Glassman-Roshi co-founded the Zen Peacemaker Order in 1996 with his late wife, Sandra Jishu Holmes. Bernard Glassman was born to Jewish immigrants in Brighton Beach, New York in 1939. He attended university at the Brooklyn Polytechnic and received a degree in engineering. Following graduation he moved to California to work as an aeronautical engineer at McDonnell-Douglas. He then received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the UCLA. After reading Philip Kapleau's book "The Three Pillars of Zen" in 1967, Glassman sought a local Zen teacher. He found Taizan Maezumi and Glassman became one of the original founding members of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. He received Dharma transmission in 1976 from Maezumi and then inka in 1995 shortly before Maezumi's death.