San Francisco Zen Center and American Buddhism/ Zoketsu Norman Fischer

This lecture, recorded on Feb. 16, 2017, is part of the Pu Yin Buddhist Studies Lecture Series organized by the Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of Arizona and sponsored by Pu Yin Education Center in China. Visit our website at cbs.arizona.edu; Sign up our list for future events at http://eepurl.com/gb2yaD.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer, among America’s leading teachers of Buddhist study and practice, is the author of more than twenty-five books of poetry and nonfiction, Fischer has also published articles, essays, and poems in a wide variety of publications. He served as director and co-abbot of Green Gulch Farm Zen Center from 1981-2000, and as co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center from 1995–2000. During his abbacy, Fischer supported the research, drafting and formal institution of a women’s lineage chant, alongside the traditional men’s lineage chant, during services. Later he supported the drafting of an official women’s lineage paper—the first female lineage document in the history of any major world religion—which traces the line of women practitioners from the Buddha’s time to the present and recognizes the important historical role of the Zen women ancestors. During these years, working with others, he founded Zen Hospice Project, whose board he chaired for 20 years. He has presented work and given talks and lectures on meditation and mediation, in venues ranging from The Oprah Winfrey Show to corporate boardrooms to abbeys and Buddhist sanghas around the world.
Fischer founded the Everyday Zen Foundation in 2000, a network of Buddhist practice groups and related projects in Canada, the United States, and Mexico that combines in-person lectures, dharma talks, and sitting meditation with online resources http://www.everydayzen.org/. Among his best-known works are Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up; Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong; Sailing Home: Using Homer’s Odyssey to Navigate Life’s Perils and Pitfalls, and Opening to You: Zen-Inspired Translation of the Psalms.