Bernie Glassman

Bernard Tetsugen Glassman (January 18, 1939 – November 4, 2018) was an American Zen Buddhist roshi, mathematician , and social entrepreneur who founded the Zen Peacemakers organization and advanced the practice of socially engaged Buddhism.

Born in Brooklyn , New York, to Jewish immigrant parents, Glassman initially pursued a career in applied mathematics , earning a PhD and working as an aerospace engineer before committing to Zen training under Taizan Maezumi Roshi at the Zen Center of Los Angeles in 1967. Ordained as a Soto Zen priest in 1970, he became Maezumi's first American-born dharma heir and co-founded the White Plum Asanga lineage.

In 1980, Glassman established the Zen Community of New York in the Bronx and launched the Greyston Mandala, a network of socially engaged initiatives including a bakery , housing for the homeless, and child care, applying Zen principles to address urban poverty without reliance on government funding.

Glassman co-founded the Zen Peacemaker Order in 1996 with his wife, Jishu Holmes, developing the "Three Tenets" of not-knowing, bearing witness, and taking compassionate action, which informed bearing witness retreats at sites of collective trauma such as Auschwitz-Birkenau.

His approach integrated Zen meditation with direct social intervention, authoring books like Instructions to the Cook on using business as spiritual practice, and influencing interfaith and activist Buddhist communities worldwide until his death from stroke complications at age 79.

Bernard Glassman was born Bernard Alan Glassman on January 18, 1939, in Brighton Beach , Brooklyn , New York, to Jewish immigrant parents Pauline (née Finkelstein) Glassman from Poland and Otto Isaac Glassman from Russia , the latter employed as a compositor. His mother's family had suffered significant losses during the Holocaust , and the household maintained a strong socialist orientation amid the working-class environment of the neighborhood.

Glassman displayed early interests in mathematics and mechanics , influenced by his family's immigrant ethos of practicality and self-reliance , though specific details of his primary or secondary schooling remain undocumented in available records. He pursued higher education at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (later renamed Polytechnic Institute of New York University ), earning a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering in 1960. This technical foundation reflected his aptitude for analytical problem-solving, which later intersected with his spiritual pursuits, but at the time oriented him toward aeronautical engineering careers rather than philosophical or religious paths.

After graduating from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute with a degree in engineering in 1960, Bernard Glassman relocated to California and began his professional career as an associate engineer at Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, focusing on aeronautical projects. His early work involved contributions to aerospace design, particularly in the development of vehicles and systems for interplanetary missions under NASA contracts, including preliminary planning for Mars exploration trajectories.

From 1963 to 1969, following the 1967 merger that formed McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Glassman advanced to the role of aerodynamicist, where he specialized in computational modeling and flight dynamics for advanced spacecraft , earning recognition for his technical expertise in applied mathematics supporting propulsion and orbital mechanics simulations. Concurrently, he pursued advanced studies, completing a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles , in 1970, with research emphasizing mathematical methods for aerospace engineering challenges such as trajectory optimization .