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[This version: 22 July 1993]
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YASUTANI HAKUUN ROSHI - A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

[This document constitutes a verbatim fragment (pages 2-13) of the June 1979
 MA Thesis in Asian Studies, University of California,  Santa Barbara, USA
 by Paul David JAFFE entitled:

"The Shobogenzo Genjokoan by Eihei Dogen, and Penetrating Inquiries into the
 Shobogenzo Genjokoan, a commentary by Yasutani Hakuun"

All copyrights to this document (C) 1979 belong to Paul David Jaffe.

This electronic material by the Coombspapers SSRDB is intended to draw attention
to the existence of P.Jaffe's largely unknown pioneering work and to facilitate
it's eventual printing. It  also hopes to aid scholarship concerning the history
of Zen Buddhism in the West.]
========================================================
[...]

Yasutani Hakuun Roshi (1885-1973) was a fiery and controversial figure in 
20th century Zen Buddhism. He was highly respected for his deep realization 
and compassionate teaching, but was also criticized for his polemical stand 
against "one sided" teachings and his severe manner of expressing himself. 
We can see within a few pages of his writings what seems a strange mixture 
of harsh criticisms of certain teachers as having degraded the Buddha way 
and a sincere gratitude for their efforts in guiding him.

It seems that both his early life and his training under Harada Sogaku Roshi 
(1870-1961) contributed to his synthesis of the practices and insights 
emphasized in the Soto and Rinzai sects respectively. He was especially vocal 
concerning the point of kensho, seeing one's true nature. He spoke more 
openly about it then anyone of his times, going so far as to have a public 
acknowledgement of those who had experienced kensho in a post-sesshin [4] 
ceremony of bowing in gratitude to the three treasures.[5] He was sometimes 
criticized for his overemphasis, but according to Robert Aitken Roshi, a 
successor in Yasutani's lineage, "I think that Yasutani Roshi's hope was that 
people could get a start, and with that start they could deepen and clarify it 
through koan study. I think that actually Yasutani Roshi placed less 
emphasis on kensho than the people who are criticizing him, because the 
people who are criticizing him are regarding kensho as some sort of be-all 
and end-all, and he didn't look at it in that way at all." [6]

Yasutani was so outspoken because he felt that the Soto sect in which he 
trained emphasized the intrinsic, or original aspect of enlightenment--that 
everything is nothing but Buddha-nature itself--to the exclusion of the 
experiential aspect of actually awakening tothis original enlightenment. His 
dharma successor, Yamada Koun Roshi, has written, "His main purpose was to 
propagate the indispensable place of kensho, Realization of the Way, in Zen." 
[7]  On the other hand, he criticized the tendency in the Rinzai sect to become 
attached to levels and rankings,- and of absolutizing the efficacy of koans 
without adequate regard to the realization of emptiness, to which many of 
the koans point.

In 1954, some ten years after his dharma transmission, and after certain 
post-war restrictions were lifted, Yasutani established his organization as an 
independent school of Zen. The group, Sambokyodan (Fellowship of the 
Three Treasures), broke with the Soto school in which he was ordained, 
asserting a position of direct connection with Dogen and no longer 
recognizing the authority of the sect's ecclesiastical leaders. Such an action 
had been strongly advocated by his teacher Harada Sogaku. [8]

Yasutani Hakuun Roshi's early background sheds some interesting light on 
his subsequent development. There is a miraculous story about his birth: His 
mother had already decided that her next son would be a priest when she was 
given a bead off a rosary by a nun who instructed her to swallow it for a safe 
childbirth. When he was born his left hand was tightly clasped around that 
same bead. By his own reckoning, "your life . . . flows out of time much 
earlier than what begins at your own conception. Your life seeks your 
parents." [9] "It is as if I jumped right into this situation since while I was 
still in her womb my mother was contemplating my priesthood." [10] When 
he studied biology in school this story seemed ridiculous, but later he wrote, 
"Now, practicing the Buddha Way more and more, understanding many more 
channels of the Buddha Way, I realize that it is not so strange but quite 
natural. My mother wanted me to become a priest, and because I was 
conceived in that wish and because I too desired the priesthood, the juzu 
[rosary bead] expressed that karmic relation. There is, indeed, a powerful 
connecting force between events. We may not understand it scientifically, 
but spiritually we know it is so." [11] So, in time he came to fully accept this
story and treat it as a concrete symbol of "his deep Dharma affinity." [12]

