Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995)
A Soto Zen priest, Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995) was ordained as a Soto Zen monk at the age of eleven and received dharma transmission from Hakujun Kuroda, Roshi in Japan. He arrived at Zenshuji Temple, the Soto Headquarters for North America in Los Angeles, CA, in 1956 to help promote the growth of Zen Buddhism in the West. He established the Zen Center of Los Angeles in 1967 and other temples in the United States and Europe. He transmitted the Dharma to 11 successors, a group he designated as the White Plum Asanga. He also established the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values in partnership with the University of Hawaii. One of Maezumi’s dharma heirs, John Daido Loori, Roshi, founded the Mountains and Rivers Order and is currently abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery and the Zen Center of New York City and its Fire Lotus Temple. Another, Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, known as Roshi Bernie, founded the engaged Buddhism group, the Zen Peacemakers Order, and Greyston Mandala, a network of community development organizations based on Buddhist values. He also established the Zen Community of New York in Riverdale. His focus was finding ways to integrate Zen practice with social action. Other dharma heirs, Charlotte Joko Beck, founded the Ordinary Mind School of Zen and started the San Diego Zen Center in 1983, while Jan Chozen Bays, a pediatrician who founded a child abuse clinic in Portland, OR, is the founder and co-abbot of the Great Vow Zen Monastery of Clatskanie, OR.