John Daido Loori

John Daido Loori was born in Jersey City, New Jersey and raised Roman Catholic.^[4] As a child Loori loved photographing things, once using his family's bathroom as a makeshift dark room.^[5] He served in the U.S. Navy from 1947 to 1952. Later, after studying at Rutgers, he worked as a chemist in the food industry^[6] and led the American Civil Liberties Union in Orange and Sullivan Counties in New York.^[2] As an adult he distanced himself from Catholicism and explored a variety of other religions.^[4] Then, in 1971,^[5] he attended a workshop given by the photographer Minor White. Loori came to study photography under White until his death and also learned meditation from him.^[6] In 1972 Daido Loori began his formal Zen practice, studying in New York under Soen Nakagawa and then in California under Taizan Maezumi, Roshi.^[2]

In 1980 Loori purchased 230 acres (0.93 km²) in New York which today serves as the site for Zen Mountain Monastery.^[6] In 1983 he was made a Zen priest by Maezumi and in 1986 was given shiho (or, dharma transmission) by him. In 1997, he received dharma transmission in the Harada-Yasutani and Inzan lineages of Rinzai Zen as well. According to author Richard Hughes, this made Loori "one of three Western dharma-holders in both the Soto and Rinzai schools."^[2] Loori was a professional nature photographer, having once exhibited his work at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, New York.^[5] He has also held various other shows and workshops on photography, including positions at Naropa University starting in 1974 and the Synechia Arts Center located in Middletown, New York;^[6] his works have been published by Aperture and Time-Life.^[2] His book, Hearing with the Eye: Photographs from Point Lobos, features Loori's abstract nature photography interwoven with commentary on Teachings of the Insentient by Eihei Dogen.^[5]

Loori founded Dharma Communications as a way to communicate the dharma of the Mountains and Rivers Order. Dharma Communications publishes a Buddhist quarterly titled the Mountain Record, various audio-visual materials, and has also published several books by Daido Loori.^[2] According to Charles S. Prebish, Dharma Communications is "one of the most efficient and successful publishers of Buddhist materials on the continent, and a place where practitioners can learn how to cultivate both mindfulness and compassion in front of a computer."^[6]

• The Way of Mountains and Rivers
• The Zen Art Box with Stephen Addiss
• Hearing with the Eye: Teachings of the Insentient
• The Zen of Creativity : Cultivating Your Artistic Life
• The Eight Gates of Zen : A Program of Zen Training
• Sitting with Koans : Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Koan Study with Tom Kirshner.
• The True Dharma Eye : Zen Master Dogen's Three Hundred Koans with Kazuaki Tanahashi (Translator).
• The Heart of Being: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen Buddhism
• The Art of Just Sitting, Second Edition : Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza
• Celebrating Everyday Life: Zen Home Liturgy
• Making Love with Light, a book of nature photography.
• Riding the Ox Home : Stages on the Path of Enlightenment
• The Still Point: A Beginner's Guide to Zen Meditation
• Cave Of Tigers : Modern Zen Encounters
• Invoking Reality: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen
• Path of Enlightenment: Stages in a Spiritual Journey
• Two Arrows Meeting in Mid-Air: The Zen Koan
• Mountain Record of Zen Talks
• Teachings of the Insentient: Zen and the Environment

• Das Zen der Kreativitat (German ed.) – 2006 Theseus Verlag, Berlin 3-89620-287-1
• Célébrer la Vie au Quotidien (French ed.): 2003 BDLYS Ed. 2-914395-20-5
• La Recontre de la Réalité (French ed.) by BDLYS Ed. 2-914395-21-3
• El Punto de Quietud (Spanish ed.): 2001 Mandala Ed. 84-95052-69-5
• Hat ein Hund Buddha-Natur? (German ed.): 1996 Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH 9-783596-130191

• The Still Point: Introduction to Zen Meditation
• Entering the Mountain Gate: Essentials of Zen
• Oryoki: Formal Monastery Meal
• The Heart of Being: Zen Buddhist Precepts
• Mountain Light Video Library: A Collection of 27 Dharma Discourses
• One Bright Pearl: Dharma Combat
• Enlarging the Universe: Creative Expression
• Fire Keeper: Student Mind
• The Art of Seeing
• The Great Earth's Edict: Zen and Environmentalism

• "The Tao of Water", Jan. 18 - Mar. 22, 2008 Gallery at 910, Denver, CO
• "Jinzu", April 19 - June 6, 2007 Gallery at 910, Denver, CO
• "Jinzu", Sept. 8 - Dec. 31, 2006 Buffalo Big Print, Buffalo, New York

• Buddhism in the United States
• List of Rinzai Buddhists
• Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States

• Magida, Arthur J. (2006), Opening the Doors of Wonder: Reflections on Religious Rites of Passage, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-24545-8
• Prebish, Charles S. (7 June 1999), Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-21697-0
• Seager, Richard Hughes (2000), Buddhism In America, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-10869-9

• Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism
• Author Spotlight on Loori at Random House, publisher of some of his books
• The Still Point: Introduction to Zazen video on YouTube
• Daido Roshi interview on PBS
• Zen's Radical Conservative: John Daido Loori