Glassman was a Brooklyn-born Jew and an American Zen master. Bernie Glassman was a Brooklyn-born Jew and an American Zen master. Bernie Glassman was a Brooklyn-born Jew and an American Zen master. An American Zen Master has died: An oral history of Roshi Bernie was a Brooklyn-born Jew, a recognized Zen master, a Buddhist trailblazer, a restless mensch and . Glassman plunged into aeronautical engineering, into Zen, into leading a Buddhist community, into running a Glassman dismissed "mannequin meditation" and carried his Zen practice from clean-aired monasteries to chaotic city streets in his later years Glassman looked less like a traditional Zen master than a "hippie cigar entrepreneur," which Glassman co-founded in 1982 with his Zen community, has grown into a $10 million The Five Invitations" and founding director of the Zen Hospice Project. "He fed their material needs and he fed them spiritual sustenance." Zen Peacemakers International, Glassman's other big venture, Hozan Alan Senauke, vice abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center in California and a longtime social justice activist. Trained by Japanese missionaries in the intricacies of Zen, a school of Buddhism brought to China in the ambitious and iconoclastic, preferring Hawaiian shirts to a Zen teacher's brown robes, and came to believe not enough." Some of Glassman's Zen experiments found a following; others did not. At , some Buddhists questioned whether they were authentically "Zen" at all. "He moved pretty far to the edge of what Zen was," said the Rev. James Myoun Ford , a Zen priest and Unitarian Universalist minister who has written several books about Zen. "Zen needs people who break the mold, but we also s empowering of non-Buddhists to teach in his Zen lineage, relentless focus on social justice and refusal to adopt the traditional trappings of a Zen teacher stirred the waters of American Buddhism. " was a heretic or an avatar of the 'New Zen,'" said Helen Tworkov, author of the book "Zen in America: Five Teachers and the Search for an what he tried to do is broaden the parameters of Zen, especially for underserved populations." Glassman's restlessness and unconventionality likely prevented several of his Zen projects from attracting large enough flocks to flourish, several experts said. But his idiosyncrasies also inspired fellow Zen adepts. "Bernie is the one who really , whom he recognized as masters in his Soto Zen lineage. The eclectic heirs include a National Book Award of what it means to be a Western practitioner of Zen in the 21st century and to make a difference in Enkyo O'Hara, abbot of the Village Zendo in New York City and one of Glassman' in front of me." Glassman leads the Zen Peacemakers on a Photograph by Peter Cunningham. Glassman leads the Zen Peacemakers on a Photograph by Peter Cunningham. Glassman leads the Zen Peacemakers on a "bearing witness" retreat. engineering college. In college I got interested in Zen through reading Huston Smith ... the page on Zen struck me as home. Nowadays on the web, came back in '63 and heard there was a Zen temple in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. There was Roshi, who had become somewhat famous in the Zen world because of "Three Pillars of Zen. Glassman and his family moved into Maezumi's Zen Center of Los Angeles. Glassman and his teacher, family. We kept kosher in the home and Zen masters from around the world would come to our house him the first American authorized to teach in his Soto Zen lineage. Glassman: "I became very involved ." Maezumi encouraged Glassman to start his own Zen community. With donations, he bought a mansion for Photograph by Peter Cunningham. Glassman's Zen community in New York started a bakery called Greyston. . Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao, abbot of Zen Center of Los Angeles: "He immediately starts because they wanted him to be the image of the Zen master in the Zendo and he was so brilliant at former student of Glassman's and author of "Zen in America:" "He was tremendously restless pissed and say, 'That's not Zen!' And he would say, 'That 's exactly Zen!" There was an exodus of students who didn " Glassman: "When we say that Zen is life, dealing in the moment with what is The Rev. James Myoun Ford, Zen priest and Unitarian Universalist minister: "Bernie cared soup kitchens. He was going to be the Zen Buddhist Dorothy Day. Glassman leads one of his " Frank Ostaseski, founding director of the Zen Hospice Project: "What I learned from Bernie Pat Enkyo O'Hara, abbot of Village Zendo in New York City: "He felt very much a part of the hierarchy in the Soto Zen school. When Bernie disrobed and grew his hair, Hozan Alan Senauke, vice abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center: "For Bernie it was a challenge assumed that Bernie would become the leading figure for Soto Zen Buddhism in the United States. But he absolutely stepped looking for Bernie to be the point person for their Zen project in America." Nakao: "I questioning: What does it mean to be a Zen Buddhist, a human being, just to be? the way he led his life. That was Zen to him." Glassman: "I couldn Holocaust concentration camps and homeless shelters became hallmarks of the Zen Peacemaker Order, which Glassman co-founded with his Holmes, in 1996. Glassman and other Zen Peacemakers meditate on the train tracks at Auschwitz. Photograph by Peter Cunningham. Glassman and other Zen Peacemakers meditate on the train tracks at Auschwitz. Photograph by Peter Cunningham. Glassman and other Zen Peacemakers meditate on the train tracks at Auschwitz. Photograph star Jeff Bridges called "The Dude and the Zen Master." Actor Jeff Bridges and Glassman wrote a Bernie has been interested for some time now in making Zen more accessible to our times and culture, relevant and Alisa Glassman: "The stroke itself became a Zen practice for him. He pushed himself to walk again ." Rami Efal, executive director of Zen Peacemakers International and Glassman's former assistant: that role. His students don't have Zendos (Zen centers) or cushions, they " Glassman died on November 4, as Zen Peacemakers were preparing for a "bearing witness"