The great teacher who founded the San Francisco Zen Center and played a historic role in the establishment of Buddhist practice in the West was born on this day in 1904. Lewis Richmond remembers him. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi has had an enormous influence on the growth of buddhadharma in the West. Yet when he came to San Francisco in 1959, he had no plans, no grand strategy—only a [...]
Remembering Michal Lura Friedman
You may have heard the story of Michal Lura Friedman, who lost her life on Friday, November 25, due to complications from a c-section. Michal was a friend to many, not least of all in Halifax, NS, and its Shambhala Buddhist practice community. Here, friend Edward Boyce remembers Michal, and provides a link so that you can pitch in to give much-needed help to the newborn twins [...]
Myoji Sunim, abbess of Manhattan Chogyesa Temple of New York, dies
Myoji Sunim, JDPS, abbess of the Korean Buddhist Chogyesa Temple in New York City, passed away this past Friday at the age of 65. The cause of death was a brain hemorrhage. A student of Zen Master Seung Sahn from 1976 until his death in 2004, she also completed training at the Seoul International Zen Center. A wife and mother of three, she renounced family life to become an [...]
Buddhist pioneer Elsie Mitchell dies
Elsie Mitchell, co-founder of the Cambridge Buddhist Association and founder of the Ahimsa Foundation, died at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Monday, October 17. Describing Mitchell, Soto priest and author David Chadwick called her "one of the quiet pioneers of American Buddhism." Mitchell founded the Cambridge Buddhist Association in 1957, along with her husband, [...]
John R. McRae, Buddhist scholar, dies at 64
After a long illness, the prolific Buddhist scholar John R. McRae passed away this week at age 64. In an announcement about his death for H-Buddhism (the Buddhist Scholars Information Network), A. Charles Muller wrote: "It is with heavy heart that I pass on to you the sad news [of John McRae's] passing away in Bangkok Hospital at 12:30 pm on October 22, 2011, at the age of [...]
Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup passes away
The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) reported today that Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, former abbot of Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, has died after a long battle with cancer. (You can read his biography on the Kopan Monastery website, here.) The FPMT reports that he died during a puja ceremony in his name, at Kopan, on September 7, at 11:10 [...]
The parinirvana of Nyingma head Trulshik Rinpoche (1923-2011)
Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche Ngawang Chökyi Lodrö, head of the Nyingma order, entered parinirvana on September 2 and remained in thukdam until September 5 at Thupten Chöling, his monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal. The public will begin to pay respect to his memory on September 6. Rinpoche, born in 1923, would eventually become head of the Nyingma order of Tibetan Buddhism in 2010, [...]
In Memoriam: Joko Beck
Barry Magid remembers the great pioneer of American Zen, Charlotte Joko Beck, whose influence is "reflected in a sea change in how our generation thinks about the nature of practice." It is not an overstatement to say that Joko Beck transformed the face of Zen in America, not in the least by making it the face of a woman. She was among the first generation of Westerners to [...]
Khenpo Achuk Rinpoche dies
It has been announced that His Holiness Jamyang Lungtok Gyaltsen Rinpoche (Khenpo Achuk, Akhyuk Rinpoche) died on July 23. In addition to being the seniormost teacher of the Nyingma tradition residing in Tibet, Rinpoche established Yachen Orgyen Samten Chöling, also known as Yachen Gar, which housed monastics and lay practitioners, offering Buddhist educational services. For [...]
Chan Master John Crook dies
The Western Chan Fellowship, a lay Chan Buddhist community with members and associates in the UK and Europe, reports that their founding teacher, Chan Master Dr John Crook, has died. As the WCF website states: "John was the first Western Dharma Heir of the late Chan Master Sheng-yen. [...] He was a pioneer who brought great wisdom and creativity to the translation of Chinese [...]