Dr. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel has been a dharma practitioner for 20 years, initially as a student of Nichiren Buddhism and currently in the Soto Zen tradition at San Francisco Zen Center and Berkeley Zen Center. She is currently training as a novice priest and the leader of the Kasai River Healing Sangha in Oakland, California.

Zenju has an M.A. in Urban Planning from U.C.L.A. and a Ph.D. in Transformation and Consciousness from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and has served as Development Director and Program Director for several California-based nonprofit organizations and cultural centers, including the Women of Color Resource Center and The Women’s Foundation of California. She co-founded the Marcus Garvey Alternative School for African American children in Los Angeles in 1974. Zenju currently lives in Oakland, California with her partner Simbwala Schultz.

Zenju is also a visual artist and the author of Seeking Enchantment: A Spiritual Journey of Healing from Oppression (Kasai River Press), and the Black Angel Cards: A Soul Revival Guide for Black Women (Harper San Francisco). She is a contributing author to Dharma, Color, and Culture: New Voices in Western Buddhism (Parallax), an anthology of essays by Buddhist teachers and practitioners of color and Spirited (Redbone Press), an anthology of Black gays and lesbians on spirituality. Her essay, The Zen Liberation in the Art of Romare Bearden appears in the International Review of African American Art . Other essays have appeared in Turning Wheel, Wind Bell (S.F. Zen Center magazine), and Mindfulness Bell.