Reb Anderson

Reb Anderson was born as Harold Anderson{{cite book |last1=Prebish |first1=Charles S. |last2=Baumann |first2=Martin |title=Westward Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Asia |publisher=University of California Press |year=2002 |location=Berkeley |pages=237 |oclc=48871649 |isbn=0520226259 }} in Mississippi in 1943 and grew up in Minnesota. His father left the family when Anderson was eleven.{{harvnb|Anderson|2005|p=137}} In his youth, he was a Golden Gloves boxer.{{cite book |last=Downing |first=Michael |title=Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center |publisher=Counterpoint |year=2001 |location=Washington, DC |pages=[https://archive.org/details/shoesoutsidedoor00down/page/15 15–16] |oclc=46793103 |isbn=1582431132 |url=https://archive.org/details/shoesoutsidedoor00down/page/15 }} Anderson developed an interest in Buddhism while still in his teens. In 1967, he abandoned his graduate studies in psychology and mathematics to study Soto Zen under Shunryu Suzuki at the San Francisco Zen Center.

Anderson was then ordained as a priest in 1970 by Suzuki, who gave Anderson the Buddhist name Tenshin Zenki 天眞全機 (Naturally Real, The Whole Works).{{cite book |last=Gach |first=Gary |title=What Book!?: Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop |publisher=Parallax Press |year=1998 |location=Berkeley |pages=[https://archive.org/details/whatbookbuddhapo0000unse/page/210 210] |oclc=38324499 |isbn=0938077929 |url=https://archive.org/details/whatbookbuddhapo0000unse/page/210 }} After Suzuki Roshi's death, Anderson continued his training and practice at San Francisco Zen Center. In 1983 Anderson received shiho from Zentatsu Richard Baker, becoming Baker's first Dharma heir. However, when Baker was forced to resign amid complaints about his affairs with female Zen Center members and his purchase of expensive luxury goods, Baker claimed Anderson never completed the entire transmission ceremony.{{harvnb|Downing|2001|pp=357–360}} The board of the San Francisco Zen Center disagreed, understanding Anderson to be Baker's Dharma heir (Baker has since agreed with this.). After Baker's resignation, Anderson replaced him as abbot.

File:Reb in Cloud Hall.jpg

In a controversial incident, which Anderson discusses in his book "Being Upright, while jogging in Golden Gate Park in 1983, he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. Anderson returned to the body over a period of several days to meditate over the corpse. He eventually reported the body, but not the revolver, taking it into his possession.{{harvnb|Anderson|2001|pp=187–189}}{{cite web |title=A Buddhist sect's top priest is taking a voluntary... |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/06/16/A-Buddhist-sects-top-priest-is-taking-a-voluntary/9654550814400/ |website=UPI |access-date=October 11, 2024 |date=June 16, 1987}} In 1987, Anderson was mugged one block away from the San Francisco Zen Center. He retrieved the unloaded revolver and chased the perpetrator to a nearby tenement, where both were quickly arrested.

The Zen Center Board of Directors sent him on a leave of absence for six months.{{cite news|title=A Buddhist sect's top priest is taking a voluntary...|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/06/16/A-Buddhist-sects-top-priest-is-taking-a-voluntary/9654550814400/|access-date=February 7, 2018|work=UPI|publisher=United Press International|date=June 16, 1987}} After his return, he served as co-abbot with Mel Weitsman until 1995. Regarding this ordeal, Anderson has written of his remorse and insight garnered from the experience.{{harvnb|Anderson|2001|pp=187–189}}: "On both a personal and a professional level, I am still dealing with the consequences of this episode. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. Even newer students, who come to Zen Center and find out about these incidents, are sometimes confused and question whether I can be their teacher. These events are a helpful reminder—both to me and to others—of my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. I see how my empowerment to protect and care for the Triple Treasure inflated my sense of personal authority, and thus detracted from and disparaged the Triple Treasure. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow."

Anderson served as abbot and as co-abbot with Sojun Mel Weitsman of SFZC’s three training centers (City Center, Green Gulch Farm, and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center) from 1986 to 1995.{{cite web |title=San Francisco Zen Center Lineage |url=https://www.sfzc.org/about/San-Francisco-Zen-Center-Lineage |website=San Francisco Zen Center |access-date=8 June 2025}}

In October 1999 Anderson suffered a heart attack while conducting dokusan. He later underwent a successful emergency angioplasty.{{cite web |last=Chadwick |first=David |author-link=David Chadwick (writer) |title=Cuke Sangha News through '07 |url=http://www.cuke.com/sangha_news/sanghanews-through-07.html |publisher=cuke.com |date=October 20, 1999 |access-date=February 12, 2013 }}

Anderson is married to Rusa Chiu, a Jungian analyst. He has two daughters, Deborah Savran and Thea Anderson, as well as four grandchildren. Anderson retired in 2025 from San Francisco Zen Center but he continues to offer teachings and practice opportunities at No Abode Hermitage.

According to James Ishmael Ford, "...Anderson Roshi is one of the first people to have worked hard to bring Dogen studies West. He has also stretched much of Zen's traditional approach to psychology by drawing upon other ancient Buddhist sources, including Abhidharma and Yogachara teaching, while at the same time being solidly informed regarding Western approaches to the discipline." To some students, "...Reb's practice invites comparison to the legendary Japanese samurai, the warriors who trained in medieval Zen monasteries."

