Soyen Shaku

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Soyen Shaku
釈 宗演
Imakita Kōsen
SuccessorTetsuo Sōkatsu

Soyen Shaku (釈 宗演, January 10, 1860 – October 29, 1919; written in modern Japanese Shaku Sōen or Kōgaku Shaku Sōen) was the first

Imakita Kosen
.

Biography

Soyen Shaku was a Zen

Theravada Buddhism and lived the wandering life of the bhikkhu for three years.[2] Upon his return to Japan in 1890, he taught at the Nagata Zendo. In 1892, upon Kosen's death, Shaku became Zen master of Engaku-ji.[3]

In 1893 Shaku was one of four priests and two laymen, representing Rinzai Zen,

World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, organized by John Henry Barrows and Paul Carus. He had prepared a speech in Japan, and had it translated into English by his (then young and unknown) student D. T. Suzuki. It was read to the conference by Barrows. The subject was "The Law of Cause and Effect, as Taught by Buddha". Subsequently, Shaku delivered "Arbitration Instead of War".[5]

At this conference he met

Tokyo University scholar D. T. Suzuki to go to the United States, where he would eventually become the leading academic on Zen Buddhism in the West, and translator for Carus's publishing company.[6]

Shaku served as a chaplain to the Japanese army during the Russo-Japanese War. He lectured soldiers about how to face their own deaths with unwavering equanimity, stating that they had to defeat not only their external enemies, but also their inner enemies, which he called "demons of the mind" (心魔, shinma).[7] In 1904, the Russian author Leo Tolstoy invited him to join in denouncing the war, but Shaku refused, concluding that "...sometimes killing and war becomes necessary to defend the values and harmony of any innocent country, race or individual." (quoted in Victoria, 1997) After the war, he attributed Japan's victory to its samurai culture.

In 1905, he returned to America as a guest of Ida Russell and her husband, businessman Alexander Russell. He spent nine months at their isolated oceanside house on the Great Highway in San Francisco,[8] teaching the entire household Zen. Mrs. Russell was the first American to study koans. Shortly after arriving, Shaku was joined by his student Nyogen Senzaki.[9] During this time he also gave lectures, some to Japanese immigrants and some translated by D. T. Suzuki for English-speaking audiences, around California.[10] Following a March 1906 train trip across the United States, giving talks on Mahayana translated by Suzuki, Shaku returned to Japan via Europe, India and Ceylon.[11]

Soyen Shaku died on 29 October 1919 in

Kamakura
.

Dharma heirs

Selected works (in English)

  • Sermons of a Buddhist Abbot: A Classic of American Buddhism. Three Leaves. 2004.
    ISBN 0-385-51048-9
  • Zen for Americans. Open Court. 1989.
    ISBN 0-87548-273-2

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0-86171-509-8
    .
  2. ^ a b Fields 1992, pg. 110
  3. ^ Fields 1992, pg. 111
  4. ^ Fields 1992, pg. 124
  5. ^ Fields 1992, pp. 126-7
  6. ^ Fields 1992, pg. 128
  7. ^ Micah Auerback, A Closer Look to Zen at War, quoted in Heine and Wright 2010, pg. 160
  8. ^ "Architectural and Historical Resources of the Sunset District: The Oceanside Neighborhood". outsidelands.org. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  9. ^ Fields 1992, pp. 168-170
  10. ^ Fields 1992, pg. 172
  11. ^ Fields 1992, pp. 172-4
  12. ^ Ningen Zen Home Archived 2013-03-16 at the Wayback Machine

Further reading

External links
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