Issan Dorsey, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetIssan Dorsey
American Soto Zen Buddhist
Date of Birth: 07-Mar-1933
Place of Birth: Santa Barbara, California, United States
Date of Death: 06-Sep-1990
Profession: prostitute
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Pisces 
About Issan Dorsey
- Issan Dorsey (March 7, 1933 — September 6, 1990), born Tommy Dorsey, Jr., was a Soto Zen monk and teacher, Dharma heir of Zentatsu Richard Baker and onetime abbot of Hartford Street Zen Center (HSZC) located in the Castro district of San Francisco, California.
- Earlier in his life he had worked as a prostitute and a drag queen, and had struggled at times with drug addiction.
- He died of complications from AIDS in 1990. He established the Maitri Hospice at HSZC for students and friends dying of AIDS during the spread of the epidemic in the 1980s—the first Buddhist hospice of its kind in the United States.
- Numbers of his students and colleagues have observed that Dorsey was the embodiment of a bodhisattva.
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