Tetsuo Sōkatsu

Tetsuo Sōkatsu
Religion Buddhism
School Rinzai
Personal
Nationality Japan
Born 1870
Died 1954
Senior posting
Title Zen Master
Predecessor Soyen Shaku
Successor Gotō Zuigan
Koun-an Tatsuta Eizan Roshi
Sokei-an Sasaki

Tetsuo Sōkatsu (1870–1954)[1] was a Japanese Rinzai-master. He was a dharma heir of Soyen Shaku.[2]

Biography

Tetsuo Sokatsu received dharma transmission from Soyen Shaku at the age of 29.[2] There-after he traveled throughout Japan, on "a pilgrimage of great Zen temples".[3] Sokatsu continued his travels outside Japan for two years, visiting Burma, Ceylon and India, wehere he lived with "barefoot sadhus".[3]

Soyen Shaku put him in charge of Ryōbō Kai, and gave him the hermitage-name "Ryobo-an".[2] Sokatsu opened the hermitage for lay-practice, opening up the possibility of dharma transmission to lay practitioners. At the end of World War II Sokatsu closed Ryōbō Kai, but the lay practice was continued by his dharma heir Koun-an Roshi.[2]

In 1906 Sokatsu went to California[1] with a group of fourteen students, including Gotō Zuigan and Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki. He stayed there for four years, Sokei-an Sasaki being the only one to stay in the USA.[3]

Dharma heirs

See also

References

Sources

  • Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005-B), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 2: Japan, World Wisdom Books, ISBN 9780941532907  Check date values in: |date= (help)
  • Fields, Rick (1992), How the Swans Came to the Lake. A Narrative History of Buddhism in America, Boston & London: Shambhala 
  • Ford, James Ishmael (2006), Zen Master Who?: A Guide to the People And Stories of Zen, Wisdom Publications 

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, November 08, 2013. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.