Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Parallax Press

This affectionate trip down memory lane by outgoing publisher Hisae Matsuda, who recently became a member of the Order of Interbeing, shares the backstory behind Parallax’s publications, celebrating the people who made the books possible, and the team of practitioner-publishing professionals guiding the journey of tomorrow.

This is our third offering in our monthly series in which we feature articles written by an OI member, as we lead up to our June Retreat, celebrating 60 years of the Order of Interbeing.

This post features an excerpt taken from Hisae’s article originally published in the Mindfulness Bell.

In 2026, Parallax Press, our community’s publishing company, reaches the grand age of forty. Since launching in 1986, a small group of book lovers have brought out four hundred titles on the art of mindful living and Engaged Buddhism. While connected directly to our community of readers through mindfulness practice, Parallax Press has become a stable presence in the American publishing landscape, with books distributed by Penguin Random House and available in bookstores and libraries worldwide.

In the past four decades, as Thích Nhất Hạnh became one of the most revered and influential spiritual leaders of our time, not surprisingly, his books became bestsellers, estimated to have sold more than four million copies. Thầy’s passing in 2022 completed only his physical lifespan; his bodhisattva qualities continue to resonate through his teachings and the teachings of his students, some of whom are now authoring books themselves.

Through changing and challenging times, the Parallax family has also grown and transformed. From the beginning, editors at Parallax have been instrumental in producing many of Thầy’s bestsellers released by the major international publishers, such as Peace Is Every Step and The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, as well as providing books for practitioners with a focus on deep practice and Engaged Buddhism.

Publishing from the Heart

In the early 1990s in London, I picked up a book that would change my life. The cover had a vibrant abstract painting, a splash of color on a white background, and the title was Being Peace. Turning to the first page, I read the famous opening words:

I was smitten. In his gentle voice, Thầy had a way of making the world’s sorrows recede just enough to allow joy to shine through my melancholic mind. “Do we need to make a special effort to enjoy the beauty of the blue sky?” Thầy asks. At the time, I was finding life quite heavy, a weight to be lifted rather than a joy. Thầy’s words illuminated a new way of living.

Many years later, after moving to the United States and entering publishing myself, I had lunch with Parallax’s founding publisher, Arnie Kotler, who started Parallax over the proverbial kitchen table with his wife, Therese Fitzgerald; and I had the opportunity to thank him for his work. Together, Arnie and Therese shepherded the manuscript of Being Peace and more than thirty other books by Thích Nhất Hạnh through the publication process and out into the world, where they would touch the lives of millions of readers, including me.

I also got to know Travis Masch, Arnie’s successor, through being neighbors; eventually Rachel Neumann, Parallax’s third publisher, invited me to join the Parallax family. Although as a young person I’d taken a retreat with Thầy, it wasn’t until I’d hit middle age and Thầy was no longer actively teaching that I began to practice mindfulness in earnest. At my first work retreat, I met Thầy’s monastic students, inspiring teachers in their own right. Until then, I’d largely worked in a way that kept my “inner” spiritual life and my “outer” professional life separate. Coming in contact with people who prioritized mindfulness in daily life like the monastic Dharma teachers of the Plum Village Editorial Team—the Sisters and Brothers with whom Parallax works most closely—I came to see it was possible to live and work in a more holistic way. Acting from this unbroken wholeness (to borrow our author John Bell’s book title) is key to publishing the books that our culture needs to transform and heal.

Arnie’s successor, Travis Masch, a kindly Order of Interbeing member from Germany, initially joined Parallax to help run the business side of the operation. After six years, the board of directors invited him to serve as the publisher, a position he then held for thirteen years. Prior to stepping into the publisher role myself, I was fortunate to sit down with Travis and ask for his advice about how best to work in a spiritual community. Here’s a condensed version of the wisdom he shared:

♦ For a mission-driven press like Parallax, it’s important for those who work there to be practitioners. Always take the practice into account in your interactions. It is invaluable to rest in practice as a common basis.

♦ Hold regular staff retreats at a practice center. Retreats are an opportunity
to remind Parallax staff where we’re coming from and going to. Try to see yourselves not only as a publishing company but as a sangha so actions can flow from that space.

♦ Be a mediator. See the priorities of the community and the business, and try to balance needs. Remember you are there to be of service.

♦ When you’re upset with someone, light the candle of compassion. Remember,
they are struggling. If someone had a certain difficult character trait before entering the practice, this can lead to being unchecked on the playing field of a spiritual community. Remember that community practice is not always enough as a skill set to deal with difficult feelings, and the needed skills to solve interpersonal issues may not be present. You can be sure that if someone is difficult for you, that experience is shared by others.

♦ It’s good to remember everyone is human and carries their childhood
heritage with them.

♦ Whether in the monastery or in the world, the energy of intense (egoic) aspiration can’t be sustained. There has to be an equal amount of letting go, letting be, gentleness toward self and others, and true maturity.

♦ Develop a sense of safety and security within yourself. Be kind. Be compassionate, no matter what, to everyone, including yourself. There are so many resources for spiritual growth—Plum Village is a good practice country!

A New Era: At Home in the Monastery

I’m delighted to introduce our new publisher, Matthew Friberg, to lead Parallax in the next era. Matt ordained in the Order of Interbeing just before joining Parallax Press as our dedicated Plum Village senior editor four years ago, taking the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings with his mentor, Dharma teacher and Parallax author Richard Brady. With a professional background in academic publishing, Matt brings an insightful presence to the role of publisher. I can’t wait to see the beautiful books that will emerge with his guidance and support. In an increasingly polarized landscape for the exchange of ideas, books and reading culture have become a refuge for people wishing to share deep aspirations and nuanced storytelling, those wishing to turn off the domination of the screen and the algorithm, especially among young people of Matt’s generation.

As we complete the first quarter of the twenty-first century, we are halfway to the top of the hill of the century that Thay envisioned. Climbing this hill together already brings great joy. As a microcosm of our society, Parallax has collectively gone through so much since we began in 1986, and the times we’re living in call for a new way of living and working, centered in our values of peace and collective awakening. During the global pandemic, when the whole world went quiet, we began working from home, and we decided to have a 100 percent remote office. Unlike many other workplaces, we aren’t going back to how things were, with punishing commutes and the pressure of fitting life in around one’s work. Instead, we’re coming full circle and moving forward at once. We’ll continue to work from our kitchen tables (or home offices as the case may be) and also take refuge in the sangha and build more time together in person.

This year, our ruby anniversary, with the monastics’ blessing, we plan to build a mobile “tiny office” at Deer Park Monastery in a hidden valley in the mountains near San Diego, so staff can spend significant time in the community and go deeper into publishing from the heart, with all the opportunities to practice that arise when living in a monastery.

For our golden anniversary in 2036, who knows how the view will open up around books and the Dharma? Let’s envision that it will be even easier for a young person to open the pages of a book and enter the stream.

We invite you to read Hisae Matsuda’s full article here.