Remembering Shuun Metsuzen Lou Hartman

Shuun Metsuzen Lou Hartman

Shuun Metsuzen Lou Hartman died at his home at San Francisco Zen Center in mid afternoon on Thursday, January 20, 2011, with Zenkei Blanche, his wife, and his family at his side.  Immediately afterward, members of SFZC chanted the Bodhisattva Ceremony.

Lou was one of Suzuki Roshi's original students and he spent his life thereafter serving at San Francisco Zen Center continuing to model practice for younger students.  Before that, Lou had been a journalist and radio commentator in the San Francisco scene.  In 2008, Lou and Blanche traveled by train to Olympia and stayed with us in residence for several days, visiting friends in the area and also giving a talk for us on Wednesday evening and Saturday morning.  During that visit, Lou was quite taken with a line from the Ryokan san film in which Ryokan says, "Try as I may, after all these years, I cannot bring an end to suffering in the world."

We at Olympia Zen Center will continue to remember him in Morning Ceremony and to recall with deep gratitude the poetry reading he gave for us on that visit.

If you would like to listen to a Dharma Talk he gave in 2007 at SFZC please click on this link
Lou Hartman's Dharma Talk