Robert Kennedy joined the Jesuits in 1951 at the age of 18.

After an extensive spiritual and academic training, he was ordained a priest in Japan
in 1965 at the age of 32.

In Japan, he studied Zen with Yamada Koun Roshi in the 1970s. Yamada had a profound effect on his life. Here was a married layman with a family, who expressed insight and humanity in a way that powerfully touched the young Robert Kennedy.

Returning to the United States the young Jesuit took a sabbatical and moved to Los Angeles to study Zen with Maezumi Roshi and then with Bernard Glassman Roshi in New York City.

Glassman Roshi installed him as a Sensei (Zen Teacher) of the White Plum Asanga lineage in 1991 and conferred Inka (his final seal of approval) in 1997, making him a Roshi (Zen Master) in a ceremony together with the writer Peter Matthiesen and Janet Richardson.  Facing some objections from his students for appointing a Catholic priest as one of his first dharma heirs Glassman famously refuted the objections by asking his students ‘Are we one, or are we not?’.

Robert Kennedy is the former chair of the Theology department of Saint Peter’s College in Jersey City, where he taught theology and Japanese.  In addition to his work at the college, he was a practicing psychoanalyst in New York City and a representative at the United Nations of the Institute for Spiritual Consciousness in Politics.

He is also the author of two books, ‘Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit’ and ‘Zen Gifts to Christians’.

He sits with his Zen students daily at the Morning Star Zendo in Jersey City and holds Sesshins (Zen Retreats) internationally.

ROBERT KENNEDY ROSHI’S DHARMA SUCCESSORS

To date, Robert Kennedy has installed 17 Dharma Successors; lay teachers who have studied Zen and worked with him over the last thirty years and have been approved by him to teach, including:
Janet Richardson, Roshi (1994/1997), Charles Birx, Roshi (1998/2014),
Ellen Birx, Roshi (1998/2014), Janet Abels, Roshi (2000/2015),
Kevin Hunt, Sensei (2004), Ray Cicetti, Roshi (2004/2015),
Gregory Abels, Sensei (2006), Paul Schubert, Sensei (2007),
Inge von Wobeser-Hopfner, Sensei (2008), Patrick Eastman, Sensei (2009),
Michael Holleran, Sensei (2009), Carl Bachmann, Sensei (2010),
Carl Viggiani, Sensei (2013), Miriam Healy, Roshi (2014/2019),
Dr. Maria “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, Roshi (2015/2019),
Timothy Butler, Sensei (2015), Susan Efird, Sensei (2018),
Monica Maher, Sensei (2018), Mary Laheen, Sensei (2019)

Zen

“Zen Training has traditionally included two paths which are usually combined but not to be confused: the path of teacher and the path of priest. The path of Zen teacher is to fully realize, and then transmit, the unconditional experience that is the essential core of Zen and, I believe the core of all mystical traditions.  One way to describe this unconditional experience is the seeing into our deepest nature as human beings and the realizing of the oneness of all life. ”Bernie Glassman from the Foreword to Robert Kennedy’s ‘Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit’.

What Is The Practice of Zen Meditation?

Zazen, sitting zen, is the practice of stilling the mind through wholehearted attentiveness to the breath. This steady attentiveness, coupled with the stillness of the body, frees the mind from its ordinary activities of distraction and condition-based thinking.

Zen Insight

When practiced attentively, Zen offers an ever-deepening insight into the oneness of life. This insight reveals to us our own human potential and calls us to use this potential in the service of others, and brings us to the present moment, clarifying and supporting our readiness to meet the ever-changing circumstances of daily life.

Executive Producers:
Noel Brennan, John Ankele (Old Dog Documentaries), Miriam Healy for Morning Star Zendo
Turlough O’Donnell

Director: Dónal Ó Céilleachair

An Anú Pictures Production in Association with Morning Star Zendo

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