Zen Conversations

Conversations with North American Zen Teachers

Tess Beasley

Pacific Zen Institute – Tess Beasley, although located in Connecticut on the East Coast, is the current board president of the Pacific Zen Institute on the West. And she grew up far from either ocean in Utah. “Neither of my parents were Mormon. They ended up there by just strange karmic circumstances and decided to…

Joko Beck

A conversation with Peg Syverson – Joko Beck died in 2011, before I began doing these interviews. I never met her but have spoken with several people who knew her. Peg Syverson was one of the most informative of these. Joko was the founder of the Ordinary Mind School of Zen and became one of…

Leonard Marcel

Seven Thunders – Leonard Marcel is a founding member – and current teacher – of Seven Thunders Zen Sangha in Portland, Oregon. He is also a retired psychiatrist and Jungian analyst. He grew up in Brooklyn, ten blocks away from Bernie Glassman’s home neighborhood. “We never knew each other, and, of course, he died a…

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