New Members 2011
Eric Kishin Arbiter  

Eric Kishin ArbiterI began my practice in 1994 with the Houston Zen Community which, at that time, did not have a teacher. In 1995 I began traveling to the Hidden Mountain Zen Center in Albuquerque, N.M. in order to study with Jitsudo Ancheta, Sensei. I received jukai from him in 1998. At that time, Sensei  encouraged me to offer zazen in my home on weekdays (since the HZC only met on Sundays) and I opened the Barking Dog Zendo which functioned from 1996 through 2003. In 2002 the Houston Zen Community invited Gaelyn Setsuan Godwin, Sensei from San Francisco Zen Center to be their resident teacher and at that point the group purchased their own building and changed their name to the Houston Zen Center.

 I also studied with Sydney Musai Walter, Sensei (now Roshi) from 1999-2005.  I became a Dharma Holder in 2007 and in 2008 received Tokudo from Jitsudo, Sensei. This past March I received Denkai from Daishin Brighton, Sensei and Denbo in from Jitsudo Ancheta, Sensei. I am currently a practicing member of both the No Gate Sangha in Albuquerque NM (Jitsudo, Sensei’s sangha), and the Houston Zen Center in Houston, TX. 

I am the associate principal bassoonist in the Houston Symphony (since 1974) for 39 years (Acting Principal for 6 years from 2002 through 2007), was Assistant Professor of Music at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, Houston, Texas from 1976-1995 and have been a professional photographer since 1996. I’ve held numerous one-man exhibits in Houston.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the teachers I have had the opportunity to work and practice with over the years; some briefly and a few very extensively. In addition, I am thankful for the many dharma friends who have walked this path with me. My life is immeasurably enriched!

 
Irene Kaigetsu Bakker  

Jim Daikan BastienBorn in Amsterdam, Netherlands (just after World War 2 ended) as middle child of five. First profession: schoolteacher.
As family and systems therapist working with people with cancer, end of life care, in psychiatry and private practice.
MBRS trainer and teacher for future MBSR trainers at College / School for Social Work in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Mother of 3 children; 9 grandchildren.

Started zen in 1986 with Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi and received Jukai in 1989.
After Tokudo in 1995 moved to Kanzeon Zen Center in Salt Lake City and lived there as full time resident until 2002.

xxx Kaigetsu is in the center between Musai and Joan

Shusso Hossen in 1999 and became Dharmaholder (Hoshi) in 2002. Ended zen training/study with Genpo Merzel January 2011.
Moved back to Holland from Salt Lake City in 2002 and started Zen Spirit in 2004.

Since meeting Joan Halifax Roshi in Auschwitz in 1996 involved in her zen training and Being with Dying training, teaching in US and Europe. Every summer monthlong assisting teaching at Upaya Zen Center, Santa Fe. Received Denkai and Denbo from Joan Halifax Roshi on March 7 2012.

xxxxx

 

 

Jim Daikan Bastien   

Jim Daikan BastienJim Daikan Bastien grew up in North Adams, a blue-collar mill town in Western Massachusetts. Daikan received his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology in 1974, a Master’s Degree from the University of Michigan, School of Social Work in 1979; and a Master’s in Human Development from the University of Kansas in 1988.

Daikan began his Zen studies in 1979 with Rev. Teijo Munnich, a senior monastic student of Dainin Katagiri Roshi of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. In December of 1987, he received Jukai from Katagiri Roshi. In 1990, after working 11 years at Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home (Boystown) in Omaha Nebraska, Daikan relocated to Rhode Island to develop a Boystown satellite program in the Ocean State. In Rhode Island, Daikan trained with Zen Master Soeng Hyang (Bobby Rhodes) of the Providence Zen Center while administering foster care programs and family-based services throughout the state.

In 1996, he moved back to Western Massachusetts where he ran foster care and intensive family crisis intervention services across the Commonwealth. In 2005, Daikan left his position as Vice President of Residential Services of a 120-bed residential school for troubled youth, to become the Chief Operating Officer of the Zen Peacemakers located in Montague, Massachusetts. For the next five years, Daikan continued his Zen training with Roshi Bernard Tetsugen Glassman and Roshi Eve Myonen Marko. Daikan became a Dharma Holder in the Karma Family of the Zen Peacemaker Order in 2007 and received dharma transmission from Roshi Glassman in March of 2011. In August of 2011, Roshi Marko made Daikan a Lay Preceptor in the Zen Peacemaker Order.

