Alan Senauke

Infobox Buddhist biography
name = Hozan Alan Senauke


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birth_date = 1947
birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, United States
death_date =
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nationality =
denomination = Soto
school =
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title = Priest
Vice Abbot (BZS)
workplace = Berkeley Zen Center
Buddhist Peace Fellowship
education = Columbia University
occupation =
teacher = Sojun Mel Weitsman
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spouse = Laurie
partner =
children = Silvie
Alexander
website = [http://www.berkeleyzencenter.org www.berkeleyzencenter.org]

Hozan Alan Senauke (b. 1947) is a Soto Zen priest, folk musicianBuddenbaum, 398-399] and poet residing at the Berkeley Zen Center (BZC) in Berkeley, California, where he currently serves as Vice Abbot. He is a former Executive Director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF), holding that position from 1991 to 2001. Alan also was a founder of Think Sangha, a group of writers and intellectuals that are affiliated with the BPF and the International Network of Engaged Buddhists. In a nutshell, Think Sangha is a group of individuals who meet together to identify some of the most pressing social issues that they feel engaged Buddhists should be addressing. Senauke, who was born to a secular Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, arrived in the San Francisco Bay area in 1968 and soon started sitting at the Berkeley Zen Center. Along with his Dharma sister Maylie Scott, Senauke received Dharma transmission from his teacher Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1998 during a ceremony at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.

Biography

Alan Senauke was born in 1947 to a secular Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. While attending Columbia University, Senauke participated in the Columbia University strike of April 1968. [Obenzinger] That same year he left for California, arriving in the San Francisco Bay area where he began sitting zazen at the Berkeley Zen Center. He became Executive Director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in 1991, a position in which he served until 2001 (though he remains active in the organization). [http://www.bpf.org/html/about_us/staff/bios/alan_senauke.html] Though he was a peace and civil rights activist of the 1960s and 1970s, by the 1980s Senauke had more or less allowed his activism to become an exercise in intellectualism. His becoming director of BPF, as well as the emergence of the Persian Gulf War, allowed Alan's activist tendencies and Buddhist practice to merge. Together, he and his colleague Tova Green brought BPF to the forefront of American engaged Buddhism.Queen, 77] Along with Green, Senauke helped the BPF "become a place in US society, and in the world, where the sources of violence could be contemplated. The debate on the Gulf War was vital to this development."O'Grady, 399]

During the late 1990s Alan also was a founder of Think Sangha, a group of writers and intellectuals that are affiliated with the BPF and the International Network of Engaged Buddhists. [http://www.bpf.org/html/about_us/staff/bios/alan_senauke.html] In a nutshell, Think Sangha is a group of individuals who meet together to identify some of the most pressing social issues that they feel engaged Buddhists should be addressing. [http://www.bpf.org/tsangha/background.html] In 1998 Alan received shiho (or, Dharma transmission) from his teacher Sojun Mel Weitsman along with Maylie Scott at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. [Wenger, 228-229] Alan is a past board member of Nevada Desert Experience, an organization which holds various retreats, protests and conferences on the subject of nuclear testing. [http://www.nevadadesertexperience.org/about/board.htm] He is also the founder of the Clear View Project, which focuses on social change and relief efforts in Asia, most recently in Burma. [http://news.sfzc.org/content/view/481/46/]

Bibliography

*cite journal| last =Senauke| first =Alan| authorlink =| coauthors =| title =A Long and Winding Road: Soto Zen Training in America| journal =Teaching Theology and Religion| volume =9| issue =2| pages =127–132| publisher =Blackwell Publishing| location =| date =2006| url =http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/87681684&referer=brief_results| doi =| id =| issn = 1368-4868
*cite book| last =Senauke| first =Alan| authorlink =| coauthors =| title =Mental Revenge| publisher =FITS Collective| date =1972| location =| pages =| url =http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/17186298&referer=brief_results| doi =| id = | oclc = 17186298
*cite book| last =Senauke| first =Alan| authorlink =| coauthors =| title =To My World| publisher =San Francisco| date =1971| location =| pages =| url =http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32209387&referer=brief_results| doi =| id = | oclc = 32209387
*cite book| last =Senauke| first =Alan| authorlink =| coauthors =| title =Kansas Days: A Poem| publisher =Columbia Review Press| date =1968| location =| pages =| url =http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/3076826&referer=brief_results| doi =| id = | oclc = 3076826

Music

*cite book| last =Senauke| first =Alan| authorlink =| coauthors =Kate Brislin; Jody Stecher; Suzy Thompson; Eric Thompson; Bill Evans| title =Wooden Man: Old Songs from the Southern School| publisher =Native and Fine Records| date =2002| location =| pages =| url =http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122931724&referer=brief_results| doi =| id = | oclc = 122931724

ee also

*Buddhism in the United States
*Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States
*Nevada Desert Experience

Notes

References

*cite book| last =Buddenbaum| first =Judith Mitchell| authorlink =| coauthors =Mason, Debra L.| title =Readings on Religion as News| publisher =Blackwell Publishing| date =| location =| pages =| url =http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=0813829267&=Search&qt=owc_search| doi =| id = | isbn = 0813829267
*cite web| last =Obenzinger| first =Hilton| authorlink =| coauthors =| title =Did You Write Any Poems?| work =| publisher =Jacket Magazine| date =December 2001| url =http://jacketmagazine.com/15/koch-oben.html| format =| doi =| accessdate = 2008-03-18
*cite book| last =O'Grady| first =John F.| authorlink =| coauthors =Schüttke-Scherle, Peter; May, John D'Arcy| title =Ecumenics From the Rim: Explorations in Honour of John D'Arcy May| publisher =Global| date =| location =| pages =| url =http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=Ecumenics+from+the+Rim| doi =| id = | isbn = 3825806375
*cite book| last =Queen| first =Christopher S| authorlink =| coauthors =| title =Engaged Buddhism in the West| publisher =Wisdom publications| date =2000| location =| pages =| url =http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/41951145&referer=one_hit| doi =| id = | isbn = 0861711599
*cite book| last =Wenger| first =Michael| authorlink =Michael Wenger| coauthors =| title =Wind Bell: Teachings from the San Francisco Zen Center (1968-2001)| publisher =North Atlantic Books| date =2001| location =| pages =| url =http://books.google.com/books?id=qUjpwK593a0C&dq=%22pat+phelan%22+zen&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0| doi =| id = | isbn = 1556433816