John Daido Loori
Encyclopedia
John Daido Loori was a Zen
Buddhist rōshi
who served as the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery
and was the founder of the Mountains and Rivers Order and CEO of Dharma Communications. Daido Loori received shiho
(dharma transmission
) from Taizan Maezumi
in 1986 and also received a dendokyoshi certificate formally from the Soto school of Japan
in 1994. In 1997, he received dharma transmission in the Harada-Yasutani and Inzan lineages of Rinzai Zen as well. In 1996 he gave dharma transmission to his student Bonnie Myotai Treace
, in 1997 to Geoffrey Shugen Arnold
, and in 2009 to Konrad Ryushin Marchaj
. In addition to his role as a Zen Buddhist priest, Loori was an exhibited photographer and author of more than twenty books.
In October 2009, he stepped down as abbot citing health issues. Days later, Zen Mountain Monastery announced that his death was imminent. On October 9, 2009, at 7:30 a.m. he died of lung cancer
in Mount Tremper, New York
.
John Daido Loori was born Catholic in Jersey City, New Jersey
. As a child Loori loved photographing things, once using his family's bathroom as a makeshift dark room. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1947 to 1952. Later, after studying at Rutgers, he worked as a chemist
in the food industry
and led the American Civil Liberties Union
in Orange and Sullivan Counties in New York. As an adult he distanced himself from Catholicism and explored a variety of other religions. Then, in 1971, he attended a workshop given by the photographer Minor White
. Loori came to study photography under White until his death and also learned meditation from him. In 1972 Daido Loori began his formal Zen practice, studying in New York
under Soen Nakagawa
and then in California
under Taizan Maezumi
, Roshi.
In 1980 Loori purchased 230 acre (0.9307778 km²) in New York
which today serves as the site for Zen Mountain Monastery
. In 1983 he was made a Zen priest by Maezumi and in 1986 was given shiho
(or, dharma transmission
) by him. In 1997, he received dharma transmission in the Harada-Yasutani and Inzan lineages of Rinzai Zen as well. According to author Richard Hughes, this made Loori "one of three Western dharma-holders in both the Soto and Rinzai schools."
Loori was a professional nature photographer
, having once exhibited his work at the American Museum of Natural History
in Manhattan, New York. He has also held various other shows and workshops on photography, including positions at Naropa University
starting in 1974 and the Synechia Arts Center located in Middletown, New York
; his works have been published by Aperture
and Time-Life
. His book, Hearing with the Eye: Photographs from Point Lobos, features Loori's abstract nature photography interwoven with commentary on Teachings of the Insentient by Eihei Dogen.
Loori founded Dharma Communications as a way to communicate the dharma of the Mountains and Rivers Order. Dharma Communications publishes a Buddhist quarterly titled the Mountain Record
, various audio-visual
materials, and has also published several books by Daido Loori. According to Charles S. Prebish, Dharma Communications is "one of the most efficient and successful publishers of Buddhist materials on the continent, and a place where practitioners can learn how to cultivate both mindfulness and compassion in front of a computer."
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
Buddhist rōshi
Roshi
is a Japanese honorific title used in Zen Buddhism that literally means "old teacher" or "elder master" and sometimes denotes a person who gives spiritual guidance to a Zen sangha or congregation...
who served as the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery
Zen Mountain Monastery
Zen Mountain Monastery is a Zen Buddhist monastery and training center on a forested property in the Catskill Mountains in Mount Tremper, New York. It was founded in 1980 by John Daido Loori, originally as the Zen Arts Center. It combines the Rinzai and Sōtō Zen traditions, in both of which Loori...
and was the founder of the Mountains and Rivers Order and CEO of Dharma Communications. Daido Loori received shiho
Shiho
refers to a series of ceremonies in Sōtō Zen Buddhism wherein which a priest receives full transmission, inheriting the Dharma from his/her master and becoming empowered to transmit the precepts and lineage to others. A shiho ceremony can last anywhere from one to three weeks, with the final...
(dharma transmission
Dharma transmission
Dharma transmission refers to "the manner in which the teaching, or Dharma, is passed from a Zen master to their disciple and heir...
) from Taizan Maezumi
Taizan Maezumi
Hakuyū Taizan Maezumi was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher and rōshi, and lineage holder in the Sōtō, Rinzai and Harada-Yasutani traditions of Zen. He combined the Rinzai use of koans and the Sōtō emphasis on shikantaza in his teachings, influenced by his years studying under Hakuun Yasutani in the...
in 1986 and also received a dendokyoshi certificate formally from the Soto school of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1994. In 1997, he received dharma transmission in the Harada-Yasutani and Inzan lineages of Rinzai Zen as well. In 1996 he gave dharma transmission to his student Bonnie Myotai Treace
Bonnie Myotai Treace
Bonnie Myotai Treace, Sensei, is the founder and head Sensei of Hermitage Heart; she teaches at Gristmill Hermitage in Garrison, New York. Particularly known for her work in women's spirituality, poetry, and the nexus of mind and environment, she is the senior Dharma successor of John Daido Loori,...
