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Daniel Soen Silberberg

School          Zen Buddhism

Lineage        White Plum Asanga

Education. M., Educational Psychology, State University of N.Y.

Ph.D., Counseling Psychology, Columbia Pacific University

Personal

Born             March 15, 1947, Bad Harzburg, Germany

Spouse. Caryn Shudo Silberberg

Children. 2 sons

Daniel Doen Silberberg is an American Zen teacher and founder of Lost Coin Zen. He received formal training in the Soto and Rinsai lineages at Zen Mountain Monastery under Abbot Maezumi Roshi and Daido Roshi, and received Zen transmission in the Wire Plum Lineage from Genpo Roshi with Daido Roshi participating. In addition, he studied in the Gurdgieff tradition for 15 years, ultimately being asked to teach a group in Woodstock, N.Y., by prominent Gurdgieff teacher Willhem Nyland. He holds a ph.D. in psychology and practiced as a psychotherapist for 25 years. Silberberg is a musician, an award-winning composer, an author, and a lifelong practitioner of martial arts. He continues to compose, play keyboards and electronic instruments, and practices Krav Maga, an advanced combat practice.

Biography

Daniel Doen Silberg was born in 1947 in Bad Harzburg,

Germany. He and his family emigrated to the U.S. in 1951. Daniel's parents were very interested in Daniel having a broad education. When he was 16 years old he brought home from the library a book of Buddhist sutras to read with his father. The mysterious qualities of the sutras intrigued them, and struck a chord that continued to resonate with Daniel. At Post Long Island University he studied literature and psychology, played chess, and immersed himself in the music and literature of the Beat Generation. He obtained an assistantship and taught Japanese and Chinese poetry. He learned to play piano, guitar, sax, and clarinet, which led to years working as a studio musician in New York City. He joined a Fourth Way (Gurdjieff) group and began a 15-year study.

In the 1980s he moved from Manhattan to Woodstock, New York. As he was teaching the Gurdjieff group in Woodstock, he ultimately felt a need for a deeper penetration in his search for truth. His thoughts turned to Zen Buddhism, which he had encountered at age 16, and was subsequently directed to by a teacher of the Gurdjieff Foundation.

At that same time, Maezumi Roshi and Daido Loori opened what would become Zen Mountain Monastery, 10 miles from his home. Daniel decided to disband his Gurdjieff group and enter formal Zen training. A large majority of his Gurdjieff group followed him. The practice there was tough, exhausting, ongoing, and precisely what he was looking for.

He met Caryn Schlessinger at the monastery; they received Jukai (Buddhist precepts) together and were married in 1982 by Maezumi Roshi at the monastery. At the Jukai ceremony Maezumi Roshi gave Daniel the dharma name Doen, and Caryn received the name Shudo. Ultimately, Doen became the executive vice-president at the monastery.

After Maezumi Roshi's sudden death in 1995, Doen decided to continue his studies with Genpo Roshi in Salt Lake City. To honor his root teacher, Maezumi Roshi's wish, Doen and Shudo asked Genpo Roshi to become ordained as monks. This is something that Doen had resisted over the years. In 1996, despite great physical and financial challenges, Caryn and Doen moved to Salt Lake City to study at Kanzeon Zen Center. Eventually he served as vice-abbot of Kanzeon Zen Center, and received transmission in the White Plum Lineage from Genpo Roshi, and Inka (final approval of teacher) in 2015.

Doen established Lost Coin Zen in 2006. Lost Coin is a reference to the reality of our true nature. Lost Coin now has groups in Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Dusseldorf, Germany.

Teaching

Doen's instincts and experience have led him to a decidedly non-institutional form of Zen practice in the hopes of teaching the Dharma in a more forward looking way. Doen wants to encourage diversity, lack of competition, and strong support for women, who have been overlooked in older versions of Buddhism. Lost Coin focuses on excellence and compassion and the broad development of its students including arts, scholarship, science, and self-development in all forms.

Bibliography

Wonderland: The Zen of Alice, Parallax Press in the U.S., 2009, and Random House in Germany, 2010.

Best of Buddhist Writings, 2010. Shambala Press 2010.

Blue Rain, Gerrysburg Review, Winter 2011.

You Have to be Smart and You Have to be Dumb, Lessons in Zen Practice, Watkins Review, Summer 2011.

Essay on Zen Psychology and Identity, The Middle Way, Buddhist Society London, Winter 2011.

The Art and Wonder of the Blue Cliff Record, The Buddhist Society.

See Also

White Plum Asanga

Buddhism in the United States

Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States

Dennis Merzel

References

Guth, Amy. "Books inspired by Lewis Carroll and his 'Alice." Chicago Tribune. November 19, 2010

External Links

LostCoinZen.com

Interview, Conscious.TV interview, Center for Integral Wisdom, August 10, 2011.

Interview, Sweeping Zen, February 2012.

Gallery