Walking the Zen Christian Path

Fr. Thomas Hand, SJ, spent twenty nine years in Japan and was one of the first Western Catholics to practice Zen meditation under the direction of Yamada Koun Zenshin in the Sanbô-Kyôdan Order. After returning to the US he taught Christian and Buddhist meditation at Mercy Center in Burlingame, CA, as well as the Joseph and Mary Retreat Center in Rancho Palos Verde, CA. He was the author, together with Chwen Jiuan A. Lee, of A Taste of Water: Christianity Through Taoist-Buddhist Eyes.

Many years ago, a spiritual friend of mine, Dr. Victoria Dendinger recommended that I meet Fr. Tom Hand. I had the great privilege of sitting a few retreats with this great teacher at the Joseph and Mary Retreat Center in Rancho Palos Verdes which is a converted Convent located in the Southern California South Bay. It turned out that we shared a mutual friend, in the person of Ruben Habito Rōshi, who was also a Jesuit and received Transmission from Yamada Rōshi in 1988. I had several opportunities to sit retreats with Fr. Hand and learned much about equanimity and practice from him. His depth of understanding inside of religious experience was moving and helpful to me along this wonderful path of exploration and unfortunately he passed away in 2005.

Fr. Hand was known as Handō by his Japanese teachers and friends, and he loved reading, writing and teaching the Haiku form to his Western Students.


Cistercian Monastery


on the snowmass slope
even the magpies on the fence
sit in silence

Handō