, in 1997 to Geoffrey Shugen Arnold
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold is a sensei of the Mountains and Rivers Order founded by John Daido Loori, from whom Shugen received shiho in July 1997. As a lineage holder in the Sōtō tradition, Shugen currently serves as head of MRO and abbot of the Zen Center of New York City in Brooklyn...
, and in 2009 to Konrad Ryushin Marchaj
Konrad Ryushin Marchaj
Konrad Ryushin Marchaj is the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery, the mainhouse of the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism, founded by John Daido Loori from whom Marchaj received shiho in June 2009. Marchaj was a pediatrician and a psychiatrist before entering residency at the monastery in...
. In addition to his role as a Zen Buddhist priest, Loori was an exhibited photographer and author of more than twenty books.
In October 2009, he stepped down as abbot citing health issues. Days later, Zen Mountain Monastery announced that his death was imminent. On October 9, 2009, at 7:30 a.m. he died of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
in Mount Tremper, New York
Mount Tremper, New York
Mount Tremper is a populated place in Ulster County, New York, USA. Mount Tremper is situated to the east of New York State Route 28 and to the north of New York State Route 212 within the Catskill Park. The community is located at...
.
Biography
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
. As a child Loori loved photographing things, once using his family's bathroom as a makeshift dark room. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1947 to 1952. Later, after studying at Rutgers, he worked as a chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
in the food industry
Food industry
The food production is a complex, global collective of diverse businesses that together supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population...
and led the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
in Orange and Sullivan Counties in New York. As an adult he distanced himself from Catholicism and explored a variety of other religions. Then, in 1971, he attended a workshop given by the photographer Minor White
Minor White
Minor Martin White was an American photographer born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.White earned a degree in botany with a minor in English from the University of Minnesota in 1933. His first creative efforts were in poetry, as he took five years thereafter to complete a sequence of 100 sonnets while...
. Loori came to study photography under White until his death and also learned meditation from him. In 1972 Daido Loori began his formal Zen practice, studying in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
under Soen Nakagawa
Soen Nakagawa
Soen Nakagawa was a Taiwanese-born Japanese rōshi and Zen Buddhist master in the Rinzai tradition...
and then in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
under Taizan Maezumi
Taizan Maezumi
Hakuyū Taizan Maezumi was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher and rōshi, and lineage holder in the Sōtō, Rinzai and Harada-Yasutani traditions of Zen. He combined the Rinzai use of koans and the Sōtō emphasis on shikantaza in his teachings, influenced by his years studying under Hakuun Yasutani in the...
, Roshi.
In 1980 Loori purchased 230 acre (0.9307778 km²) in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
which today serves as the site for Zen Mountain Monastery
Zen Mountain Monastery
Zen Mountain Monastery is a Zen Buddhist monastery and training center on a forested property in the Catskill Mountains in Mount Tremper, New York. It was founded in 1980 by John Daido Loori, originally as the Zen Arts Center. It combines the Rinzai and Sōtō Zen traditions, in both of which Loori...
. In 1983 he was made a Zen priest by Maezumi and in 1986 was given shiho
Shiho
refers to a series of ceremonies in Sōtō Zen Buddhism wherein which a priest receives full transmission, inheriting the Dharma from his/her master and becoming empowered to transmit the precepts and lineage to others. A shiho ceremony can last anywhere from one to three weeks, with the final...
(or, dharma transmission
Dharma transmission
Dharma transmission refers to "the manner in which the teaching, or Dharma, is passed from a Zen master to their disciple and heir...
) by him. In 1997, he received dharma transmission in the Harada-Yasutani and Inzan lineages of Rinzai Zen as well. According to author Richard Hughes, this made Loori "one of three Western dharma-holders in both the Soto and Rinzai schools."
Loori was a professional nature photographer
Nature photography
Nature photography refers to a wide range of photography taken outdoors and devoted to displaying natural elements such as landscapes, wildlife, plants, and close-ups of natural scenes and textures...
, having once exhibited his work at the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
in Manhattan, New York. He has also held various other shows and workshops on photography, including positions at Naropa University
Naropa University
Naropa University is a private American liberal arts university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher and Oxford University scholar Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the eleventh-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda.Naropa describes itself as...
starting in 1974 and the Synechia Arts Center located in Middletown, New York
Middletown, Orange County, New York
Middletown is a city in Orange County, New York, United States. It lies in New York's Hudson Valley region, near the Wallkill River and the foothills of the Shawangunk Mountains. Middletown is situated between Port Jervis and Newburgh, New York. The city's population was 25,388 at the 2000 census...
