She was a force in American Buddhism—as a pioneering practitioner, a dharma teacher, and the first female abbot of San Francisco Zen Center. In this excerpt from her book, Seeds from a Boundless Life, the late Zenkei Blanche Hartman reflected on “The Great Matter” that drove and sustained her. Just Being Alive Is Enough In 1989 I had a heart attack. As I was leaving the [...]
What is San Francisco Zen Center?
San Francisco Zen Center is one of the oldest and largest Buddhist communities in the United States. It is part of the Soto school of Zen and has produced many of America’s leading Buddhist teachers and writers, such as Sojun Mel Weitsman, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, the late Blanche Hartman, and Tenshin Reb Anderson. San Francisco Zen Center, often just called “Zen Center,” was [...]
San Francisco Zen Center to march with the People’s Climate Mobilization on April 29
Members of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) community, from both Green Gulch and City Center, will join together to march with the People's Climate Mobilization on April 29. SFZC's Central Abbess Linda Ruth Cutts will attend the main march in Washington, D.C., while the rest of the sangha travels together to a sister march at Lake Merritt, the details of which can be [...]
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center survives Soberanes wildfire
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center has survived the Soberanes wildfire and will reopen on October 15. As Lion's Roar previously reported, Tassajara, the oldest Zen Buddhist monastery in the United States, was threatened by the Soberanes wildfire at the end of July and forced to evacuate. According to a press release from the San Francisco Zen Center, Tassajara remained closed [...]
Soberanes wildfire claims Sweetwater Sanctuary, threatens Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
California's most destructive wildfire this year has claimed Anam Thubten's Sweetwater Sanctuary and now threatens Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. According to the LA Times, the Soberanes fire in Big Sur was started by an unattended illegal campfire. The fire has caused one death and burned 67-square miles of Monterey County. Last week, Sweetwater Sanctuary reported that [...]
Zen pioneer Zenkei Blanche Hartman Roshi dies
Zenkei Blanche Hartman, Senior Dharma Teacher of San Francisco Zen Center, has died. [Note: this post has now been updated to include an official statement from SFZC about Hartman's life and how the community will mark her passing.] On the morning of Friday, May 13, David Zimmerman, Head of Practice at SFZC's City Center, confirmed for LionsRoar.com Hartman's passing: Our [...]
Mitsu Suzuki, widow of Zen pioneer Shunryu Suzuki, dies at age 101
A fixture of American Zen -- fondly recalled by all who knew her or at least read of her in Crooked Cucumber, David Chadwick's biography of the late Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, founder of San Francisco Zen Center died on the morning of Saturday, January 9th. In an obituary from the San Francisco Zen Center website, Taigen Dan Leighton describes her as, “unimaginably [...]
The Place Where Your Heart is Kept
Mitsu Suzuki died on January 9th, at age 101. Norman Fischer tells the story of how a Japanese schoolteacher born in 1914, made a home for herself in American Zen. In the summer of 2010, I went with a group of close students and friends on pilgrimage to Japan. We spent a week at Rinso-in, the original temple of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, founder of San Francisco Zen [...]
Thinking of Zenkei Blanche Hartman (Updated)
Zenkei Blanche Hartman, Senior Dharma Teacher of San Francisco Zen Center, has taken seriously ill. From SFZC President Susan O'Connell, Vice-President Rita Cummings, and Program Director David Zimmerman comes word that a bed for Hartman has been reserved at hospice, but that no date has yet been set for transition. She remains at a senior living facility, where she has [...]
Zen priest David Daigan Lueck dies
Sweeping Zen reports that Zen priest David Daigan Lueck died in the afternoon on Sunday April 26. He was 84 years old. Lueck would serve as the head monk of San Francisco Zen Center's monastery, Tassajara, in 1994. After serving in the Korean War and living in Japan, he came back "and started working for a travel agency in Minneapolis," he told David Chadwick in a 2006 [...]
