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Taizan Maezumi (1931–1995) was a seminal figure in the founding of American Zen Buddhism. Arriving in Los Angeles in 1956, Maezumi soon found himself sought by non-Japanese Americans interested in the newly acclaimed religion called Zen. In 1967, he founded the Zen Center of Los Angeles which would become one of the leading Zen communities outside of Japan. This chapter raises many of the same questions that have been applied to classical Zen masters in relation to the life of a contemporary figure. In place of a few classic texts is an archive of contemporary documents, video documentaries, interviews with disciples and heirs, and a number of books written by Maezumi. The chapter culminates in reflections on the image of Maezumi Roshi and speculation about the viability of his teaching having the impact of other great Zen masters.

This chapter examines the growing performance of mizuko kuyō-related rituals — often referred to as “water baby ceremonies” — in convert American Zen centers. Since the late 1970s and increasingly since about 1990, Zen centers run mainly by and for white converts to Buddhism have been providing rituals for use after an abortion or miscarriage. Created by first-generation converts rather than imported by Japanese missionary priests, these rituals are partly derived from mizuko kuyō and partly the invention of female Zen teachers seeking to meet the needs of their students in the wake of Roe v. Wade. Tied to the growth of these rituals is the increasing popularity of celestial bodhisattva figures such as Kannon and Jizō, whose convert devotees promote a more devotional side of Buddhism than has been acknowledged in new Buddhist circles.

Chapter 9 provides an example of ritual transformation in the movement of Zen from one culture to another. After describing dharma transmission in East Asia by highlighting the theme of the family explicit in it and then focusing on transmission in the Sōtō school of Japanese Zen, the author describes a newly created ritual for the confirmation of dharma transmission in the Sōtō sect of North America. This ritual—called the Dharma Heritage Ceremony—was created in the recognition of participants that an “accessible Western ceremony” to recognize and confirm dharma transmission was essential to the ongoing success of their Zen practice in North America. This essay asks, “What issues arise when Zen teachers attempt to transplant these various aspects of dharma transmission into twenty‐first century North America?”