Edward Espe Brown

"Kainei" Edward Espé Brown (born March 24, 1945) is an American Zen teacher and writer. He is the author of The Tassajara Bread Book, written at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, as well as the co-author of The Greens Cookbook, with Deborah Madison.

Early life

Brown's mother died when he was three years old. Three days after her death, his father decided to send Brown and his older brother Dwite to an orphanage in San Anselmo, California, because that was the only way he could visit them regularly (the alternative was to send the boys to live with relatives in South Dakota). Brown's father remarried four years later, and then the boys returned home.

In 1955, Dwite and Brown flew to Falls Church, Virginia to visit their aunt Alice. It was her homemade bread baking that inspired Brown,

San Francisco

Brown wrote The Tassajara Bread Book in 1970 with a 100 advance from the publisher. As of 2003, 750,000 copies were in print, with 3,000 copies still selling every year.

A Dharma heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman, in 1971, Brown was ordained as a Zen priest by Shunryu Suzuki, who gave him the Dharma name Jusan Kainei ("Longevity Mountain, Peaceful Sea").

Brown helped to found the vegetarian Greens Restaurant in San Francisco.

Later years Brown leads the Peaceful Sea Sangha in Fairfax, Marin County, California and is a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association. Brown makes his living by teaching meditation in his home and by giving baking and cooking workshops at Zen centers in the United States, Canada and Austria. Brown tells his students that "every dough is different, just as every day is different". He also says that baking and living both come down to the same thing: "developing attention and awareness". in which he and Dörrie suggest embracing joy and spirit within food habits.

Books The Tassajara Bread Book.(2011) Shambhala Publications. Written at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.