The Bodhisattva's Embrace: Dispatches from Engaged's Buddhism's Front Lines

by Alan Senauke

Engaged Buddhism is the modern meeting place of personal and social liberation. As a Zen Buddhist priest, as director of Buddhist Peace Fellowship, founder of the Clear View Project, and advisor to the International Network of Engaged Buddhists, Hozan Alan Senauke has a unique experience of the full range of the engaged Buddhist movement around the world. The compelling essays in The Bodhisattva's Embrace throw light on places little seen. Alan Senauke challenges us to awaken in the world as it is.

Genres: Nonfiction, Buddhism

244 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

Hozan Alan Senauke was an American Sōtō priest, folk musician and poet residing at the Berkeley Zen Center (BZC) in Berkeley, California, where he served as Abbot. He was an executive director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF), holding that position from 1991 to 2001. Alan also was a founder of Think Sangha, a group of writers and intellectuals that are affiliated with the BPF and the International Network of Engaged Buddhists. Think Sangha is a group of individuals who meet together to identify some of the most pressing social issues that they feel engaged Buddhists should be addressing. Senauke, who was born to a secular Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, arrived in the San Francisco Bay area in 1968 and soon started sitting at the Berkeley Zen Center. Along with his Dharma sister Maylie Scott, Senauke received Dharma transmission from his teacher Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1998 during a ceremony at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.

Reviews

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely introduction to socially engaged Buddhism. Senauke has been active in social and political justice movements for years and his stories are very interesting. Certainly makes us think about what we are or are not doing that creates harm in the world. I do wish that he, as a founder of Buddhist Peace Fellowship, also had written something about the plight of non-human animals as well, but that's my lens that I look through! The book itself, a series of essays, is a reminder of how all humans are connected.