{{Short description|American spiritual writer}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}} '''Clark Strand''' (born August 14, 1957)<ref name="Taking">{{cite book |last1=Finn |first1=Perdita |title=Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World |date=2023 |publisher=Running Press |isbn=9780762482528 |page=212}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Clark W Strand from Woodstock, NY |url=https://nuwber.com/person/563a9d36cf00835c7f2e3d36 |website=Nuwber |access-date=August 21, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Strand |first1=Clark |title=Thanks so much for my happy birthday wishes, everyone! It was a wonderful day! |url=https://www.facebook.com/clarkstrand/posts/pfbid024a37EKvcqXyYkJKUe7SdiTJMdgfAVuTiYZZ5FAYgb8yVTFodLQ6GJWKLEeFRQnDrl |website=Facebook |access-date=August 21, 2024 |date=August 15, 2024}}</ref> is an American author and teacher on spirituality and religion. A former Zen Buddhist monk, he was the first Senior Editor of ''Tricycle: The Buddhist Review''. He left that position in 1996 and moved to Woodstock, New York, to write and teach full-time.
He is also a poet and has written two books that feature or include his poetry.
==Early life and education== Strand was born in 1957,<ref name="Taking"/> and grew up in Arkansas<ref>{{cite web |last1=Conner |first1=Janet |title=Praying at the speed of Love, Episode 19: The Way of the Rose Part 1 |url=https://mainbucketdgandco.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/PSL+Podcast/PSL_Podcast_-_Episode_19_Transcript+FINAL.pdf |website=mainbucketdgandco |access-date=July 14, 2024 |date=December 5, 2019}}</ref> and Alabama.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Strand |first1=Clark |title=Wake Up to the Dark |magazine=Spirituality & Health |date=January–February 2023 |url=https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/waking-up-to-the-dark |access-date=July 9, 2024}}</ref> The family moved to Atlanta in 1971,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nola |first1=Meg |title=Reviewer Meg Nola Interviews Clark Strand, Author of ''Waking Up to the Dark: The Black Madonna's Gospel for an Age of Extinction and Collapse'' |url=https://www.forewordreviews.com/articles/article/reviewer-meg-nola-interviews-clark-strand-author-of-waking-up-to-the-dark-the-black-madonnas-gospel-for-an-age-of-extinction-and-collapse/ |website=ForewordReviews.com |access-date=July 9, 2024 |date=September 23, 2022}}</ref> and Strand graduated from the Lovett School in 1975.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Dr. Allan Strand Jr. (1930-2022) |url=https://issuu.com/thelovettschool/docs/lvt-magazine-fall-winter_2022-final_082f9c3e598eb7/91 |magazine=The Lovett School |page=91 |date=Fall–Winter 2022}}</ref>
Strand was raised as a Southern Presbyterian,<ref>{{cite web |title=Author Clark Strand |url=http://wakingthebuddha.org/about-the-author/ |website=WakingtheBuddha.com |access-date=July 13, 2024}}</ref> and converted to Buddhism in the 1970s.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Laidlaw |first1=Stuart |title=Awaiting the Dalai Lama |url=https://www.thestar.com/life/awaiting-the-dalai-lama/article_57440bfd-4bcd-5a7b-ab66-9d3616fb9cf0.html |access-date=September 5, 2024 |work=Toronto Star |date=October 28, 2007}}</ref> He studied philosophy and religion at Sewanee: The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee,<ref>{{cite web |title=How is Christ Our King In 2012? |url=https://www.cathedralatl.org/sermons/how-is-christ-our-king-in-2012/ |website=CathedralATL.org |access-date=August 24, 2024 |date=November 25, 2012}}</ref> graduating in 1980.<ref name="Sewanee News Dec 1988">{{cite magazine |title=College Class Notes |magazine=The Sewanee News |date=December 1988 |volume=54 |issue=3 |page=23 |url=https://dspace.sewanee.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/9cd11dd0-89e9-4229-a8ee-bab67f365ca7/content |access-date=August 13, 2024}}</ref>
==Career== Strand began his post-university career as a Zen Buddhist monk.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Strand |first1=Clark |title=A Zen Master's Guide to the Bible |url=https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/articles/2014/05/29/zen-masters-guide-bible2 |website=Spirituality & Health |access-date=August 21, 2024 |date=May 29, 2014}}</ref> In 1988, he left the Dai Bosatsu Zendo, a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monastery in upstate New York<ref>{{cite book |last1=Strand |first1=Clark |title=Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey: 25th Anniversary Edition: Revised & Expanded |date=2023 |publisher=Monkfish Book Publishing |isbn=9781948626866 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rSekEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT40}}</ref><ref name="Sewanee News Dec 1988"/> and became the director of New York Zendo, a Rinzai Zen Buddhist temple in New York City.<ref name="Sewanee News Dec 1988"/> In 1990 he resigned from New York Zendo<ref>{{cite web |title=The Zen Studies Society Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees |url=https://www.shimanoarchive.com/PDFs/19900116_ZSS_Board.pdf |website=ShimanoArchive.com |access-date=August 21, 2024 |date=January 16, 1990}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Minutes of ZSS Board of Trustees Meeting |url=https://www.shimanoarchive.com/9index.html |website=ShimanoArchive.com |access-date=August 21, 2024 |date=March 31, 1990 |quote='Eido Roshi (嶋野 栄道) announced that Clark Strand had resigned as resident monk of New York Zendo....'}}</ref> and ceased being a Buddhist monk.<ref name="jo-jo">{{cite web |last1=Guy |first1=David |title=Get Back, Jo Jo |url=https://davidguy.org/2015/09/02/get-back-jo-jo/ |website=DavidGuy.org |date=September 2, 2015 |access-date=August 21, 2024}}</ref>