As the first transmitted Zen teacher in the Karma Family of the Zen Peacemaker Order, Daikan Sensei focuses his teaching on the alleviation of human suffering through the actualization of the Way in social service settings.

Daikan is employed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs coordinating all of their Suicide Prevention Programs throughout Central and Western Massachusetts. He is married to his wife of 35 years, Jeannette, and together they have raised three children; Kyle, Nicolette, and Nathan and have one grandson, Forrest.

 

Carol Myoshin Bruce-Fritz

 
koan

 

Carol Myoshin Bruce-Fritz began her practice with Jitsudo Ancheta Sensei at Hidden Mountain Zen Center in Albuquerque, NM in 1996. She was ordained in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi and Bernie Tetsugen Glassman in 2009 and received Dharma transmission from Jitsudo Sensei in the spring of 2012.  She and her husband, Ralph Kendo Fritz are resident teachers at Dharma Heart Zendo-No Gate Sangha in Colorado Springs, CO.  As a nonprofit professional she has focused on bringing clarity and integrity to philanthropic efforts to help others.

 

Monika Seiryo Brunner

 
Monika Seiryo Brunner

Rev. Monika Seiryo Brunner is Chief Operating Officer at Zen Garland, and a member of the Board of Directors and the Advisory & Steering Committee. She is a senior student of Roshi Genki, and is also studying the Red path with her teachers Buffalo woman and Atsila Gaya in the Lakota tradition. In 2017 Seiryo will succeed Roshis Genki, Ankai and Jikai as Spiritual Director of the Zen Garland Order and Abbess of The Sanctuary.

Seiryo began her spiritual practice in 1977, studying under Pastor Paul Huber who taught Christian contemplation and social action, and continued with other socially active Christian Contemplative Orders.

She began her Zen practice in 1997 with Pierre Stutz in the open monastery, ‘Abbaye de Fontaine-André’ in Neuchâtel. From 1991-1998 Rev. Brunner directed an Agricultural Training Center outside of Bern educating women to manage farms. From 1998 to 2008 she directed a therapeutic residence for learning disabled students at an institution for vocational training in Switzerland. Beginning in 1999, she practiced at Lassalle Haus, Edlibach, Switzerland.

She began practice under Roshi Genki's direction as a residential student at the Zen Peacemakers' Seminary, Montague, MA, USA. In October 2009 she joined the High Mountain Crystal Lake Zen Community in Wyckoff, NJ to continue studying with Roshi Genki. She worked with the Roshis Genki, Ankai and Jikai to create the Zen Garland Order and now lives at the Sanctuary in Airmont, NY where she serves as a Zen Teacher, Priest and administrator.

 
Herb Ein Eko Deer  
Herb Ein Eko Deer

Hi everyone, nice to meet you, im Herb Ein Eko Deer, I live and work at the Sweetwater Zen Center. I moved here in 2000 from Zen Mtn. Center with Seisen Roshi. I’m from Dallas, Tx. And moved to CA for college and Zen.

I am a former addict of alcohol, pot, cocaine, crystal, crack, sex, food and Facebook, in that order. I got sober in 2004 and now I incorporate 12 steps into my teaching along with koans. The Elephant Journal just published my article “12 Step for ‘Normal’ People”… http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/03/12-steps-for-normal-people--herb-deer/. I’m always happy to share about my experiences with anyone who also has or does struggle with these issues.

One of the best parts of training at SWZC is that Seisen Roshi includes council sharing as a core part of our practice. It has taught me to listen and communicate my emotions and my issues with confidence and healing in my community and family.

I fell in love with Zen and Pink Floyd about the same time while at college, both were contingent on my ability to smoke pot. Coincidentally I studied philosophy at Cal. State Fullerton.

In ‘94 I moved to Green Gulch as guest practitioner for 6 months until I learned there was a “Zen Mtn Center” from Kendal Hoffman. I moved there inspired to work on Koans and arrived a week before Maizumi Roshi died. Then I met Seisen who has been a wonderful teacher to me ever since.

My vision and hope is to someday create a full time training program that combines Zen plus many styles of martial arts, qi-gong, energy healing and tai-chi. This vision is inspired by Yoda, obviously the most kick-ass character in the star wars series he is.

Thank you for this opportunity to connect with you, you are all my heros!

