Clark Strand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Clark Strand (born August 14, 1957)[1][2][3] is an American author and teacher on spirituality and religion. A former Zen Buddhist monk, he was the first Senior Editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. He left that position in 1996 and moved to Woodstock, New York, to write and teach full-time.
He is also a poet and has written two books that feature or include his poetry.
Strand was born in 1957,[1] and grew up in Arkansas[4] and Alabama.[5] The family moved to Atlanta in 1971,[6] and Strand graduated from the Lovett School in 1975.[7]
Strand was raised as a Southern Presbyterian,[8] and converted to Buddhism in the 1970s.[9] He studied philosophy and religion at Sewanee: The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee,[10] graduating in 1980.[11]
Career
Strand began his post-university career as a Zen Buddhist monk.[12] In 1988, he left the Dai Bosatsu Zendo, a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monastery in upstate New York[13][11] and became the director of New York Zendo, a Rinzai Zen Buddhist temple in New York City.[11] In 1990 he resigned from New York Zendo[14][15] and ceased being a Buddhist monk.[16]
Following a few years of psychoanalysis, he became the first senior editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review in 1993.[17][18] He also continued his decades-long exploration of the spiritual traditions of the world in search of a more spiritually-evolved version of religion that was compatible with modern life; the journey took him inside of numerous communities including Buddhist temples, Hasidic synagogues, Christian monasteries, and Hindu cults.[17][16][19] This eventually led to his books Meditation Without Gurus (2003) and How to Believe in God: Whether You Believe in Religion or Not (2009).[17]
In 1996, Strand left his position as senior editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and moved to Woodstock, New York to write and teach full time.[18][20][21]
In January 2000, Strand founded the Koans of the Bible Study Group (since renamed Woodstock Buddhist Bible Study), a weekly inter-religious discussion group devoted to finding a new paradigm for religious belief and practice.[16] He also founded the Green Meditation Society in Woodstock, which promotes an ecologically-based approach to spiritual practice, drawing upon the environmental teachings of the world's great religious traditions.[22]
In the early 2000s, he began exploring Soka Gakkai International, which originated from Soka Gakkai Japan, a humanistic religion based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese monk, Nichiren, who lived in Kamakura period. This led him to write Waking the Buddha: How the Most Dynamic and Empowering Buddhist Movement in History Is Changing Our Concept of Religion (2014).[23]
Strand has written additional books on spirituality, as well as articles on a variety of religious, spiritual, and ecological themes. He writes for The Washington Post,[24] The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek’s On Faith blog, Tricycle, Body & Soul, Spirituality & Health, and several other publications.[25][26][27]
He also lectures and teaches classes, workshops, and retreats.[17] In May 2015, he participated in the First White House U.S. Buddhist Leaders Conference.[28]
Strand is also a poet,[29] and has written two books that feature or include his poetry: Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey (1997), and Now is the Hour of Her Return: Poems in Praise of the Divine Mother Kali (2022). He also teaches classes and workshops in writing haiku.[30]
Personal life
Strand lives in Woodstock, New York.[21] He and his wife, author Perdita Finn,[31] are co-founders of The Way of the Rose, a non-sectarian rosary fellowship that welcomes people of all faiths and spiritual backgrounds.[32][33]