Following a few years of psychoanalysis, he became the first senior editor of ''Tricycle: The Buddhist Review'' in 1993.<ref name="WTB authorbio"/><ref name="VillageZendo">{{cite web |title=Reading Series – An Intimate Evening with Clark Strand |url=https://villagezendo.org/events/reading-series-an-intimate-evening-with-clark-strand/ |website=Village Zendo |date=October 14, 2021 |access-date=August 21, 2024}}</ref> He also continued his decades-long exploration of the spiritual traditions of the world in search of a more spiritually-evolved version of religion that was compatible with modern life; the journey took him inside of numerous communities including Buddhist temples, Hasidic synagogues, Christian monasteries, and Hindu cults.<ref name="WTB authorbio">{{cite web |title=Author Clark Strand |url=http://wakingthebuddha.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SRY_Author_bio.pdf |website=WakingTheBuddha.org |access-date=August 21, 2024}}</ref><ref name="jo-jo"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Strand |first1=Clark |title=How to Believe in God: Whether You Believe in Religion or Not |date=2009 |publisher=Harmony/Rodale |isbn=9780385529525 |pages=3–4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_mTgVkT-OMC&pg=PA3}}</ref> This eventually led to his books ''Meditation Without Gurus'' (2003) and ''How to Believe in God: Whether You Believe in Religion or Not'' (2009).<ref name="WTB authorbio"/>
In 1996, Strand left his position as senior editor of ''Tricycle: The Buddhist Review'', and moved to Woodstock, New York to write and teach full time.<ref name="VillageZendo"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Jeffers |first1=Steven L. |last2=Nelson |first2=Michael E. |last3=Barnet |first3=Vern |last4=Brannigan |first4=Michael C. |title=The Essential Guide to Religious Traditions and Spirituality for Health Care Providers |url=https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781910227749_A37994684/preview-9781910227749_A37994684.pdf |website=api.pageplace.de |publisher=CRC Press |access-date=August 21, 2024 |pages=xxvi-xxvii |date=2019}}</ref><ref name="life and work"/>
In January 2000, Strand founded the Koans of the Bible Study Group (since renamed Woodstock Buddhist Bible Study), a weekly inter-religious discussion group devoted to finding a new paradigm for religious belief and practice.<ref name="jo-jo"/> He also founded the Green Meditation Society in Woodstock, which promotes an ecologically-based approach to spiritual practice, drawing upon the environmental teachings of the world's great religious traditions.<ref>{{cite news |title=Author Clark Strand to Speak on 'The 12 Steps of Ecological Recovery' at Judson Church |url=http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUS119564%2B31-Jan-2011%2BMW20110131?irpc=932 |work=Reuters |agency=Market Wire |date=January 31, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518085443/http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUS119564+31-Jan-2011+MW20110131?irpc=932 |archive-date=May 18, 2015}}</ref>
In the early 2000s, he began exploring Soka Gakkai International, which originated from Soka Gakkai Japan, a humanistic religion based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese monk, Nichiren, who lived in Kamakura period. This led him to write ''Waking the Buddha: How the Most Dynamic and Empowering Buddhist Movement in History Is Changing Our Concept of Religion'' (2014).<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Mowe |first1=Sam |title=Q&A: Clark Strand, Author of Waking the Buddha |magazine=Spirituality & Health |date=April 27, 2014 |url=https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/articles/2014/04/27/qa-clark-strand |access-date=May 16, 2015}}</ref>
Strand has written additional books on spirituality, as well as articles on a variety of religious, spiritual, and ecological themes. He writes for ''The Washington Post'',<ref>{{cite news |last1=Strand |first1=Clark |title=Want to enjoy the deep, mystical sleep of our ancestors? Turn your lights off at dusk. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/05/19/want-to-experience-the-deep-mystical-sleep-of-our-ancestors-turn-your-lights-off-at-dusk/ |access-date=August 25, 2015 |work=The Washington Post |date=May 19, 2015}}</ref> ''The Huffington Post'', ''The New York Times'', ''Newsweek’s'' On Faith blog, ''Tricycle,'' ''Body & Soul'', ''Spirituality & Health'', and several other publications.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Strand |first1=Clark |title=Turn Out the Lights |url=http://www.tricycle.com/feature/turn-out-lights |work=Tricycle: The Buddhist Review |date=Spring 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100306012349/http://www.tricycle.com/feature/turn-out-lights?page=0,3 |archive-date=March 6, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Strand |first1=Clark |title=How the Nones Are Coming of Age |url=http://www.huffpost.com/entry/nones-are-coming-of-age_b_5246746 |website=Huffington Post |access-date=May 14, 2015 |date=May 1, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Strand |first1=Clark |title=Bring On the Dark |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/20/opinion/why-we-need-the-winter-solstice.html |access-date=May 15, 2015 |work=The New York Times |date=December 19, 2014}}</ref>