 
Ralph Takashin Kendo Fritz  
Kendo Fritz

 

I was first introduced to Zen in 1970 and began meditation practice on my own the same year. However, it was not until 1996, upon meeting Jitsudo Ancheta Sensei at the Hidden Mountain Zen Center, that I began formal Zen training. I received Jukai in 1998, was named as a Dharma Holder in 2008 and received Tokudo in 2009. In late winter of 2012, along with my wife Myoshin Bruce-Fritz and my Dharma brother Kishin Arbiter, I received Denbo and Denkai from Jitsudo Ancheta Sensei. I hold a B.S. in psychology and a graduate certificate in mediation and dispute resolution. Past careers include professional musician, architectural interior designer, special needs tutor and client services director for the Southern Colorado Aids Project. I am currently reitred but have been keeping busy remodeling an 85 year old garage into a new Zendo for our sangha. My wife, Myoshin, and I are the resident teachers at the Dharma Heart Zendo in Colorado Springs.

 
James Kando Green  
james green

James Kando Green has lived, worked and practiced Zen Buddhism in Santa Fe for 20 years. His study with teachers has been in the Harada-Yasutani line of the Sanbo Kyodan. Initial koan study was with dharma heirs of Robert Aiken Roshi (The Diamond Sangha). Kando began with Pat Hawk Roshi at Mountain Cloud Zen Center in 1994. Hawk Roshi took a sabbatical after three years at which point Kando began work with Joan Sutherland Roshi.When, in1997, Sutherland Roshi also took a sabbatical Kando began working with John Tarrant Roshi of Pacific Zen Institute (California) and Susan Murphy Roshi of Open Zen Circle (Sydney, Australia).

In 2003 his path led to Musai Walter Roshi who had moved his teaching location to Prajna Zendo near Santa Fe. This involved a shift from the Aiken Roshi lineage to that of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Still in the Harada-Yasutani lineage.This allowed for much more concentrated interaction with his teacher and the sangha.

In 2007 Kando was ordained by Musai Roshi as a novice priest. He was empowered to teach as Hoshi (dharma holder-assistant teacher) in 2008. In 2011 Musai Roshi gave Kando Shiho. This ceremony made Kando a fully ordained priest ( denkai) and teacher (Denbo, Transmission of mind). As a Sensei (teacher), he continues to with his teacher Musai Roshi of Prajna Zendo. Kando Sensei has established, a zendo, Walking Mountain at 1203 Barcelona Lane in Santa Fe. The sangha sits at Walking Mountain on Sundays at 1200 and Thursdays at 700PM. Call 505 690 6187 for information.

 
Sally Sonen Kealy  

Sally Sonen Kealy

Ordained as Soto Zen Preist and Zen Peacemaker Priest with Roshi Bernie Glassman; studying also with Roshi Enkyo O'Hara from the Village Zendo

 
Andrzej Getsugen Krajewski 
 

Andrzej Getsugen KrajewskiEducation:  Warsaw University Philosophical Faculty 
Work:  Poetry and drama translations from Swedish.
 
I was introduced to zen by Philip Kapleau in mid 70-s, but regular practice I started a few years later with the Korean Master Seung Sahn, becoming the Dharma Teacher. From mid 80-s I am a student of Genpo Sensei, receiving Dharma Holder in 2003.

Bernie Roshi, I met in 1996 and since that time I'm also his student and active zenpeacemaker, heading the Polish branch of it. 
I help my wife Malgosia Braunek Jiho Roshi maintain the Polish Kanzeon Sangha and it's center right accross our garden in middle of Warsaw...

