• On Zen Practice I & II
• The Hazy Moon Of Enlightenment
• Instructions To The Cook. A Zen Master’s Lessons In Living A Life That Matters (With Rick Fields)
• Bearing Witness. A Zen Master’s Lessons In Making Peace
• Infinite Circle. Teachings In Zen

Zen priest and teacher, community champion, writer.

Read Bernie Glassman for courage, commitment and creative spiritual engagement in society.

• Born in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York. His parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe and he grew up in a Jewish family with a strong socialist and Communist orientation. After graduating from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, he went to work for McDonnell-Douglas in California in the early 1960s as an aeronautical engineer, concentrating on sending unmanned flights to Mars. He also obtained a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from UCLA at that time.

• In 1967, Bernie began his Zen studies with Taizan Maezumi Roshi, Founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, as well as with some other well-known Japanese Zen masters. He became Sensei Glassman - Maezumi Roshi's first Dharma Successor, in 1976.

• After receiving Dharma transmission, he moved back to the Bronx in 1980 to establish the Zen Community of New York in Riverdale. Being concerned with issues of social action and the integration of Zen practice with everyday life, he founded the Greyston Mandala, a network of community development organizations, informed by Buddhist values, providing a variety of services in southwest Yonkers – and presently, it consist of several successful social-economic ventures.

• In 1995 he received inka, or the final seal of approval, from his teacher and became known as Roshi Bernie. He also served as Spiritual Head of the White Plum Lineage, founded by Maezumi Roshi, and as the first President of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association of America. In January 1994, while leading a Bearing Witness street retreat in Washington DC, he conceived of the creation of an Order of Zen practitioners dedicated to the cause of peace. Subsequently, the concept was broadened to become a global and multi-faith network. The Peacemaker Circle, focusing on the integration of spiritual practice and social action, was co-founded by him and his wife, Jishu Holmes.

• He teaches and travels, giving talks and workshops on spiritual practice and peacemaking, and leading the street retreats for which he is well known. He serves as visionary for the Peacemaker Circle, shepherding its continuing growth and development as a global, multi-faith network of peacemakers. He is also the Spiritual Director of the Zen Peacemaker Family. His other Board involvement include White Plum Asanga, Soto Zen Buddhist Association, Aids Interfaith National Network, Social Venture Network, and the Westchester Interfaith Housing Corp. He was awarded Best of America Award for Social Action (US News & World Report) (1991), and the Ethics in Action Award given by the Ethical Culture Society of Westchester.