Reverend Driscoll was born in San Francisco, California in 1948. After attending college at San Francisco State University, in 1970 he entered the Shugen Church of America as a novitiate priest. There he studied Buddhism and Yamabushi style mountain practices under the guidance of Reverend Neville Warwick, Bishop Yuko Nonomura and Lama Anagarika Govinda.

In 1976 he was introduced to Bishop Shoshin Ichishima, formally of the Tendai Betsuin in Hawaii, and at that time a guest scholar at the University of California. He began studying Tendai Buddhism, and when Bishop Ichishima returned to Japan in 1977, to take a position at Taisho University, Reverend Driscoll moved to Japan also, continuing his studies with Bishop Ichishima at his temple, Sensoji, in Chiba Ken. After receiving Tokudo, he studied Japanese and practiced both the Kengyo and Mikkyo aspects of Tendai with Bishop Ichishima at Tamon-in, a small local temple under the protection of Sensoji. In 1979 he went to Mt. Hiei, the headquarters of the Tendai sect in Japan, and there completed his Kegyo training at the Hieizan Gyo-in, receiving the official rank of Gon Risshi.

In 1908 he went on a Buddhist pilgrimage, visiting temples throughout Southeast Asia and India, including the Bodhgaya, where Lord Buddha attained Enlightenment, and the Vulture Peak, where the Lotus Sutra was preached.

In 1982 he returned to America, where he began working for Japan Travel Bureau International, supporting himself and slowly introducing Tendai teaching to interested Americans. In 1984 he founded his own cross-cultural consulting business, combining Buddhist ethics with cultural understanding to help businesses and individuals from Japan and U.S.A. cooperate successfully. Throughout the 1980's he continued to teach Buddhism in California, attempting to find ways to integrate Shi Kan (shamatha/vipassana) meditation, esoteric ritual and fire ceremony, Lotus Sutra devotion, and mountain meditation practices into the American lifestyle.

In 1990 Rev. Joshin moved to the state of New Mexico in order to live closer to nature in a low population, rural area. There he lived in the mountains and practiced privately for a number of years. At present, he lives on a 40-acre ranch, where he helps to take care of the horses, and owns a small cabinet shop business. His place of residence functions as both a home and a temple. He is slowly beginning to teach publicly again, and has given lectures and teachings at a number of local temples in the Santa Fe area and on occasion performed Goma. He also has a number of students through the internet, and as a Tendai priest he gives lay ordinations, conducts marriages, funerals, and ritual blessings. Most recently, he enshrined a small Yakushi Nyorai Honzon at a local Japanese style health spa and Inn, and taught some of the health practitioners who work at the spa basic healing meditations and prayers to help them in their work.

Personal reflection:
Although interest in Buddhism has grown tremendously in the last 20 years since my return from Japan, it is still difficult for those who try to function as Buddhist priests. If one does not wish to sell "spiritual practices" on the so-called New Age Market, one must either live by donations, have an independent income, or continue to work at secular jobs. Recently, there have been other Americans who have begun to function as Tendai priests in the US, and I am hoping that increased cooperation here, and with the Japanese tradition, will lead to a bright future for Tendai in America.