Blanche Hartman

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Blanche Hartman

Information
Born: 1926
Place of birth: Birmingham, Alabama, United States
Religion: Zen Buddhism
School(s): Soto
Title(s): Roshi
Predecessor(s): Sojun Mel Weitsman
Successor(s): Seirin Barbara Kohn
Kosho McCall
Website
Website: http://www.sfzc.org/

Portal:Buddhism

Zenkei Blanche Hartman (b. 1926) is a Soto Zen roshi practicing in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, and from 1996 to 2002 she served two terms as co-abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center. Being the first woman to assume such a leadership position at the center, Hartman is now living in retirement at any one of the Zen center's various sites. A member of the American Zen Teachers Association who continues to lead sesshin, Blanche is especially known for her expertise in the ancient ritual of sewing a kesa.[1][2] Hartman has become known for her attention to issues women face, and as of 2002 she and her husband Lou Hartman have six grandchildren.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Blanche Hartman was born in Birmingham, Alabama to non-practicing Jewish parents in 1926. Educated in the Catholic school system in the early 1930s—and impressed with the religiosity and faith of one teacher—in 1943 she moved to California, where her father served in the military. After taking up biochemistry and chemistry at the University of California she married Lou Hartman in 1947, giving birth four children.[2] In the late 1950s she found work as a chemist, though by 1968 she began questioning the direction of her life. She and her husband began sitting zazen regularly at the Berkeley Zen Center in Berkeley, California in 1969[2], and in 1972 the two entered Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. The couple has lived (and continues to live) at all of the other San Francisco Zen Center sites, including City Center and Green Gulch Farm. She and her husband where both ordained as priests by Zentatsu Richard Baker in 1977[2], and Blanche was given the Buddhist name Zenkei (meaning inconceivable joy). In 1988 she received shiho from Sojun Mel Weitsman, and in 1996 she became installed as co-abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center. This was the first female abbess of the City Center, having served just after Tenshin Reb Anderson and Sojun Mel Weitsman.[2] On reason Blanche accepted the position of co-abbess, serving two terms from 1996 to 2002, is that she understood the need for other women to have a role model.[3][3]

[edit] Character

According to author James Ishmael Ford, "...Hartman is seen as a quiet and yet compelling leader exercising her authority through her simple and pure presence, a true heir to Suzuki's Dharma."[2] She is known to be particularly involved with advocacy for women and her concern for children, with the The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America stating that, "[She] has offered various special teachings for women. In 1992 she led an all-female practice period at Rinso-in, Suzuki-roshi's home temple. This is the first time in the 500-year history of the temple that women have conducted a training period there. She has also led women's all-day retreats at Green Gulch Zen Center in Mill Valley, California. Additionally, she has honored lost and aborted children by performing a ceremony attended by grieving women centering on Jizo Bosatsu, the bodhisattva whom Japanese Buddhists revere as a savior of souls from the hells and a protector of children."[3] Author Sandy Boucher writes, "She is most interested in the practice of lovingkindness and compassion, taught in a traditional setting and style."[1]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Boucher, 169
  2. ^ a b c d e Ford, 130
  3. ^ a b Skinner Keller, et al; 643

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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