Zen Master Who?

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“For all who have wondered about the difference between a roshi and a sensei, this book sorts these two kinds of Zen Buddhist teachers and offers lots more information about Zen schools and influences.”—Publishers Weekly

ZEN MASTER WHO?

A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen

James Ishmael Ford

Zen Master Who? is the first-ever book to provide a history of Zen’s arrival in North America, surveying the shifts and challenges to Zen as it finds its Western home. With the exception of parts of Rick Field’s How the Swans Came to the Lake, there has been no previous attempt to write this chronicle. 

James Ishmael Ford begins by tracing Zen’s history in Asia, looking at some of Zen’s most seminal figures—the Sixth Ancestor Huineng, Dogen Zenji (the founder of the Soto Zen school), Hakuin Ekaku (the great reformer of the Rinzai koan way), and many others—and then outlines the state of Zen in North America today. Clear-eyed and even-handed, Ford shows us the history and development of the institution of Zen—both its beauty and its warts.

Ford also outlines the many subtle differences in teachings, training, ordination, and transmission among schools and lineages. This book will aid those looking for a Zen center or a teacher, but who may not know where to start. Suggesting what might be possible, skillful, and fruitful in our communities, it will also be of use to those who lead the Zen centers of today and tomorrow. 

book information
  • Paperback
  • 320 pages, 6.00 x 9.00 inches
  • $15.95
  • ISBN 9780861715091
about the author
Zen Master Who?

James Ishmael Ford is the Senior Priest at the Blue Cliff Zen Network. James has been a student of Zen for fifty years. He is dually credentialed as a Soto Zen Buddhist priest and as a Unitarian Universalist minister. He lives with his spouse Jan Seymour-Ford and their three-legged cat Cassie in Long Beach, California. 

Other books by James Ishmael Ford:
The Book of Mu
Introduction to Zen Koans
If You’re Lucky, Your Heart Will Break

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