Shohaku Okumura is a priest and dharma successor of Kosho Uchiyama Roshi. He has practiced at Antaiji and Zuioji in Japan; the Pioneer Valley Zenda in Massachusetts; and the Kyoto Soto Zen Center. His six previously published books of translations are Dogen's Pure Standards for the Zen Community: A Translation of "Eihei Shingi"; Opening the Hand of Thought; Shikan Taza: An Introduction to Zazen; "Shabagenza Zuimonki": Sayings of Eihei Dogen Zenji; Dogen Zen; and Zen Teaching of "Homeless" Kodo. Okumura Sensei, formerly head teacher at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, is currently the Director of the North American Soto School in Los Angeles.

Taigen Dan Leighton is a priest in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. He has practiced at the New York and San Francisco Zen Centers, was head monk at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and practiced for two years in Japan. He is co-translator of Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi; Dogen's Pure Standards for the Zen Community: A Translation of "Eihei Shingi"; and Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dagen; and is author of Bodhisattva Archetypes: Classic Buddhist Guides to Awakening and Their Modern Expression. Leighton currently teaches at the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in Muir Beach, California, and at the Institute of Buddhist Studies of the Berkeley Graduate Theological Union.