Zen in the United States expositor of Zen Buddhism and its unofficial ambassador to Western readers until his death in 1966. His 1949 book, "An Introduction to Zen Buddhism", featured a thirty-page introduction by Carl Jung, an emblem of the deepening relationship between Buddhism and major Western thinkers. One American who attempted to establish an American Buddhist movement was Dwight Goddard (1861–1939). Goddard was a Christian missionary to China when he first came in contact with Buddhism. In 1928, he spent a year living in a Zen monastery in Japan. In 1934, he founded "The Followers of Buddha, an American Brotherhood," with the goal of
Zen center Zen center The phrase Zen center was coined by American students of Shunryu Suzuki in the mid-twentieth century, and the San Francisco Zen Center became the first Zen center, incorporating in 1962. Neither temples nor monasteries (although at times operating such facilities), Zen centers occupy a unique place in the historical development of Zen Buddhism and of Buddhism in the United States. As Zen practice has expanded throughout the United States over the last fifty years, the variety of Zen centers has increased. While some are now the homes of wealthy communities in major cities (such as Zen Center of