Rick Fields (May 16, 1942 – June 6, 1999) was an American journalist, poet, and historian specializing in the history of Buddhism in the United States.^[1][2]

Born Frederick Douglas Fields in Queens, New York, he attended Andrew Jackson High School, where he was a track athlete, and later enrolled at Harvard University but was expelled in 1964.^[3]

After leaving Harvard, Fields moved to New York City and associated with poets Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder.^[3] He later relocated to California, engaging with Zen centers in San Francisco and Los Angeles.^[3] In the early 1970s, he developed an interest in Tibetan Buddhism and became a student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, focusing on the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions.^[3]

Fields began his journalism career with the Whole Earth Catalog in 1969.^[3] He was involved in founding Tricycle: The Buddhist Review magazine in 1991 and served as a contributing editor.^[3][4] He also worked as an editor for publications including Yoga Journal and New Age Journal, and was editor-in-chief of the Vajradhatu Sun, later renamed the Shambhala Sun. Additionally, he taught at the Naropa Institute's Jack Kerouac School in Boulder, Colorado.^[3]

Fields authored several books, most notably How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America (1981), which traces the development of Buddhism in the United States from the 19th century onward.^[5] Other works include Chop Wood, Carry Water (1984), Code of the Warrior (1991), The Awakened Warrior (1994), The Turquoise Bee: The Love Poems of the Sixth Dalai Lama (1994, with Brian Cutillo), and Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master's Lessons in Living a Life That Matters (1996, with Bernard Glassman).^[3]

In his later years, Fields wrote poetry addressing his experiences with cancer from a Buddhist perspective.^[3]