Roshi Bernie Glassman, the first Dharma Successor of Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi, was the first Abbot of the Zen Community of New York. Along with his wife, Sensei Jishu Holmes, he cofounded the Peacemaker Community, an international order of social activists and peacemaker villages engaged in peacemaking based on Three Tenets: penetrating the unknown, bearing witness to joy and suffering, and healing ourselves and others. The two also cofounded the Zen Peacemaker Order and interfaith Peacemaker Order.

Roshi Glassman is also the cofounder of the Greyston Mandala, a network of businesses and not-for-profits engaged in community development in southwest Yonkers, New York. He was the second Spiritual Leader of the White Plum Asangha (after Maezumi Roshi died) He is a former aerospace engineer who worked on manned missions to Mars at McDonnell-Douglas during the 1970s. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from UCLA.

In addition to training in Zen Buddhism under Taizan Maezumi Roshi in Los Angeles, he studied with HakuunYasutani Roshi and Koryu Osaka Roshi. He studied with Krisnamurti, received a mantra from Swami Asheshananda in the Vedanta tradition, took hand with SheikLex Nur Hixon in Islam, and considers Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi his current spiritual guide.

Roshi Glassman has empowered many teachers and clergy in both the Soto Zen and Zen Peacemaker Order traditions. He is also the author of Bearing Witness and Instructions to the Cook, a translation and commentary on Dogen Zenji's Tenzo Kyokun.