Sokei-an

Sokei-an Sasaki
Title	Roshi
Personal
Born	Yeita Sasaki March 10, 1882 Japan
Died	May 17, 1945 (age 63)
Religion	Zen Buddhism
Spouse	Tomé Sasaki Ruth Fuller Sasaki
Children	Shintaro Seiko Shioko
School	Rinzai
Education	Imperial Academy of Art (Tokyo) California Institute of Art
Senior posting
Teacher	Sokatsu Shaku Soyen Shaku
Based in	Buddhist Society of America
Predecessor	Sokatsu Shaku
Successor	None
Students Alan Watts
Website	firstzen.org/

Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki( tá 々 mộc chỉ nguyệt ( tào 渓 am ); March 10, 1882 – May 17, 1945), bornYeita Sasaki( tá 々 mộc vinh nhiều ), was a JapaneseRinzaimonkwho founded theBuddhist Society of America(now the First Zen Institute of America) inNew York Cityin 1930. Influential in the growth ofZen Buddhismin the United States, Sokei-an was one of the first Japanese masters to live and teach in America and the foremost purveyor in the U.S. of Direct Transmission.In 1944 he married AmericanRuth Fuller Everett.He died in May 1945 without leaving behind aDharma heir.One of his better known students wasAlan Watts,who studied under him briefly. Watts was a student of Sokei-an in the late 1930s.

Biography

Sokei-an was born in Japan in 1882 as Yeita Sasaki. He was raised by his father, aShintopriest, and his father's wife, though hisbirth motherwas his father'sconcubine.Beginning at age four, his father taught himChineseand soon had him readingConfuciantexts.Following the death of his father when he was fifteen, he became an apprenticesculptorand came to study under Japan's renownedKoun Takamuraat the Imperial Academy of Art inTokyo.While in school he began his study ofRinzaiZen underSokatsu Shaku,(aDharma heirofSoyen Shaku), graduating from the academy in 1905.Following graduation he wasdraftedby theJapanese Imperial Armyand served briefly during theRusso-Japanese Waron the border ofManchuria.Sasaki was discharged when the war ended shortly after in 1906, and soon married his first wife, Tomé, a fellow student of Sokatsu.The newlyweds followed Sokatsu toSan Francisco, Californiathat year as part of a delegation of fourteen. The couple soon had their first child, Shintaro. In California with the hope of establishing aZencommunity, the group farmedstrawberriesinHayward, Californiawith little success. Sasaki then studied painting under Richard Partingtonat the California Institute of Art, where he metNyogen Senzaki.By 1910 the delegation's Zen community had proven unsuccessful. All members of the original fourteen, with the exception of Sasaki, made return trips back to Japan.

Sokei-an then moved toOregonwithout Tomé and Shintaro to work for a short while, being rejoined by them inSeattle Washington(where his wife gave birth to their second child, Seiko,a girl). In Seattle, Sasaki worked as apicture frame makerand wrote various articles and essays forJapanesepublications such asChuo KoronandHokubei Shinpo.He traveled theOregonandWashingtoncountrysides selling subscriptions toHokubei Shinpo.His wife, who had become pregnant again, moved back to Japan in 1913 to raise their children. Over the next few years he made a living doing various jobs, when in 1916 he moved toGreenwich VillageinManhattan, New York,where he encountered the poet and magusAleister Crowley.Sometime during this period he was interviewed by the US Army but not drafted due to lingering allegiances to Japan.In New York he worked both as ajanitorand atranslatorforMaxwell Bodenheim.He also began to writepoetryduring his free time.He returned to Japan in 1920 to continue hiskoanstudies, first underSoyen Shakuand then with Sokatsu.In 1922 he returned to the United States and in 1924 or 1925 began giving talks onBuddhismat the Orientalia Bookstore on E. 58th Street inNew York City,having receivedlayteaching credentials from Sokatsu.[1]In 1928 he receivedinkafrom Sokatsu in Japan, the "final seal" of approval in theRinzai school.Then, on May 11, 1930, Sokei-an and some American students founded theBuddhist Society of America,subsequently incorporated in 1931,at 63 West 70th Street (originally with just four members).Here he offeredsanzeninterviews and gaveDharma talks,also working on various translations of important Buddhist texts.He made part of his living by sculpting Buddhist images and repairing art forTiffany's.

