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General Information: Overview: Biographies:Roshi Bernie Glassman Zen Master (Roshi) Bernie Glassman is a world-renowned pioneer in the American Zen Movement. He is a spiritual leader, published author, accomplished academic and successful businessman with a PhD in Applied Mathematics. Dr. Glassman currently teaches and travels, giving talks and workshops on spiritual practice, socially responsible business and international peacemaking. He is the founder and co-spiritual director of the Zen Peacemakers. Personal and Education Bernie Glassman was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1939. His parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe and he grew up in a Jewish family with a strong socialist orientation. After graduating from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, he went to work for McDonnell-Douglas in California in 1960 as an aeronautical engineer, concentrating on interplanetary flights. He also obtained a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from UCLA in 1970. Currently Bernie has two grown children and one grandson. Zen Training and Teaching In 1967, Bernie began his Zen studies with Taizan Hakuyu Maezumi Roshi, Founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. He became a Zen teacher--Sensei Glassman--in 1976. In 1980 he founded his own Zen Community of New York in the Bronx, New York. He started the Greyston Bakery, at first staffed by Zen students, as a livelihood for the Community, and then made it a vehicle for social enterprise in Yonkers, 3 miles north (see below). In 1995 Bernie Glassman received inka, or the final seal of approval, from his teacher and became known as Roshi Glassman. During that year and in 1996 he served as Spiritual Head of the White Plum Lineage, comprising hundreds of Zen groups and centers in the US, Latin America and Europe, as well as the first President of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association of America. His Dharma Family includes dharma teachers, zen priests, zen preceptors, zen entrepreneurs, Christian clergy, Rabbis, Sufi Sheiks and multi-faith peacemakers. Social Enterprise Bernie became a social entrepreneur in 1982, articulating a vision that socially responsible businesses can have a double bottom line: generating profits and serving the community. The Greyston Bakery was the first such venture, but it was merely one piece of a larger socially responsible business model which he developed, known as the Greyston Mandala (the Sanskrit mandala can be loosely translated as circle of life), a network of for-profits and not-for-profits working together to improve the lives of individuals and the larger inner city community of southwest Yonkers. Greyston, which celebrates its 25th anniversary on June 11, 2007 (during which time it will honor its founder), provides permanent housing, jobs, job training, child care, after-school programs and a host of other supportive services to a large community of formerly homeless families, advancing the principles of empowerment, empathy, and responsible action. Its main components are:
The entire Greyston Mandala (as of 2007) hires 175 people and serves at least 1200 men, women and children annually in southwest Yonkers. Its model of integrating for-profits, not-for-profits, and spirituality has been studied by many other nonprofits and cities across the country as well as in universities. Bernie Glassman served as Founder and President/CEO of Greyston from 1982 till he left it in 1996. Spiritually-Based Social Action and Peacemaking In January of 1994, while leading a bearing witness retreat in Washington, DC, on the occasion of his 55th birthday, Bernie decided to create the Zen Peacemaker Order, for Zen practitioners dedicated to the cause of peace and social justice. Subsequently, the concept was broadened to become an international, interfaith network called the Peacemaker Community, stressing the integration of spiritual practice and social action through Three Tenets:
Together with his wife and co-founder, Sandra Jishu Holmes, Bernie left Greyston in the end of 1996 and became President of this large community of spiritually-based activists. He took a leave when his wife died in 1998, but from 2000 till 2004 he continued serving as President, devoting his energy to developing the Peacemaker Community and supporting various social action and peacemaking projects in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and the United States. This organization is now known as Zen Peacemakers. In 2004 Bernie Glassman began to develop a training campus to teach people the skills of spiritually-based social enterprise and peacemaking called the Maezumi Institute, in Western Massachusetts. In addition, he began to look into new opportunities for social enterprise programs, During 2005 he tried to develop such programs in partnership with local not-for-profits in Greenfield and Turners Falls. Finally, in early 2006, he co-founded the PathMakers Partnership with Entrepreneur Joe Sibilia and Sheriff Michael J. Ashe. PathMakers Partnership The PathMakers Partnership is a joint effort of the Zen Peacemakers, Gasoline Alley Foundation and the Hampden County Sheriffs Office to provide housing, jobs and life support services to homeless families and the formerly incarcerated. Zen Peacemakers is overseeing the whole project. The Gasoline Alley Foundation is developing the businesses to provide jobs while Zen Peacemakers is providing the housing and support services, as well as a spiritual nonsectarian vision of the interconnectedness of all life. Part of that vision is a personal pathmaker program for each individual being served, so that s/he can become not just financially independent, but actually pursue a path that brings them into relationship and into community. Bernie's role in the Partnership is to oversee the entire project as the Partnership's President, articulate the vision for the integrated model, and attract more people and resources to the project. Bernie has already obtained a commitment from the Enterprise Foundation to fund the Partnership's first housing project, which will consist of 60-80 family units. Bernie managed the search for housing properties and the decision that resulted in the final property. Until now he has personally supervised the hiring of the architect and construction project manager, who report to him, as well as the acquisition process. Once that's done he will supervise the massive renovation. He is also supervising the development of the PathMaker program for the people to be served by the Partnership. In addition, Bernie does almost all the fundraising and resource development required by Zen Peacemakers for this project, with support from his other two partners. On weekends, when not leading a training program, he enjoys refining the website of the organization. Awards Bernie was awarded the Ethics in Action Award by the Ethical Culture Society of Westchester and the E-chievement Award by Toms of Maine. He was named Man of the Year by the Westchester Coalition of Food Pantries and Social Entrepreneur of the Year by Business Week in 1993. He is a founding board member of the Social Ventures Network, a network of businesses committed to social change, and continues to serve as one of its spiritual leaders. In 2007, he was honored as a Purpose Prize Fellow given to those over 60 with the passion and experience to discover new opportunities, come up with new solutions, and make lasting changes Publications Bernie is the co-author, with Rick Fields, of Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Masters Lessons in Living a Life that Matters (Bell Tower, April 1996), and the author of Bearing Witness: A Zen Masters Lessons in Making Peace (Bell Tower, May 1997) and Infinite Circle: Studies in Zen (Shambhala Publication, 2002). For more information on his books and on films made about him, please link here. Photo History of Roshi Bernie Prepared by Peter Cunningham (Most Photos by Peter)
Video of Roshi Bernie |
Bernie's Zen
The Dude Abides