Bernie Glassman was born Bernard Alan Glassman in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York on January 18, 1939. He received an engineering degree from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
He first became interested in Zen in 1958 after reading a book. He began meditating, found a local Zen teacher, got involved with the Zen Center of Los Angeles, and became a Zen teacher himself. In 1979, he founded the Zen Community of New York. He and his second wife, Sandra Holmes, founded the Greyston Foundation in 1989 and the Zen Peacemaker Order in 1996. Glassman wrote several books including The Dude and the Zen Master written with actor Jeff Bridges. He died from sepsis on November 4, 2018 at the age of 79.
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