Book Review: Fire Monks, Colleen Morton Busch, Penguin Books, 2012

      The San Francisco Zen Center is the largest Buddhist Temple in the US.  It was founded around 1960 by Suzuki Roshi, a Japanese monk who came to San Francisco's Japantown temple to be the head priest or abbot.  By the mid-60's, he had a loyal following and began looking for another site to teach soto-zen in a setting more conducive to meditation and zazen or the practice of mindfulness.  He was made aware of a site in Monterey county in the Los Padres National Forest.  It was the Tassajara Hot Springs resort/ranch.  It had been privately owned for sometime and was for sale.  With the help of a small group of individuals, the purchase price was achieved and the Zen Center had its new retreat location.
      The site, in the remote Ventana Wilderness sits in the Santa Lucia Mountains about 30 miles as the crow flies from Big Sur on the coast.  Deep ravines and rocky outcrops characterize the landscape, often covered by manzanita brush, valley oaks, pines, laurel trees, madrones, and maples.  Summers here are hot and dry, similar to the Salinas Valley 15 miles to the east.  Summer thunder storms can ripple through with their lightening strikes, the source of many wildland fires.
     In late June of 2007, such a storm delivered lightening strikes near Big Sur and Carmel Valley which started several small fires in very remote locations.  Within 24 hours, the fires grew larger and began to move with the help of onshore winds.
More to follow.