Hozan Alan Senauke. Photo courtesy of Clear View Project.
By Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
On December 22, 2024, my good friend Hozan Alan Senauke, abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center, passed away at his home in Berkeley, California. Alan was one of the leaders of Engaged Buddhism here in the United States. He had been the executive director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF) from 1991 through 2001 and was a founder of Think Sangha, a group of writers and intellectuals that was active during the 1990s, affiliated with the BPF and the International Network of Engaged Buddhists.
I first met Alan in January 2008, when he visited me at Chuang Yen Monastery. Over the next few years, whenever he was in the area, he would stop by for lunch and an afternoon chat, and occasionally, when I was in California, I would meet him at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery. Through our shared interests and concerns, we became close Dharma friends. Our discussions instilled in me a deep respect for Alan’s acumen about global issues and his capacity for balanced judgment, which always fused keen insight with gentle, but non-sentimental, compassion and a strong commitment to social justice. I often relied on him to understand social issues more clearly and look at them from the perspective of the Dharma.
At roughly the same time, we both formed Buddhist relief organizations. He established the Clear View Project, which promoted communal harmony in Myanmar and provided spiritual support to the Dalit Buddhists in India and material support to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. I established Buddhist Global Relief, which helped communities struggling to escape chronic hunger and malnutrition. Though our missions differed, we shared a conviction that, in today’s world, the vitality of Buddhism largely hinges on its ability to respond effectively to people afflicted by the suffering imposed by social systems of oppression and exploitation. We both believed that compassion only comes to fulfillment through conscientious action on multiple fronts.
Alan and I were both present at the symposium on Engaged Buddhism convened by Roshi Bernie Glassman in August 2010. At this event, Alan made an insightful comment that has stuck with me through the years. He distinguished two types of activities that both come under the canopy of Engaged Buddhism. One promotes humanitarian service—guidance for the sick and dying, psychological counseling, prison chaplaincy, mindfulness programs for inner resiliency, and so forth. The other engages in critical inquiry into the deep systemic dynamics responsible for collective suffering—exploring militarism, economic disparities, and environmental destruction, among many interwoven issues. While the organizations we established provide humanitarian service, we both believed it is crucial to understand the detrimental systemic forces at work in today’s world and to uphold Buddhist values as a template for social transformation.
Alan also played an instrumental role in the preparation and publication of my book, The Buddha’s Teachings on Social and Communal Harmony. In 2012 I had privately compiled a collection of the Buddha’s social teachings for use in another context when, one day, Alan called me and asked if I could recommend some suttas from the Pali Canon relevant to promoting social harmony. He wanted to use these in his own work creating mutual understanding among different ethnic groups in Myanmar. I sent him my collection, which he brought with him to Myanmar and had translated into Burmese. He also urged me to have the original English version published. I submitted it to Wisdom Publications, which published it in 2015, with a prologue and epilogue by Alan explaining the practical applications of these teachings in today’s world.
In October 2023 Alan and I again collaborated in drafting an online petition from American Buddhists, addressed to President Biden, asking him to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The petition gathered about 2,000 signatures in its first two weeks, after which we sent it to the President and several congressional leaders. Needless to say, we did not receive any replies.
Just two months later, shortly after Christmas in 2023, Alan suffered a cardiac arrest that almost took his life on the spot. He spent weeks, perhaps months, in a coma-like condition, sustained by emergency care. He eventually regained consciousness, was undergoing rehabilitation, and even started to give short online Dharma talks. It seemed he was slowly on the way to recovery.
The last time I saw Alan was on a Zoom call in early November arranged by our mutual friend, Eric Manigian. It seemed to me then that Alan was gradually improving, and I expected he would soon be active once again. But the following week his condition suddenly declined until his end arrived on December 22.
I have full confidence that Alan, sustained by his meditation practice, his deep compassion, and his bodhisattva vows, will continue his journey on the ocean of the Dharma. May all his wholesome aspirations be fulfilled!