 
Linda Myoki Lehrhaupt  
Linda Myoki Lehrhaupt

Linda began Zen practice in 1979 in New York City. She was a student of  Genpo Merzel Roshi from 1987-2010. From 2003-2010 she was also mentored by Nico Tydeman, Sensei of Zen Center Amsterdam, with whom she continued koan study. She received transmission in February 2012, from Al Fusho Rapaport Sensei, head of Open Mind Zen Center in Melbourne Florida, after several years of intensive study with him.
She received Jukai in 1988 and Shuke Tokudo from Genpo Roshi in 2002. In 1998 she served as Shuso and In 1999 she was made a Dharma Holder of Genpo Roshi. Linda was the steward and assistant teacher of Kanzeon Sangha Germany from 1988-2001.
Her new sangha has the name Zen Herz  (Zen Heart Group), an inter-European group of Zen practitioners. The sangha is at present in formation and will take shape  in the coming time.
Linda is the founder and director since 2001 of the Institute for Mindfulness-Based Approaches, one of the Continent’s largest training institutes for mindfulness-based approaches such as mindfulness-based stress reduction. She has trained with Jon Kabat-Zinn and other teachers of the Center for Mindfulness, as well as other leading experts. She has been working in the field of mindfulness-based approaches since 1993.
She holds a PH.D. in Performance Studies from New York University, where she specialized in religious rituals and traditions. She also holds a degree in education. She has been teaching in adult education, both as a teacher,  supervisor and trainer of teachers since 1971.
Linda has been practicing Tai Chi and Chi Kung since 1978, and from 1982-2002 taught individuals and later directed teacher-training programs in both arts.  Mindful Movement continues to play an important part in her teaching.
She is the author of Riding the Waves of Life: Mindfulness and Inner Balance (in German, 2012), Tai Chi as a Path of Wisdom (Shambhala Publications, 2001), and Co-Author of MBSR: Reducing Stress through Mindfulness (in German, 2010).  
Dr. Lehrhaupt has been living in Germany since 1983. She is married to Norbert Wehner, a German landscape architect and painter. They have a daughter, Taya, who is living in the U.S.                                     
Since 1996 Linda and Norbert have been renovating an 18th century farm (La Martinie) in southwest France.  In 2013 La Martini will begin to host retreats and trainings for small groups.

 
Mark Mininberg  
Mark Mininberg

 

Mark Mininberg, Sensei, is a dharma successor of Roshi Bernie Glassman, founder of the Zen Peacemaker Order and is the Order’s Ratna seat holder. Previous to his study with Roshi Glassman, Mark trained for more than twenty years under John Daido Loori, Roshi, Abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery.  Mark served as the Monastery shuso, or head seminarian, was a member of its Guardian Council and Treasurer of its Board of Directors.


Mark has studied in a wide range of spiritual traditions, including Christianity, Judaism and Shamanism, as well as in the related fields of psychology and energy medicine.

 
Greg Tensho Noble  
Greg Tensho Noble

Rev. Greg Tensho Noble, Sensei is Co-Director of the Aikido Zen Path in Zen Garland, and on the Board of Directors and the Advisory & Steering Committee. He is a senior student of Roshi Genki and a Priest in Zen Garland. He is Founder and Director of the Zenshinkai Aikido Association, a United States-based organization with 11 dojos, committed to guiding students in the training methods of Aikido Zen and related budo. He heads Kushinkan Dojo in Charlestown, West Virginia. Noble Sensei has been studying the martial arts since 1985 and holds the rank of 5th degree black belt Aikikai. He is former chairperson for both the Aikido World Alliance technical committee and the AWA national test committee. Sensei Noble began Zen training under his Aikido Master, Toyoda Tenzan, Sensei in 1989. Toyoda Sensei was a lay Zen Master (Rokoji) in the Rinzai lineage. Noble Sensei is a Chief Warrant Officer in the West Virginia National Guard, is married and has three children.

 
Chris Panos  
Chris Panos

 

Chris lives in San Francisco, CA with his wife Leigh, and two sons, Alexander (16) and Dino(5).

Chris is currently a founder and principal of Fundamental Investment Advisors. Over the past 25 years, he has founded several other successful businesses. Chris founded the Bay Area Peacemaker Circle, has been extensively involved with Tibetan refugees, and serves as Board President of Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco and Board President of Zen Peacemakers.

Initial involvement with Zen came in the early 1970’s, formal study began in the 1980’s.  Lived and studied with Samu Sunim in Chicago(Korean Zen),  Sonam Dhargye, also in Chicago(Tibetan Buddhism).  Beginning 1991, studied with Bernie Glassman who gave recognition in February of 2012.

 
KC Kyozen Sato  
KC Sato


KC Kyozen Gerpheide lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is the mother of two children. Over the years she has been active in the community previously serving on the boards of Cirque Corporation, the Utah Physical Therapy Association and Kanzeon Zen Center. She received Shiho transmission from Genpo Merzel Roshi in 2009.  Since 1990 she has worked as an orthopedic, sports and integrative physical therapist, specializing in chronic pain pathologies.  She holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and a Master’s of Business Administration. A long advocate for people who are homeless she is a recipient of the prestigious Utah Physical Therapist of the Year award and the 4th Street Medical Center Volunteer Award. Recently she was a keynote speaker at the International Clinical Pastoral Education Convention and continues to offer Buddhist education to pastoral educators, hospice workers, and chaplains. Currently, having studied yoga for nearly 40 years her teaching interest combines the Dharmas of Zen and yoga in a unique and participatoy way that advances both traditions.  

