Ordinary Mind Zen School

The Ordinary Mind Zen School is a network of independent Zen centers established by Charlotte Joko Beck and her Dharma Successors in 1995.

Ordinary Mind Zen School
Religion
AffiliationZen
Architecture
FounderCharlotte Joko Beck, Elizabeth Hamilton, Diane Eshin Rizzetto, Elihu Genmyo Smith
Completed1995
禪 Zen
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History

The school is unaffiliated with any Zen centers which fall outside of its own network, however many Ordinary Mind Zen teachers are members of the White Plum Asanga.[1] The history of the Ordinary Mind Zen School dates back to 1983, which was the year that Joko Beck had left the Zen Center of Los Angeles.[2] That was the year her teacher, Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi, had been confronted by his students about his alcoholism and sexual liaisons with some female students. Joko Beck established the Zen Center of San Diego[3] in 1983.

According to Richard Hughes Seager, "By 1998, the Ordinary Mind School had centers in San Diego, Champaign, Illinois, Oakland, California, Portland, Oregon and New York City."[4] There is no one set structure of curriculum in the Ordinary Mind School, as the Dharma Successors of Joko Beck get to decide their method of training independent of any organizational head. Long before retirement, Joko Beck had done away with all titles and no longer wore her okesa. (For formal occasions she often wore a rakusu after ceasing to wear okesa; she also ordained several Zen priests throughout her life.) She had distanced herself considerably from her roots in the Sōtō school, and much of the ceremony had been abandoned in favor of pure meditation practice.[2]

Teachers
  • Dan Birnbaum (Bay Zen Center)[5]
  • Barry Magid (Ordinary Mind Zendo)
  • Elihu Genmyo Smith (Prairie Zen Center)
  • Andrew Sono Tootell (OzZEN Ordinary Mind Zen)

See also

Further reading
  • Seager, Richard Hughes (1999). Buddhism In America. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-10868-0. OCLC 40481142.

References
  1. "Membership List | The White Plum Asanga". whiteplum.org. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  2. Ford, James Ishmael (2006). Zen Master Who?: A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen. Wisdom Publications. pp. 173–175. ISBN 0-86171-509-8.
  3. Zen Center of San Diego
  4. Seager, 102
  5. "About Us". Bay Zen Center. Retrieved 2019-10-30.


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