Jiro Andy Afable

Rev. Jiro Andy Afable, Abbot of Early Light Zendo, is a recognized teacher and lineage holder in the Rinzai school of Zen.

Jiro was born in the Philippines in 1943. In 1965, he came to the United States to do graduate work in the University of Iowa, where he earned an MFA in the Writing Program in 1967. Jiro has taught English at the college level and was self-employed as a cabinetmaker for 18 years.

In 1993, after many years as part of the leadership of Kashin Zendo, a Zen Sangha in Washington DC, he was invited by the Board of Directors of the Zen Studies Society to assume a position as the first General Manager of Dai Bosatsu Zendo in Livingston Manor, New York. In 1998, wearing his monk’s robes and a mendicant’s hat, Jiro was welcomed into Dai Bosatsu Zendo as a lineage holder and Vice-abbot in a public ceremony.

In Spring, 2003, Jiro left his tenure as Vice-abbot of Dai Bosatsu and moved to Massachusetts. Jiro feels that for Zen to become indigenous, "of this time and place", it has to embrace the traditions and values of Americans. Today he is gathering a Sangha around Early Light Zendo, an American Meditation Hall in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Jiro lives in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, Kit, and daughter, Cecile.

Jiro’s practice of more than 30 years and his years of experience with Kashin Zendo and with Dai Bosatsu Zendo, where he was Vice-Abbot and a teacher, has formed his views on the teaching of Zen in America. He recognizes the pitfalls of a facile eclecticism or a narrow view of tradition. He senses the emergence of a Zen movement in the United States that is converging with the best impulses and values of Americans and looks forward to teaching Zen in Massachusetts as the Buddha Dharma moves forward in this century.