Taigen Dan Leighton

Taigen Dan Leighton (b. 1950, grew up in Pittsburgh, PA) is a Soto Zen priest and teacher, academic, and author. He is an authorized lineage holder and Zen teacher in the tradition of Shunryu Suzuki, and is the founder and Guiding Teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, Illinois.

Leighton began his Zen practice in 1975 at the New York Zen Center, training under Kando Nakajima roshi. He studied at Columbia University, where he obtained a bachelors degree in East Asian studies. Leighton worked as a television and film editor in New York, and then San Francisco.

In 1978, he moved to California and eventually became a resident at San Francisco Zen Center, where he worked at Tassajara Bakery and other of Zen Center's businesses. In subsequent years, Leighton practiced in residence at all of the San Francisco Zen Center facilities, including Green Gulch Farm Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. In 1986, Leighton was ordained as a priest by Tenshin Reb Anderson (in the latter's first ordination ceremony).

Leighton lived in Japan from 1990–1992, translating Dōgen texts with Shohaku Okumura and training under various masters. In 1994, Leighton founded the Mountain Source Sangha in Bolinas, San Rafael, and San Francisco, California (of which Ancient Dragon Zen Gate is a sister temple).

In 2000, Leighton received shiho, or Dharma transmission, from Tenshin Anderson.

He taught for four years at Loyola University, Chicago and has taught since 1994 at the Institute of Buddhist Studies, part of the Berkeley Graduate Theological Union, from which Leighton has a Ph.D. degree.

Leighton has been involved in many interfaith dialogue programs, including conducting Buddhist–Christian dialogue workshops. He has long been active in various Engaged Buddhist programs for social justice, including Environmental and Peace activism. He is on the International Advisory Council of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.