Tenshin Reb Anderson
Tenshin Reb Anderson
1943 – Unknown
Tenshin Reb Anderson (天眞全機, born 1943) is a senior American Sōtō Zen teacher and a longtime central figure at San Francisco Zen Center, where he served as abbot from 1986 to 1995 (co-abbot with Sojun Mel Weitsman) and as a senior Dharma teacher at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center until his 2025 retirement[1]. He was ordained as a priest by Shunryū Suzuki in 1970 — a year before Suzuki's death — and received Dharma transmission (shihō) from Suzuki's direct American heir Zentatsu Richard Baker in 1983, making him Baker's first Dharma successor[1][2]. He has transmitted Dharma to eighteen named successors, the most recent being Shingan Sokei Thiemo Blank (2025).
Names
Teachers and lineage of Tenshin Reb Anderson
Teacher / root master:
Formal Dharma transmission (shihō):
Works
- Dharma teachingBeing Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts
Anderson's most widely-used book; teaches zazen and the sixteen bodhisattva precepts as a single integrated practice — the framework of jukai ceremonies at San Francisco Zen Center.
- Dharma-talks collectionWarm Smiles from Cold Mountains: Dharma Talks on Zen Meditation
A collection of Anderson's teisho on zazen at SFZC and the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, edited by Susan Moon.
A teisho-based commentary on the Samdhinirmocana Sutra, the foundational Yogācāra scripture of Mahāyāna Buddhism; Anderson's most scholarly book.
Other masters in Sōtō
Master Record Sources
- biographyWikipedia - Zen Lineage Charts
- biographyZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation