Zenkei Blanche Hartman is a Soto Zen teacher practicing in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki.
Background
Blanche Hartman was born in Birmingham, Alabama to non-practicing Jewish parents in 1926. Educated in the Catholic school system in the early 1930s—and impressed with the religiosity and faith of one teacher—in 1943 she moved to California, where her father served in the military.
Career
She was the first woman to assume such a leadership position at the center. One of them being Nina Hartley, a porn actress. In the late 1950s she found work as a chemist, though by 1968 she began questioning the direction of her life.
Blanche is fundamental to the spread of devotional sewing practice throughout North America.
This was the first female abbess of the City Center, having served just after Tenshin Reb Anderson and Sojun Mel Weitsman. One reason Blanche accepted the position of co-abbess, serving two terms from 1996 to 2002, is that she understood the need for women to have a role model.
According to author James Ishmael Ford, "..Hartman is seen as a quiet and yet compelling leader exercising her authority through her simple and pure presence, a true heir to Suzuki"s Dharma." She is known to be particularly involved with advocacy for women and her concern for children, with the The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America stating that, " has offered various special teachings for women. In 1992 she led an all-female practice period at Rinso-in, Suzuki-roshi"s home temple.
This is the first time in the 500-year history of the temple that women have conducted a training period there.
She has also led women"s all-day retreats at Green Gulch Zen Center in Mill Valley, California.