Henry Shukman
Henry Shukman
1962 – Unknown
Henry "Ryū'un-ken" Shukman (龍雲軒, b. 1962) is a British-born poet, novelist, and Sanbō Zen *shōshike* — the highest rank in the lineage and, since his appointment by Yamada Ryōun in 2020, the first North-American-resident teacher to hold it in the Yasutani-Yamada line[1][2]. Born in Oxford in 1962, he had a spontaneous awakening experience at nineteen and pursued a literary career through his twenties and thirties — winning an Arts Council of England Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship for his poetry and fiction — before turning to formal Zen practice in his thirties[1].
His Zen training proceeded along three parallel teacher relationships: Joan Rieck Rōshi at Mountain Cloud Zen Center as his primary teacher, John Gaynor in the United Kingdom, and Rubén Habito at the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas[1][2]. Within Sanbō Zen International he received progressive authorisations from Yamada Ryōun: *zenkyōshi* in 2011, *junshike* (associate master) in 2013, and full *shōshike* in 2020[2]. He served as Guiding Teacher of Mountain Cloud Zen Center from 2013 until 2015, when he stepped into the role of Spiritual Director Emeritus and Valerie Forstman succeeded him as Guiding Teacher[1].
His memoir *One Blade of Grass: Finding the Old Road of the Heart* (Counterpoint / Hodder, 2019) — a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year — traces this trajectory from early awakening through serious illness to formal Sanbō Zen training; his subsequent book *Original Love* (2024) develops his teaching framework for lay practice and is named after the meditation programme he began articulating in 2021[1]. In 2024 he co-founded the contemplative app **The Way**, which presents the Sanbō Zen kōan curriculum in a structured digital format for general audiences and has become his principal teaching channel outside Mountain Cloud[1].
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Teachers and lineage of Henry Shukman
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Works
Shukman's spiritual memoir recounting his early awakening at nineteen, decades of severe eczema and depression, and the long path through Sanbō Zen training that became formal study under Joan Rieck, Rubén Habito, and Yamada Ryōun. Named a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year on UK publication.
- Practice handbookOriginal Love: The Four Inns on the Path of Awakening
Shukman's structured introduction to the Sanbō Zen path organised around four progressive stages — Mindfulness, Support, Absorption, and Awakening. Develops the curriculum behind the Original Love meditation programme he began articulating in 2021.
- Meditation appThe Way — meditation app
A subscription meditation app co-founded and led by Shukman, released in February 2024 on iOS and Android. Structured around a single curriculum that takes practitioners from breath counting through kōan introspection in the Sanbō Zen style, with a free introductory course of twelve sessions.
- PoetryIn Dr No's Garden
Shukman's first poetry collection. Won the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize; shortlisted for the Forward First Collection Prize; The Times and Guardian Book of the Year.
- PoetryArchangel
A poetry collection centred on a long sequence about Anglo-Jewish men sent from Britain back to Russia in 1917 to fight in the First World War — based on research by his father, the historian Harold Shukman.
- FictionSandstorm
Shukman's first novel; won the UK Authors' Club Best First Novel Award.
- FictionThe Lost City
Shukman's second novel; a Guardian and Times Book of the Year, and a National Geographic Book of the Month in the US.
- Teacher websitehenryshukman.com — official site
Shukman's personal website carrying his book list, retreat schedule, the Notes from Henry newsletter, and a media archive of podcast interviews and press features.
Other masters in Sanbo-Zen
Master Record Sources
- biographyWikipedia - Zen Lineage Charts