The family he was born into was quite poor; he was adopted by another 
family when he was very young. At the age of five he was sent to a country 
temple named Fukuji-in near Numazu city. His head was shaved, and he was 
educated by the abbot, Tsuyama Genpo. His training at this time was very 
strict and meticulous, but also very loving, and left a deep impression on him 
throughout his life. At the age of eleven he moved to a nearby temple, 
Daichuji, which like Fukuju-in belonged to the Rinzai sect. After a fight with 
an older student, however, he was forced to leave. When later he was placed 
in another temple, this time it was one of the Soto sect, Teishinji, and it was 
here that he became a monk of the Soto sect under the priest Yasutani Ryogi, 
from whom he took his name. At the age of sixteen he went to study under 
Nishiari Bokusan Zenji (1821-1910) at Denshinji in Shimada, Shizuoka 
prefecture and served as his attendent. Nishiari was well-known both for 
having served as the leader of the Soto sect, and for his Shobogenzo keiteki 
(The Opening Way of the Shobogenzo). [13]  The Keiteki is a record of his 
lectures on twenty-nine chapters of the Shobogenzo and is generally 
considered an important and authoritative work. In the preface of the work 
here partially translated (Shobogenzo sankyu: Genjokoan) Yasutani says of 
this Keiteki:

However, beginning with Nishirari Zenji's Keiteki, I have examined closely 
the commentaries on the Shobogenzo of many modern people, and though it 
is rude to say it, they have failed badly in their efforts to grasp its main 
points. . . .
It goes without saying that Nishiari Zenji was a priest of great learning and 
virtue, but even a green priest like me will not affirm his eye of satori. . . .
. . . the resulting evil of his theoretical
Zen became a significant source of later events.
. . . So it is my earnest wish, in place of Nishiari Zenji, to correct to some 
degree the evil which he left, in order to requite his benevolence, and that 
of his disciples, which they have extended over many years.[14]

Further, he tells us that during this period of his life, when he was sixteen or
seventeen, he had two questions. The first was why neither Nishiari Zenji 
nor his disciples gave clear guidance concerning kensho when it was 
obvious from the ancient writings that all the patriarchs experienced it. The 
second concerned what happens after death. He was unable to receive clear 
answers or come to an understanding.

Through his twenties and thirties Yasutani Roshi continued his training 
with several other Buddhist priests. He also furthered his education, going to 
a teacher training school and then beginning a ten year career as an 
elementary school teacher and principal. At thirty he married and started 
raising a family which was to produce five children.

In 1925, at the age of forty, he returned to his vocation as a Buddhist priest. 
Soon after, he was appointed as a Specially Dispatched Priest for the 
Propagation of the Soto sect, travelling around giving lectures. "However," 
he wrote in 1952 in the epilogue to Shushogi Sanka (Song-in Praise of the 
Shushogi), [15] "I was altogether a blind fellow, and my mind was not yet at 
rest. I was at a peak of mental anguish. When I felt I could not endure 
deceiving myself and others by untrue teaching and irresponsible sermons 
any longer, my karma opened up and I was able to meet my master Daiun 
Shitsu, Harada Sogaku Roshi. The light of a lantern was brought to the dark 
night, to my profound joy." [16]

Harada Roshi was a Soto priest, educated at the Soto sect's Komazawa 
University. His sincere searching brought him to study with Toyota Dokutan 
Roshi (1841-1919), abbot of Nanzenji, the head temple of the branch of Rinzai 
Zen known by the same name. After completing koan study and becoming a 
dharma successor, Harada became abbot of Hosshinji, a Soto temple, 
transforming it into a rigorous and lively training center. [17]

