John became the director of the Asian Classics Input Project in 1999, a not-for-profit organization that preserves, digitizes, transliterates, and disseminates thousands of ancient Buddhist texts found throughout Asia. ACIP became the Asian Legacy Library (ALL), whose new mission extends to all the wisdom traditions of Asia.

He was an executive director for 21 years at the Lillian Vernon Corporation, the fifth largest direct mail order catalog in the US throughout the 1980s and 1990s. 

John lived and worked in New York from 1979 to 2009 where he studied with Zen Master Eido Shimano Roshi for 14 years. In 1996, John met Geshe Michael Roach and began a rigorous 36-course Buddhist study program.

In 2014, John completed a 3-year, 3-month, 3-day silent meditation retreat in the US. He teaches for the Asian Classics Institute, Diamond Cutter Institute, and the Sedona College of International Management. 

He currently lives in Sedona, Arizona, USA, with his wife, Constance O’Brien. They travel and teach together throughout Asia, Europe, and Mexico.