspire a new generation of socially concerned individuals both in Thailand and throughout the world.
Valerie Mason-John
Valerie Mason-John is a senior teacher in the Triratna Order and author of <em>Detox Your Heart: Meditations for Emotional Trauma</em>.
Charles Suhor
Charles Suhor, a retired educator, convenes a sangha at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Montgomery, Alabama. His writings have appeared in Inquiring Mind, Mindfulness Bell, Teaching Tolerance, and Religion and Public Education.
Jeremy Mohler
Jeremy Mohler is a political writer and meditation teacher based in Washington, D.C. He writes at <a href="http://jeremymohler.blog/" rel="noopener">jeremymohler.blog</a> and produces a weekly podcast, Meditation for the 99%.
Kaitlyn Hatch
Kaitlyn Hatch is a student of Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel and a self-declared student of Ani Pema Chodron. A creative polymath, she is an artist, writer and host of the podcast Everything is Workable.
Barbara O’Brien
Barbara Hoetsu O’Brien is a longtime student of Soto Zen and author of <em>The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World</em> and <em>Rethinking Religion: Finding a Place for Religion in a Modern, Tolerant, Progressive, Peaceful and Science-Affirming World</em>. She is also a volunteer editor for Treasure the Road, a new online magazine devoted to formal Zen practice and Buddhist study.
Colin Beavan
Colin Beavan is a life coach, author and senior dharma teacher in the Kwan Um School of Zen.
Yurie Takeuchi
Yurie Takeuchi is an undergraduate student at Columbia University majoring in Political Science, with a minor in East Asian studies.
Dungse Jampal Norbu
Dungse Jampal Norbu is a teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and dharma heir to Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.
Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler
Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest and teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, with Dharma Transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman. He lives and teaches at <a href="http://www.sfzc.org/">Green Gulch Farm Zen Center </a>and is mentor and preceptor to the <a href="http://montanadesilencio.org/">Montaña de Silencio</a> Sangha in Medellín, Colombia. For many years he served as the head teacher of the <a href="http://www.sqzen.org/">Buddhadharma Sangha of San Quentin State Prison</a>. He currently serves as Abiding Abbot of Green Gulch Farm and co-Abbot of San Francisco Zen Center. Jiryu holds a Master’s Degree in Asian Studies from UC Berkeley (2014), where he worked under the mentorship of the <a href="http://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/">Group in Buddhist Studies</a> on Buddhist texts in classical Chinese and modern Japanese. He is the author of the book <em><a href="https://nozeninthewest.com/two-shores-of-zen-the-book/">Two Shores of Zen</a></em> about his experiences in 2002-2004 as an American-trained monk practicing in Japanese Zen monasteries.