Yasutani Roshi sat his first sesshin with Harada Roshi in 1925 and two years 
later at the age of forty-two was recognized as having attained kensho. Some 
ten years later he finished his koan study and then, at the age of fifty-eight, 
received dharma transmission from Harada Roshi on April 8, 1943. [18]
Yasutani Roshi's career as a Zen teacher was devoted and single-minded. He 
was head of a training hall for monks for a short while, but gave it up and 
applied his efforts primarily toward the training of lay practitioners. His 
years leading a family life and working as an educator no doubt both 
influenced him in this direction and prepared him for the task. During the 
next thirty years he held over three hundred sesshins, led numerous regular 
zazen meetings, and lectured widely. In addition, he left almost one hundred 
volumes of writings. [19]

Already in his late seventies, Yasutani Roshi first travelled to the United 
States in 1962, at the instigation of some of his American students. He held 
sesshins in over half a dozen cities, and due to an enthusiastic response made 
six more visits continuing through 1969. He has exerted a profound 
influence on the budding American Zen tradition through direct contact 
with many students and through his relationships with several of the 
leading Zen teachers in America today. Yasutani has also become widely 
known and indirectly influenced many people through the book Three 
Pillars of Zen, compiled by Phillip Kapleau and published in 1965. It contains 
a short biographical section on Yasutani Roshi and also his "Introductory 
Lectures on Zen Training," "Commentary on the Koan Mu," and the somewhat 
unorthodox printing of his dokusan interviews with ten western 
students.[20]

Kapleau was the first westerner to study with Yasutani Roshi. This was in 
1956 after Kapleau had studied for three years at Hosshinji under the 
guidance of Harada Roshi. After some twenty sesshin with Yasutani, the 
Roshi confirmed Kapleau's kensho experience which is one of the cases set 
down in Three Pillars. It was Kapleau who first suggested to Yasutani Roshi 
that he visit America. In 1966 Kapleau founded the Rochester Zen Center, 
which now has several hundred students in Rochester as well as several 
affiliated sitting groups in Canada, the United States and Europe. [21]

Another of Yasutani's early American students was Robert Aitken, who first 
sat with him in 1957. Aitken's steadily deepening interest in and practice of 
Zen started when he was picked up off Guam by the Japanese during the 
Second World War, and found himself in the same internment camp as R. H. 
Blyth, the author of Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics. Aitken, 
along with Kapleau, was instrumental in arranging Yasutani's original 
journey to the U.S. and on that and subsequent trips through 1969 hosted him 
for sesshins at Koko-an, his small Zen center in Honolulu, and in 1969 at the 
newly established Maui Zendo. Aitken says of Yasutani, his only teacher 
during this period, "He devoted himself fully to us. We felt from him the 
importance of intensive study, of dedication and also something of 
lightness." Aitken further characterizes- him as "like a feather but still full 
of passion," and having "a ready laugh."[22]  Aitken studied further with 
Yasutani Roshi and his successor Yamada Koun and received transmission 
from Yamada in 1974, making him the first westerner to become a dharma 
successor in the Yasutani/Harada lineage. Aitken Roshi's Diamond Sangha 
now includes two practice centers in Hawaii and about 100 students, and he 
periodically conducts sesshin in Tacoma, Washington; Nevada City, 
California; and Australia.

Eido Tai Shinamo (1932-   ) first met Yasutani Roshi in 1962 when he was a 
young monk who had spent about two years in Hawaii. [23]  His own teacher 
Nakagawa Soen Roshi took him to meet Yasutani one day. Soen Roshi was 
planning a trip to the U.S. and invited Yasutani to join him, which he agreed 
to do. Then he invited Eido to go along also. Shortly before the trip Soen 
Roshi cancelled his plans due to the illness of his mother. Eido was left to 
accompany Yasutani as his attendant and translator. The following year Eido 
again accompanied Yasutani to America and they continued on around the 
world together. On Soen's request Yasutani guided Eido in his koan study. 
Later Eido wrote, "During his seven times teaching pilgrimage, from the 
very beginning to the end, I was fortunate enough to serve him as an 
attendant monk and as an interpreter. I received great teaching from him in 
many ways."[24] "He was a brilliant master."[25] Eido Roshi, who received 
dharma transmission from Soen Roshi in 1972, is now the leader of the New 
York Zendo in Manhattan and the Dai Bosatsu Zendo in the Catskill mountains 
of New York state, and has affiliate groups in Washington D.C., Boston and 
Philadelphia. Altogether some 300 students are guided by Eido Roshi.

