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LZTA Member

Barry McMahon


Name:    Barry McMahon
Dharma Name:    Kaigen
Title:    Roshi
Preferred Name:    Barry
Organization:    Three Treasures Zen Community
Lineage:    White Plum
Barry Kaigen McMahon Roshi began his Zen training in California with Taizan Maezumi Roshi in the early 1970s. He soon moved to Japan and spent almost five years with Maezumi Roshi’s Rinzai teacher, Osaka Koryu Roshi, as the sole foreigner living at the Hannya Dojo, a lay Zen training school in Tokyo. He moved back to the United States in 1978 and entered the US Navy as a fighter pilot, flying F-14s off the deck of the USS Nimitz. The Navy’s technical education prompted him to deepen his studies of modern physics and he was invited to the Naval War College to give a talk entitled “Relativity, Quantum Mechanics and Buddhism” in 2003. His life has included family, sports, acting, flying, as well as deep spiritual training. He received Dharma Transmission from Charles Tenshin Fletcher Roshi in 2003 and Inka (Final Seal of Approval) in 2010. He is married with one grown son, two step-children and four step-grandchildren.