Bernie Glassman

Bernie Glassman
TitleRoshi
Personal
Born
Bernard Glassman

(1939-01-18)January 18, 1939
DiedNovember 4, 2018(2018-11-04) (aged 79)
ReligionBuddhist
SpouseEve Marko
SchoolZen Peacemaker Order
LineageWhite Plum Asanga
EducationBrooklyn Polytechnic Institute
University of California, Los Angeles
Other namesBernie Glassman
Senior posting
PredecessorTaizan Maezumi
SuccessorJoan Halifax
Father Robert Kennedy
Wendy Egyoku Nakao
Pat Enkyo O'Hara
Lou Nordstrom
Don Singer
Grover Genro Gauntt
Anne Seisen Saunders
Francisco "Paco" Lugoviña
Barbara Salaam Wegmueller
Roland Yakushi Wegmueller
Websitezenpeacemakers.org

Bernie Glassman (January 18, 1939 – November 4, 2018) was an American Zen Buddhist roshi and founder of the Zen Peacemakers (previously the Zen Community of New York), an organization established in 1980. In 1996, he co-founded the Zen Peacemaker Order with his late wife Sandra Jishu Holmes. Glassman was a Dharma successor of the late Taizan Maezumi-roshi, and gave inka and Dharma transmission to several people.

Glassman was known as a pioneer of social enterprise, socially engaged Buddhism and "Bearing Witness Retreats" at Auschwitz and on the streets with homeless people.[1]

According to author James Ishmael Ford, in 2006 he

...transferred his leadership of the White Plum Asanga to his Dharma brother Merzel Roshi and has formally "disrobed," renouncing priesthood in favor of serving as a lay teacher.

  1. ^ Christopher S. Queen. "Buddhism, activism, and Unknowing: a day with Bernie Glassman (interview with Zen Peacemaker Order founder)". Tikkun. 13 (1): 64–66. Retrieved 2010-12-14.