David Schneider
Noble Members of the Shambhala Community,
On behalf the Office of the Kalapa Court, I would like to announce that Acharya David Schneider will be taking a leave of absence from active duty as an acharya. This retreat will take place during the upcoming Year of the Fire Pig, and possibly the following year as well.
The Sakyong and Acharya Schneider have discussed this leave at length, and these plans have his blessing. The Sakyong has encouraged Acharya Schneider to pursue a course of study, and to fulfill his writing commitments during this time. After 10 years of steady teaching and service as an acharya, the Sakyong feels the timing of this retreat to be most appropriate.
The Sakyong is most grateful for the teachings Acharya Schneider has provided to the sangha in Europe and North America, and the support he has offered the Sakyong personally as his acharya.
Acharya Schneider will of course teach the programs for which he is already committed, both in Europe and in North America, but his teaching activity generally will be much reduced, as will his need to carry out the other duties of an acharya. At the end of this leave, we will work together to reintegrate Acharya Schneider into the Acharya Council so that he may recommence his teachings for the benefit of the mandala.
May the glorious blessings of the lineage be with Acharya Schneider during this time of retreat.
Yours in the vision of Shambhala,
David Brown
Office of the Kalapa Court
About David Schneider
Born in 1951 in Louisville, Kentucky, David Schneider was the first child of Marc, a Jew and engineer and Georgia, his southern Baptist sociologist mother. David rapidly acquired three sisters, the rudiments of a standard boomer education, and a bi-religious, Southern upbringing, involving. Saturday School and Sunday School. He grew up in Pittsburgh, PA .
He began to practice Zen meditation with a local group at Reed College, in Portland, OR and attended sesshins with Joshu Sasaki Roshi in 1970 and 71. In January, 1971, he met Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and he says, that did it. In April of the same year, he saw Suzuki Roshi and Trungpa Rinpoche together at the San Francisco Zen Center, and that really did it
David dropped out of Reed College to move into Zen Center. He took up studies under Richard Baker Roshi, and in 1977, he received ordination as unsui or "cloud-water person." He did many academic and practical jobs as part of community life there, which ran from 1972-85. The 1983 scandal at SF Zen Center led to the departure of Baker Roshi. In 1984, in the formal shuso ceremony, David was ordained as a head monk at the Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco.
In 1985 David was formally accepted by Trungpa Rinpoche as a student. He attended Vajradhatu Seminary in 1986 and staffed Seminary again in 1988.
David wrote Street Zen, a biography of Issan Dorsey, published in 1993 by Shambhala Publications, and again in 2000 by Marlowe. Street Zen won several prizes, included "Best Buddhist Book of the Year" in 1993. In 1994 he co-edited with Kazuaki Tanahashi a collection of zen stories, titled Essential Zen.
In 1995, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche appointed David Director of Shambhala Europe by, a position he held until 2003. David now works for Vajradhatu Publications Europe; he continues as well to pursue writing projects - currently, a biography of Beat poet and zen master Zenshin Philip Whalen - as well as calligraphy exhibitions. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche appointed David to the post of acharya in 1996.
Teaching Schedule
| 2008 |
Acharya Schneider will remain on sabbatical until Shambhala Day 2009 |
Books
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