Buddhism and Zen
Los Angeles, CA · 1953
N
Nyogen Senzaki
Nyogen Senzaki
1876 CE–1958 CE · Modern · San Francisco Zen Center
1876 – May 7, 1958
Nyogen Senzaki (1876–1958) was a Japanese Rinzai monk who was among the first to teach Zen meditation to lay Americans. A student of Sōen Shaku, he came to the United States in 1905 and from the 1920s ran an itinerant 'floating zendo,' renting public halls in San Francisco and later teaching in Los Angeles. Through his translations and his students—including Robert Aitken—he became an early proponent of Zen in America. He died in 1958.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →
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Stop 1 of 2Visited
San Francisco Zen Center
What they did here
DOCUMENTED: arrived in 1905 with Sōen Shaku; from the 1920s ran an itinerant 'floating zendo,' renting halls for Zen meditation gatherings.
About San Francisco Zen Center
The San Francisco Zen Center, in San Francisco, California, is one of the largest Sōtō Zen organisations outside Japan. It was established in 1962 by the Japanese Sōtō priest Shunryū Suzuki and his American students; Suzuki's talks there became the basis of the influential book 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.'
In San Francisco Zen Center at the same time
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Nyogen Senzaki’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
Shunryū Suzuki, Alan Watts, Charlotte Joko Beck, Taizan Maezumi, Richard Baker, Bernie Glassman, Gil Fronsdal
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Nyogen Senzaki’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.