In 1938 his future wife,Ruth Fuller Everett,began studying under him and received herBuddhist name(Eryu); her daughter, Eleanor, was then the wife ofAlan Watts(who also studied under Sokei-an that same year).In 1941 Ruth purchased an apartment at 124 E. 65th Street inNew York City,which also served as living quarters for Sokei-an and became the new home for theBuddhist Society of America(opened on December 6). Following theattack on Pearl Harbor,Sokei-an was arrested by theFBIas an "enemy alien"taken toEllis Islandon June 15 and theninternedat a camp inFort Meade, Marylandon October 2, 1942 (where he suffered fromhigh blood pressureand severalstrokes).[2]He was released from theinternment campon August 17, 1943, following the pleas of his students and returned to the Buddhist Society of America in New York City. In 1944 he divorced his wife inLittle Rock, Arkansas,with whom he had been separated for several years. Soon after, on July 10, 1944, Sokei-an marriedRuth Fuller EverettinHot Springs, Arkansas.Sokei-an died on May 17, 1945, after years of bad health.His ashes areinterredatWoodlawn CemeteryinBronx, New York.The Buddhist Society of America underwent a name change following his death in 1945, becoming the First Zen Institute of America.

Teaching style

Sokei-an's primary way of teachingZen Buddhismwas by means ofsanzen,"an interview during which the teacher would set the student akoan"—and hisDharma talkswere often delivered in the form of ateisho.Sokei-an did not provide instruction inzazenor holdsesshinsat the Buddhist Society of America. His primary focus was onkoansandsanzen,relying on theHakuinsystem.According toMary Farkas,"Sokei-an had no interest in reproducing the features of Japanese Zen monasticism, the strict and regimented training that aims at making people 'forget self.' In these establishments, individuality is stamped out, novices move together like a school of fish, their cross-legged position corrected with an ever-ready stick."Sokei-an said: "I am of the Zen sect. My special profession is to train students of Buddhism by the Zen method. Nowadays, there are many types of Zen teachers. One type, for example, teaches Zen through philosophical discourse; another, through so-called meditation; and still another direct from soul to soul. My way of teaching is the direct transmission of Zen from soul to soul."

Miscellaneous

Dwight Goddard (author of "A Buddhist Bible" ) has described Sokei-an as, "being from the autocratic and blunt 'old school' of Zen masters."According to writer Robert Lopez, "Sokei-an lectured on Zen and Buddhism in English. But he communicated the essence of the Buddha’s teaching and in his daily life by his presence alone, in silence, and in a radiance achieved through, as he once said, 'nature’s orders.'"Alan Wattshas said of Sokei-an, "I felt that he was basically on the same team as I; that he bridged the spiritual and the earthy, and that he was as humorously earthy as he was spiritually awakened."In his autobiography, Watts had this to say, "When he began to teach Zen he was still, as I understand, more the artist than the priest, but in the course of time he shaved his head and 'sobered up.' Yet not really. For Ruth was often apologizing for him and telling us not to take him too literally or too seriously when, for example, he would say that Zen is to realize that life is simply nonsense, without meaning other than itself or future purpose beyond itself. The trick was to dig the nonsense, for—as Tibetans say—you can tell the true yogi by his laugh."Zen masterDae Gakhas said, "Sokei-An has a good understanding of Western culture and this, combined with his enlightened perspective, is a trustworthy bridge from Zen in the East to Zen in the West. He finds that place where" East "and" West "no longer exist and articulates this wisdom brilliantly for all beings. A true bodhisattva."

