A native of the Philippines, he is professor of world religions and spirituality at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, and guiding teacher at Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas. Before assuming his post in Dallas, he taught at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan from 1978 to 1989. His published works include Living Zen, Loving God (Wisdom, 2005); Healing Breath: Zen for Christians and Buddhists in a Wounded World (Wisdom 2006), Zen and the Spiritual Exercises: Paths of Awakening and Transformation (Orbis 2013), and many others in English and Japanese. He is married to Maria Dorothea Reis Habito, with whom he has two young adult sons, Florian and Benjamin.