Sobun Katherine Thanas received shiho from Tenshin Roshi in 1988 and later was installed as abbess of the Santa Cruz Zen Center.{{cite web |title=Memorial Page: Karin Sobun Katherine Thomas |url=http://www.sczc.org/memorial-page.html |publisher=Santa Cruz Zen Center |access-date=February 12, 2013 }} Zengyu Paul Discoe, Chikudo Jerome Peterson and Ananda Claude Dalenburg also received shiho in 1988 (Ananda was the inspiration for the character Bud Diefendorf in Jack Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums).{{cite web |last=Chadwick |first=David |author-link=David Chadwick (writer) |title=Interviews with Ananda (Claude) Dalenberg |url=http://www.cuke.com/Cucumber%20Project/interviews/ananda.html |publisher=cuke.com |date=October 7, 1994 |access-date=February 12, 2013 }} Anderson gave shiho to his student Jiko Linda Cutts in 1996, who went on to serve as co-abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center from 2000 until 2007. She has served as Central Abbess of San Francisco Center from 2014 to 2019.{{cite book |last1=Skinner Keller |first1=Rosemary |first2=Rosemary |last2=Radford Ruether |first3=Marie |last3=Cantlon |title=The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2006 |location=Bloomington |pages=643 |oclc=61711172 |isbn=0253346851 }} Jakujo Gary McNabb received shiho in 1998. Furyu Nancy Schroeder received shiho 1999. She was installed as the abiding abbess of Green Gulch Farm Zen Center and has served from 2014 to the present. Myo Denis Lahey received shiho in 1999 and became head teacher of the Hartford Street Zen Center, Issan-ji, in San Francisco. In 2000 Taigen Dan Leighton received shiho. Leighton has since gone on to establish the Mountain Source Sangha{{cite web |title=Taigen Dan Leighton, Founding Dharma Teacher |url=http://www.mtsource.org/bios/taigenbio.html |publisher=Mountain Source Sangha |date=2007 |access-date=February 12, 2013 }} and after moving to Chicago, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate.{{cite web |title=Taigen Dan Leighton Full Biography |url=http://www.ancientdragon.org/taigen_dan_leighton/full_bio |publisher=Ancient Dragon Zen Gate |access-date=February 12, 2013 }} In 2002 Meiya Wender received shiho. She now conducts japanese tea ceremony classes at Green Gulch.{{cite web |title=Meiya Wender |url=http://www.sfzc.org/zc/display.asp?catid=3,76,107&pageid=263 |publisher=San Francisco Zen Center |access-date=February 12, 2013 }} Also in 2002, Anderson gave shiho to Leslie James, his first dharma entrustment to a lay teacher. She is a long-time resident of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the monastic center of San Francisco Zen Center.{{cite web |title=Leslie James |url=http://www.sfzc.org/zc/display.asp?catid=3,76,107&pageid=263 |publisher=San Francisco Zen Center |access-date=July 15, 2016 }} In 2003 Setsuan Gaelyn Godwin became Tenshin Roshi's Dharma successor and became Houston Zen Center's Abiding Teacher (2003) and abbot of Houston Zen Center in 2012. In 2005, she received the title of 'Kaikyoshi' from the Soto School of Japan.{{cite web |title=Houston Zen Center: About Us |url=http://www.houstonzen.org/html/aboutUs.html |publisher=Houston Zen Center |access-date=February 12, 2013 }} In 2005 Kiku Christina Lehnherr received shiho from Tenshin Roshi and served as San Francisco Zen Center's City Center abbess from 2012 to 2014.{{cite web |title=Kiku Christina Lehnherr |url=http://www.sfzc.org/cc/display.asp?catid=2,6,126&pageid=166 |publisher=San Francisco Zen Center |access-date=February 12, 2013 }} Taiyo Lipscomb received shiho in 2009,{{cite web |title=Taiyo Lipscomb |url=http://www.sfzc.org/zc/display.asp?catid=3,76,125&pageid=2262 |publisher=San Francisco Zen Center |access-date=February 12, 2013 }} and in 2010, Kōkyō Henkel received shiho. Gentaku Susan O'Connell received shiho June 2017, Korin Nyuyu Charlie Pokorny received shiho in 2018. He is currently teaching at Brooklyn Zen Center.

• {{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Reb |author-link=Reb Anderson |others=Foreword by Susan Moon |title=Warm Smiles from Cold Mountains: Dharma Talks on Zen Meditation |publisher=Rodmell Press |year=2005 |orig-year=1995 |edition=3rd |location=Berkeley |oclc=61332243 |isbn=1930485107 }}
• {{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Reb |author-link=Reb Anderson |title=Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts |publisher=Rodmell Press |year=2001 |location=Berkeley |oclc=44414111 |isbn=0962713899 |url=https://archive.org/details/beinguprightzenm00ande }}
• {{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Reb |author-link=Reb Anderson |title=The Third Turning of the Wheel: Wisdom of the Samdhinirmocana Sutra |publisher=Rodmell Press |year=2012 |location=Berkeley |oclc=757477313 |isbn=978-1930485310 }}
• {{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Reb |author-link=Reb Anderson |title=Entering the Mind of Buddha: Zen and the Six Heroic Practices of Bodhisattvas|publisher=Shambhala Publications |year=2019 |location=Boulder |oclc=1134538104|isbn= 9781611806533 |url=https://archive.org/details/enteringthemind00ande}}

• {{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Reb |author-link=Reb Anderson |title=Basic Points of Buddhist Meditation |publisher=Big Sur Tapes; Produced by Dolphin Tapes |year=1993 |orig-year=1984 |location=Tiburon, CA |oclc=30066463 }}
• Engage Wisdom: "The Reb Anderson Audio Archive". https://rebanderson.engagewisdom.com/
• {{cite web |title=Video Talks |url=https://rebanderson.org/video-talks/ |website=Reb Anderson |access-date=8 June 2025}}

• Buddhism in the United States
• Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States

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Category:Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area

Category:Religious leaders from the San Francisco Bay Area