Taigen Dan Leighton

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Taigen Dan Leighton (b. 1950, grew up in Pittsburgh, PA) is a Soto Zen priest and teacher, academic, and author. He is an authorized lineage holder and Zen teacher in the tradition of Shunryu Suzuki, and is the founder and Guiding Teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, Illinois. Leighton began his Zen practice in 1975 at the New York Zen Center, training under Kando Nakajima roshi. He studied at Columbia University, where he obtained a bachelors degree in East Asian studies. Leighton worked as a television and film editor in New York, and then San Francisco.