; his works have been published by Aperture
Aperture (magazine)
Aperture is a quarterly photography magazine and a book publisher based in New York, New York. The magazine is published by Aperture Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to fine art photography.-Magazine:...
and Time-Life
Time-Life
Time–Life is a creator and direct marketer of books, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products. Its products are sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct sales....
. His book, Hearing with the Eye: Photographs from Point Lobos, features Loori's abstract nature photography interwoven with commentary on Teachings of the Insentient by Eihei Dogen.
Loori founded Dharma Communications as a way to communicate the dharma of the Mountains and Rivers Order. Dharma Communications publishes a Buddhist quarterly titled the Mountain Record
Mountain Record
Mountain Record: The Zen Practitioners' JournalMountain Record is a perfect antidote for anyone who fears that Buddhist practice is being diluted by its current popularity in American culture...
, various audio-visual
Audio-visual
The term Audio-Visual may refer to works with both a sound and a visual component, the production or use of such works, or to equipment used to create and present such works...
materials, and has also published several books by Daido Loori. According to Charles S. Prebish, Dharma Communications is "one of the most efficient and successful publishers of Buddhist materials on the continent, and a place where practitioners can learn how to cultivate both mindfulness and compassion in front of a computer."
Books
- The Way of Mountains and Rivers
- The Zen Art Box with Stephen Addiss
- Hearing with the Eye: Teachings of the Insentient
- The Zen of Creativity : Cultivating Your Artistic Life
- The Eight Gates of Zen : A Program of Zen Training
- Sitting with Koans : Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Koan Study with Tom Kirshner.
- The True Dharma Eye : Zen Master Dogen's Three Hundred Koans with Kazuaki TanahashiKazuaki Tanahashiis an accomplished Japanese calligrapher, Zen teacher, author and translator of Buddhist texts from Japanese and Chinese to English, most notably works by Dogen...
(Translator). - The Heart of Being: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen Buddhism
- The Art of Just Sitting, Second Edition : Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza
- Celebrating Everyday Life: Zen Home Liturgy
- Making Love with Light, a book of nature photography.
- Riding the Ox Home : Stages on the Path of Enlightenment
- The Still Point: A Beginner's Guide to Zen Meditation
- Cave Of Tigers : Modern Zen Encounters
- Invoking Reality: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen
- Path of Enlightenment: Stages in a Spiritual Journey
- Two Arrows Meeting in Mid-Air: The Zen Koan
- Mountain Record of Zen Talks
- Teachings of the Insentient: Zen and the Environment
Translated Editions
- Das Zen der Kreativitat (German ed.) – 2006 Theseus Verlag, Berlin 3-89620-287-1
- Celebrer la Vie au Quotidien (French ed.): 2003 BDLYS Ed. 2-914395-20-5
- La Recontre de la Realite (French ed.) by BDLYS Ed. 2-914395-21-3
- El Punto de Quietud (Spanish ed.): 2001 Mandala Ed. 84-95052-69-5
- Hat ein Hund Buddha-Natur? (German ed.): 1996 Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH 9-783596-130191
Filmography
- The Still Point: Introduction to Zen Meditation
- Entering the Mountain Gate: Essentials of Zen
- Oryoki: Formal Monastery Meal
- The Heart of Being: Zen Buddhist Precepts
- Mountain Light Video Library: A Collection of 27 Dharma Discourses
- One Bright Pearl: Dharma Combat
- Enlarging the Universe: Creative Expression
- Fire Keeper: Student Mind
- The Art of Seeing
- The Great Earth's Edict: Zen and Environmentalism
Recent Photography Exhibitions
- "The Tao of Water", Jan. 18 - Mar. 22, 2008 Gallery at 910, Denver, CO
- "Jinzu", April 19 - June 6, 2007 Gallery at 910, Denver, CO
- "Jinzu", Sept. 8 - Dec. 31, 2006 Buffalo Big Print, Buffalo, New York
See also
- Buddhism in the United StatesBuddhism in the United StatesBuddhism is one of the largest religions in the United States behind Christianity, Judaism and Nonreligious, and approximate with Islam and Hinduism. American Buddhists include many Asian Americans, as well as a large number of converts of other ethnicities, and now their children and even...
- List of Rinzai Buddhists
- Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United StatesTimeline of Zen Buddhism in the United StatesBelow is a timeline of important events regarding Zen Buddhism in the United States. Dates with "?" are approximate.-Early history:* 1893: Soyen Shaku comes to the United States to lecture at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago...
External links
- Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism
- John Daido Loori: Author, Artist, Zen Master
- Shambhala Sun interview
- Author Spotlight on Loori at Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, publisher of some of his books - Nature of the Self video
- Ceaseless Practice video
- The Still Point: Introduction to Zazen video
- Exhibit at American Natural History Museum
- Presentation during an interfaith dialogue at Gethsemani
- Audio Interview Series on Buddhist Geeks
- Daido Roshi interview on PBS
- Zen's Radical Conservative: John Daido Loori