Bernard Tetsugen Glassman is Abbot of the Zen Community of New York and also the Zen Center of Los Angeles. He is the founder of the Greyston Mandala, a network of businesses and not-for-profits doing community development work in southwest Yonkers, New York. Drawing on its Buddhist roots, Greyston's approach integrates the economic, social, educational, and spiritual dimensions of each endeavor.

Rick Fields was editor in chief of Yoga Journal, author of The Code of the Warrior and How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America, and coauthor of Chop Wood, Carry Water, and The Turquoise Bee.