He also lectures and teaches classes, workshops, and retreats.<ref name="WTB authorbio"/> In May 2015, he participated in the First White House U.S. Buddhist Leaders Conference.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Boorstein |first1=Michelle |title=A political awakening for Buddhists? 125 U.S. Buddhist leaders to meet at the White House. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/05/12/125-u-s-buddhist-leaders-to-meet-at-the-white-house/ |access-date=May 15, 2015 |work=The Washington Post |date=May 12, 2015}}</ref>
Strand is also a poet,<ref>{{cite web |title=Clark Strand: A Deeper Connection with Everything Through Haiku |url=https://themeaningfullife.podbean.com/e/clark-strand-podcast/ |website=The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall |publisher=Podbean |access-date=August 21, 2024 |date=July 31, 2023}}</ref> and has written two books that feature or include his poetry: ''Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey'' (1997), and ''Now is the Hour of Her Return: Poems in Praise of the Divine Mother Kali'' (2022). He also teaches classes and workshops in writing haiku.<ref>{{cite web |title=Clark Strand |url=https://tricycle.org/author/clarkstrand/ |website=Tricycle: The Buddhist Review |access-date=August 24, 2024}}</ref>
==Personal life== Strand lives in Woodstock, New York.<ref name="life and work">{{cite web |title=Clark Strand's life and work |url=http://www.worldwisdom.com/public/authors/Clark-Strand.aspx |website=World Wisdom |access-date=June 21, 2024}}</ref> He and his wife, author Perdita Finn,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Matousek |first1=Mark |title=Virgin Encounters: What to Do With an Apparition? |website=Psychology Today |date=November 5, 2019 |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-seekers-forum/201911/virgin-encounters-what-do-apparition |access-date=June 21, 2024}}</ref> are co-founders of The Way of the Rose, a non-sectarian rosary fellowship that welcomes people of all faiths and spiritual backgrounds.<ref>{{cite web |title=Clark Strand |url=https://kripalu.org/presenters-programs/presenters/clark-strand |website=Kripalu |access-date=June 21, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Peters |first1=Julie |title=The Way of the Rose |magazine=Spirituality & Health |date=December 17, 2019 |url=https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/articles/2019/12/17/the-way-of-the-rose |access-date=June 21, 2024 |publisher=Unity Church}}</ref>
==Bibliography== {| {{Table}} | 1997 |''Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey'' | {{ISBN|978-0-7868-6242-9}} |- | 1998 |''The Wooden Bowl: Simple Meditations for Everyday Life'' | {{ISBN|978-0-7868-6286-3}} |- | 2003 |''Meditation Without Gurus: A Guide to the Heart of the Practice'' | {{ISBN|978-1-893361-93-5}} |- | 2009 |''How to Believe in God: Whether You Believe in Religion or Not'' | {{ISBN|978-0-7679-2069-8}} |- | 2014 |''Waking the Buddha: How the Most Dynamic and Empowering Buddhist Movement in History Is Changing Our Concept of Religion''<ref>{{cite web |last1=Strand |first1=Clark |title=From the Muddy Pond |url=http://www.sgiquarterly.org/feature2014jan-4.html |website=SGI Quarterly |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518091423/http://www.sgiquarterly.org/feature2014jan-4.html |archive-date=May 18, 2015 |date=January 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> | {{ISBN|978-0977924561}} |- | 2015 | ''Waking up to the Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age''<ref>{{cite news |last1=Matousek |first1=Mark |title=Waking Up To the Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/ethical-wisdom/201505/waking-up-to-the-dark-ancient-wisdom-for-a-sleepless-age |access-date=May 15, 2015 |work=Psychology Today |date=May 11, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Waking up to the Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/clark-strand/waking-up-to-the-dark/ |website=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=May 15, 2015 |date=January 14, 2015}}</ref> | {{ISBN|978-0-8129-9772-9}} |- | 2019 | ''The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary'' (with Perdita Finn) | {{ISBN|978-0812988956}} |- | 2022 | ''Now is the Hour of Her Return: Poems in Praise of the Divine Mother Kali'' | {{ISBN|9781948626750}} |}
==References== {{reflist|2}}
==External links== *[https://wayoftherose.org/ The Way of the Rose] – Official website *[https://575syllables.com/ 575 Syllables] – Official website
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Strand, Clark}} Category:American spiritual teachers Category:American spiritual writers Category:Living people Category:American magazine editors Category:English-language haiku poets Category:20th-century American poets Category:21st-century American poets Category:Poets from New York (state) Category:Sewanee: The University of the South alumni Category:People from Woodstock, New York Category:1957 births