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Zen in Five Minutes: Is Zen a religion?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n James Ishmael Ford<\/p>\n A number of years ago I served on the membership committee of the American Zen Teachers Association. It had been formed largely out of a list of names compiled by some of that second generation of Zen teachers such as Bernie Glassman and Mel Weitsman. But as it grew, we found it important to explore whether a potential candidate fit the definition of \u201cpeer.\u201d As a peer support group that was very important.<\/p>\n Anyway, we also found it important to try and clean up that original membership list. And so it came to pass that one of our Zen teachers was assigned to check in with a Roman Catholic nun, Sister Elaine MacInnes. Actually she\u2019s one of the more legendary figures on the Zen scene. While she lived much of her life in Japan and the Philippines, she was a Canadian, and in her retirement was home in Toronto. The interviewer is one of the more respected among our contemporary Zen teachers. Many would use the word Zen master to describe him. He went ot visit. And when he reported back, he said she turned the meeting into a Zen encounter and, well, she won.<\/p>\n