 
Duncan Sings-Alone  
Grandfather Sings Alone

 

Rev. Grandfather Sings-Alone heads The Red Path: Native American Zen in Zen Garland. He is a senior student of Roshi Genki, and serves as Genki's teacher in the Native tradition. He is an enrolled Cherokee who studied with Cherokee-Shoshone medicine man, Rolling Thunder. Following that he committed to seven years of intensive training under Monican/ Lakota medicine man, George Whitewolf. For 30 years, Sings-Alone was the medicine teacher for a large inter-tribal community in Maryland and smaller communities in Massachusetts and Michigan, leading Sacred Pipe, Sweat Lodge and Vision Quest practices. In the late 1980s he founded the free Cherokees, An inter-tribal spiritual organization dedicated to teaching Native American spiritual ways to Native Americans raised away from their traditional communities. Rev. Sings- Alone first completed Seminary and became a Christian Minister in the 1950s. He later left that path to become a clinical psychologist with a Doctorate from the University of Florida. He has published two books: The Fractured Mirror: Healing Multiple Personality, and Sprinting Backwards To God. Under direction of the Spirits to teach outside the native community, Sings-Alone became a Priest and active in Zen and within Zen Garland.

 
Eran Kyoka Vardi  
Eran Kyoka Vardi

 

Rev. Eran Kyoka Vardi, Sensei is Co-Director of the Aikido Zen Path in Zen Garland, on the Board of Directors and on the Advisory & Steering Committee. He is a senior student of Roshi Genki and a Priest in Zen Garland. Kyoka is a 5th Dan in the United States Aikido Federation and a senior instructor there. He is Founder and Director of Aikido Dojo of Ramapo Valley, Wyckoff, NJ, a growing Aikido Zen community. He is married and has three children.

 
Dieter Kushin Wartenweiler  
Dieter Wartenweiler

In the early 1980’s Dieter Kushin Wartenweiler started formal zen training and some years later he initiated his first zen meditation group. On June 6, 2010 Niklaus Jinju Brantschen Roshi gave Dharma transmission to him at the Lassalle-Haus / Switzerland. Before this event he did a long journey trough Japan, taking part in sesshins and meeting many Japanese zen masters. Then he has built a new zendo in Staefa / Switzerland at a wonderful place over the lake of Zurich, being inaugurated 2011 by Niklaus Brantschen Roshi in the presence of several zen teachers and many students of the Glassman-Lassalle Zen-Line.

Dieter Wartenweiler holds a PhD in economics and Jungian Psychology. He has been a seminar instructor and lecturer at the Lassalle-Institute since beginning of 2010. His main focus is on Zen for leaders. As founder and mentor of a consulting company with a branch each in Switzerland and Germany, he has developed education and training courses in management coaching and project coaching and was responsible for training a large number of coaches who now work in business and industry. He also has been acting as a management coach with teams and managers, some of them in high executive positions. He held several management positions himself and has conducted his own psychotherapy practice. He is also a regular lecturer in the fields of business, psychology and zen and author of several books. Dieter Wartenweiler is father of two adult children, one of them an MD.

 
Barbara Wegmüller  
Barbara Wegmuller

I was born in Bern on January 13, 1952 as the second daughter. Our home was full of books and my mother loved to sing while she was doing the cooking. Every Sunday our whole family went to the local catholic church for the weekly service. I remember being a little girl, half asleep in the arms of my mother listening to the latin liturgy.

As medical podiatrist, I worked for fifteen years in my own practice. It was very interesting to listen to the life stories of my patients. I learned a lot about life.

I am married with Roland, we are parents of five wonderful children. Today they are all adults.

 My life as a mother of five was a delightful and sometimes very challenging practice. I am greatful for the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, his advice for practice helped me a lot in my daily life. From 1990-2001 I studied and practised with Annette Kaiser, „Sufi- teacher“, in the lineage of Irina Tweedie. We studied mystics of different religions and practiced silent meditation and silent Mantra recitation. We did weekly dreamanalyzing in the group and attended family retreats for many years. For 7 years I studied intensive T`ai ji & Qi Gong practices.

