The Life and Works of Issan Dorsey
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The compelling biography of a charismatic American pioneer
named one of the 100 best spiritual books of the twentieth
century by the Shambhala Sun.
Drag queen, junkie, alcoholic, commune leader --
and finally, Buddhist teacher: these words describe the
unlikely persona of Issan Dorsey, whose story dramatically
illustrates William Blake's essential insight, "The road of
excecess leads to the palace of wisdom." From his days as a
georgeous female impersonator in San Francisco in the 1950's
through the LSD experiences that set him on the Zen path for
the next two decades, Issan Dorsey's life was never
conventional. In 1989, after twenty years of zen practice, he
became Abbot of San Francisco's Hartford Street Zen Center,
where he founded the Maitri Hospice for AIDS patients. Street
Zen draws on a dozen interviews David Schneider conducted with
Dorsey before his death in 1990, and the nearly 20-year
friendship between them.
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Noble
