Gary Gach

Gary Gregory Gach (born 1947) is an American author, translator, editor, and teacher living in San Francisco. His work has been translated into several languages, and has appeared in several anthologies and numerous periodicals. He has hosted Zen Mindfulness Fellowship weekly for 12 years, and he swims in the San Francisco Bay. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, BuddhaDharma, Coyote’s Journal, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Hambone, In These Times, Lilipoh, Mānoa, The Nation, The New Yorker, Words without Borders, Yoga Journal, and Zyzzyva.

Life

Gach was born in a Jewish American family in Hollywood, Los Angeles in 1947. He was student body president of John Burroughs Junior High School. He claims to have had a mystic vision as a young boy. At 11, he read The Way of Zen by Alan Watts, beginning a lifelong interest in Buddhism.

He was formally introduced to meditation by Paul Reps and later studied Hasidic Judaism and Kabbalah, and was introduced to shikantaza by Dainin Katagiri Roshi, then Suzuki Roshi. Alan Watts befriended and encouraged. He took transmission in the Plum Village Tradition, and is lay ordained in its core community the Order of Interbeing/

He has worked as an actor, stevedore, typographer, legal secretary, editor-in-chief, webmaster, and teacher. He currently teaches Zen Buddhism at University of San Francisco where he also hosts the weekly Zen Mindfulness Fellowship.