Zen Garland Lineage

Roshi Paul Genki Kahn founded Zen Garland on the Zen Buddhist tradition and the authority of his empowerment by Zen Master Bernie Tetsugen Glassman in Taizan Maezumi Roshi’s Soto Zen lineage. In the formative years of his practice in the 1970s, Roshi Genki lived in residential training at the Zen Center of Los Angeles with Taizan Maezumi Roshi, who ordained him and where he was personal attendant to the Roshi and Director of Training. Although Maezumi Roshi was a Soto Zen priest, he taught an integrated approach to Zen beyond sectarianism, combining koan study and an emphasis on enlightenment experience with the teachings of Dogen. He did not want Zen bound by tradition. He encouraged creativity, and wanted his students to master the essence of Zen, then find appropriate expressions for our time, cultures and personalities.

Roshi Genki has established the Zen Garland Order, independent of the Japanese sects of Rinzai and Soto, to provide a holistic approach to Zen training appropriate for our time. The priests and teachers at Zen Garland carry Maezumi Roshi’s lineage, but are teachers and priests in the Zen Garland Order. We are not trained by, registered with or part of the Soto School of Japan.

Harada Sogaku Roshi 1870 – 1961	Yasutani Roshi 1885 – 1973

Koryu Osaka Roshi 1901 – 1987	Baian Hakujun Kuroda Roshi 1898 – 1978

Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi 1931 – 1995	Zen Master Bernie Glassman

Roshi Paul Genki Kahn

Hakuyū Taizan Maezumi (前角 博雄, February 24, 1931—May 15, 1995) was a Japanese Zen roshi and lineage holder in the Soto, Rinzai and Harada-Yasutani lineages—an unusual background for any Zen teacher. He combined the Rinzai use of koans and the Soto emphasis on shikantaza in his teachings, influenced by his years studying under Haku’un Yasutani in the Harada-Yasutani school. Through his decades of teaching he founded or co-founded several institutions and practice centers, among them being the Zen Center of Los Angeles, White Plum Asanga, Yokoji Zen Mountain Center and the Zen Mountain Monastery.
Taizan Maezumi left behind twelve Dharma Successors, appointed sixty-eight priests and gave Buddhist precepts to more than five hundred practitioners. Along with Zen teachers like Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, Seung Sahn Soen Sa Nim, and Venerable Hsuan Hua, Maezumi greatly impacted the landscape of Western Zen practice. Several Dharma Successors of his — for instance Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, Dennis Genpo Merzel, John Daido Loori, Jan Chozen Bays, Charlotte Joko Beck, and William Nyogen Yeo — have each gone on to found Zen communities of their own. Maezumi Roshi died in Japan in 1995.