Notable students

• Alan Watts( "He (Watts) left after two weeks frustrated with the koan work he was doing.")
• Mary Farkas
• Ruth Fuller Sasaki
• Samuel L. Lewis

See also

• Buddhism in the United States
• List of Rinzai Buddhists
• Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States

Bibliography

• Delp, Michael (1997).The Coast of Nowhere: Meditations on Rivers, Lakes, and Streams.Wayne State University Press.ISBN0-8143-2711-7.OCLC36942529.
• Farkas, Mary;Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki (1993).The Zen Eye: A Collection of Zen Talks by Sokei-an.Tokyo; New York: Weatherhill.ISBN0-8348-0272-4.OCLC27266361.
• Ford, James Ishmael; James Ishmael Ford (2006).Zen Master Who?: A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen.Wisdom Publications.ISBN0-86171-509-8.OCLC70174891.
• Lachman, Gary (2003).Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius.The Disinformation Company.ISBN0-9713942-3-7.OCLC52384670.
• Lopez, Robert (Spring 1997)."Zen in the Yawn of a Cat: Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki".Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.Archived fromthe originalon May 7, 2006.Retrieved2008-02-29.
• Miller, Timothy (1995).America's Alternative Religions.State University of New York Press.ISBN0-7914-2397-2.OCLC30476551.
• Prebish, Charles S (1999).Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America.University of California Press.pp.32,33, 34.ISBN0-520-21697-0.
• Skinner Keller, Rosemary; Rosemary Radford Ruether; Marie Cantlon (2006).The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America.Indiana University Press.ISBN0-253-34685-1.OCLC61711172.
• Smith, Huston;Philip Novak(2004).Buddhism: A Concise Introduction.HarperCollins.ISBN0-06-073067-6.OCLC57307393.
• Stirling, Isabel (2006).Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki.Shoemaker & Hoard Publishers.ISBN1-59376-110-4.OCLC65165357.
• Tweti, Mira (2007-08-06)."The Sensualist".Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.Archived fromthe originalon 2007-10-31.Retrieved2008-02-29.
• Watts, Alan(2007).In My Own Way: An Autobiography, 1915-1965.New World Library.ISBN978-1-57731-584-1.OCLC84838304.
• Sasaki, Sokei-an Shigetsu (2011). "Excluded Japanese and Exclusionary Americans". In Duus, Peter (ed.).Rediscovering America: Japanese Perspectives on the American Century.University of California Press. pp. 69–76.ISBN978-0520268432.

Further reading

• Farkas, Mary;Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki (1993).The Zen Eye: A Collection of Zen Talks by Sokei-an.Tokyo; New York: Weatherhill.ISBN0-8348-0272-4.OCLC27266361.
• Farkas, Mary; Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki; Robert Lopez (1998).Zen Pivots: Lectures on Buddhism and Zen.New York: Weatherhill.ISBN0-8348-0416-6.OCLC38120661.
• Fields, Rick (1981).How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America.Shambhala Publications/Random House.ISBN0-87773-208-6.OCLC7571910.
• Hotz, Michael; Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki (2003).Holding the Lotus to the Rock: The Autobiography of Sokei-an, America's First Zen Master.New York: Four Walls Eight Windows.ISBN1-56858-248-X.OCLC51203880.
• Sasaki, Sokei-an Shigetsu (1947).Cat's Yawn: The Thirteen Numbers Published from 1940 to 1941.New York: First Zen Institute of America.OCLC21917701.
• Sasaki, Sokei-an Shigetsu (1931).The Story of the Giant Disciples of Buddha; Ananda and Maha-Kasyapa.First Zen Institute of America.OCLC39794012.
• Sasaki, Sokei-an Shigetsu (1931).The Story of the Giant Disciples of Buddha; Ananda and Maha-Kasyapa.First Zen Institute of America.OCLC39794012.

External links

• First Zen Institute of America