I met Roshi Bernie Glassman for the first time in Auschwitz, Poland, in 1999. In 2001 I received an invitation to join the founding group of the „Zen Peacemaker Order“ in Paris. Mid 2002 the Paris circle started studies and experiments in Zen circles with Bernie as our trainer. For several years I was involved in the „Christian-Buddhist days of dialogue“ in Lassalle–Haus, Switzerland. I went to Bethlehem, Palastine in 2004 with Roshi Eve Myonen and two other Peacemakers to offer training and skills development in ZP Circles. Since 2006 Roland and I have been going to Montague every January for 4 weeks to study with Bernie and Eve. From 2003 – 2006 we went to ZPC in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Switzerland for more training with Bernie. At my Jukai ceremony Bernie gave me the Dharma name „Salaam“. Buddha Seat Holder and Circle Dharmaholder empowerments from Roshi Bernie. I studied the precepts and practised with Roshi Eve Myonen from 2006-2008. I received my transmission as a preceptor in Switzerland on May 10 ,2008 from Roshi Eve Myonen and was given the Dharma name „Angyo“. I joined the „Bearing Witness Retreat in Auschwitz“ 11 times, serving as a small group facilitator and Spirit Holder of the retreat. I studied, had trainings and retreats with Lama „Tsultrim Allione“, in Switzerland, Germany and Colorado.

Since 2003, Roland and I are offering days of reflection, weekly Zazen and trainings in Zen Peacemaker Circles. I am currently working as a coordinator for ZP in Europe. On April 24, 2011 I received my transmission from Roshi Bernie Glassman in New York. I am a grandmother of three sweet grandchildren and I feel very fortunate to live close to them and to seeing them often.

 
Roland Yakushi Wegmüller   
Roland Yakushi Wegmüller

As the leader of an immunization program in West-Africa from 1982-1985 he came in touch with African rituals and got initiations as a shaman in the early eighties. Since 1988 he is working as a Homeopath and MD in his own general medical practice.
During 1990- 2000 he pursued meditation and dream-work with his Sufi Teachers Annette Kaiser, Llwellyn Vaughan-Lee and Irina Tweedie. Since 1999 he has studied Zen and he has organized, led and participated in interreligious gatherings and events, e.g., the Auschwitz Retreat and Street Retrets. As a founder member he joined the study and development of the European Zen Peacemaker Order and later the Peacemaker Circles Europe and the Peacemaker Circles Switzerland. In 2008 Roland Yakushi received transmission as a Preceptor in the Zen Peacemaker Sangha from his Preceptor Teacher Roshi Eve Myonen Marko. Roshi Eve gave him the Dharma name Angyo, Peacemaker. For 10 years he is practicing Koan Studies with Roshi Genro Gauntt.
With his wife Barbara Salaam he is leading the “Spiegel Sangha”, Berne, Switzerland. With Barbara Salaam he has 5 children and 3 grandchildren.
Since 2003 he is the President of the Peacemaker Gemeinschaft Schweiz. As the initiator of the “Club of the 200″ he is a fundraiser and supporter of the Palestinian Center for the Study of Non-Violence in Bethlehem Palestine.

 
Al Zolynas    
Al Zolynas

Al Zolynas (in the center of the picture between Elizabeth and Ezra) was born June 1, 1945 in Austria of Lithuanian parents and raised in Sydney, Australia and Chicago.  After attending graduate school and receiving degrees in English and creative writing, and after exploring yoga, est, vipassana,  the Feldenkrais method of somatic education, the enneagram, sensory deprivation, re-birthing, tai chi, and other “transformational” practices,  Al began Zen training at the Zen Center of Los Angeles in 1979, briefly studying with Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi and Dennis Genpo Merzel.  He soon became a student of Charlotte Joko Beck and worked with her closely in Los Angeles and in San Diego until she left for Arizona in 2006.  He has been practicing and studying with Ezra Bayda and Elizabeth Hamilton at the Zen Center of San Diego since then, and was authorized by them to teach in 2012.
Educated at the University of Illinois (B.A.) and the University of Utah (M.A., Ph.D), Al recently retired from Alliant International University (formerly U.S.I.U.) in San Diego, where he taught for 33 years as a professor of English and for the last dozen years conducted weekly meditation sessions and instruction. He has published three books of his own poetry and co-edited two poetry anthologies.
Other influences include Ken Wilber’s integral theories and Pema Chodron’s heart-centered practice advice.  Al has also volunteered for and still supports The Hunger Project, an organization committed to ending hunger on the planet.  He lives in Escondido, California with his wife, Arlie.

 
   
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