Maezumi Taizan Roshi, who came to America in 1956, has become a dharma 
successor of Yasutani. Originally having come to the United States to serve in 
the Soto Zen Mission in Los Angeles, it was here in 1962 that Maezumi first 
met Yasutani Roshi. Maezumi, a young priest at the time, had, perhaps, a 
particular affinity with Yasutani. In addition to having been born into, 
raised, educated and trained in the Sotc tradition, he had also done koan study 
with Osaka Koryu Roshi, a lay master in the Rinzai school. When Yasutani 
Roshi came to Los Angeles, Maezumi started to do koan study with him. 
Between Yasutani's several trips to America and Maezumi's trips to Japan to 
continue his study, the two developed their relationship further. On
December 7, 1970, Maezumi received the seal of dharma succession. Since he 
is also a dharma successor of Kuroda Hakujun Roshi in the Soto tradition, and 
Osaka Koryu Roshi in the Rinzai tradition, Maezumi Roshi holds a unique 
position.

At the Zen Center of Los Angeles which was founded by Maezumi in 1966, 
Yasutani Roshi's approach of integrating the emphasis of the Soto and Rinzai 
schools seems to be taking root in America. The fact that this community of 
about 100 people affords the possibility of a family-based practice also 
reflects, in part, Yasutani Roshi's emphasis on lay practice. The community 
includes several families with children; there is even a cooperatiye child 
care program. The Zen Center of Los Angeles has over 200 members who 
practice under the guidance of Maezumi Roshi.

This background of Yasutani Roshi's role in Zen Buddhism shows him to be 
an important figure in transplanting it to a new continent.

[....]

NOTES

[... Notes 1-3 have been omitted from this document... - the Coombspapers]


4 	Sesshin ***ideographs*** is a fixed period of intensive practice of 
	zazen. In Japan five days or a week is the most common length of time.

5 	Three treasures (Skt.: triratna; J.: sambo): Buddha, dharma and sangha. 
	In Zen the three terms are also taken respectively as symbols of 
	oneness, multiplicity and the harmony between the two.

6 	Rick Fields, Buddhist America, unpublished manuscript in progress.

7 	Koun Yamada, "The Stature of Yasutani Hakuun Roshi," in Eastern 
	Buddhist, n.s., 7.2 	(1974): 119.

8 	Ibid., 120.

9 	Hakuun Yasutani "My Childhood," trans. by Taizan Maezumi from Zen 
	and Life (Fukuoka: Shukosha, 1969). in ZCLA Journal, 3.3 & 4 (1973): 34.

10 	Ibid., 32.

11 	Ibid., 32-34.

12 	Yamada, "Stature," 118.

13 	Nishiari Bokusan ***ideographs***,	 Shobogenzo keiteki 
	***ideographs*** ed. by Kurebayashi Kodo ***ideographs***, 3 vols. 
	(Tokyo: Daihorinkaku, 1965).

14 	Yamada, "Stature," 116-117.

15	 Shushogi ***ideographs*** is an anthology of selections from 
	Dogen's writings compiled in 1890 for use by followers of the Sot8 
	school.

16 	Yamada, "Stature," 109.

17 	Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi and Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, The Hazy 
	Moon of Enlightenment (Los Angeles: Center Publications, 1978), p. 
	194.

18	 Japanese Buddhists celebrate the Buddha's birthday on April 8.

19 	Tetsugyu Ban, "Dharma Words," in ZCLA Journal, 3.3 & 4 (1973): 26.

20 	Dokusan ***ideographs*** is a formal, private interview between the 
	master and the student, usually conducted during periods of zazen.

21 	Figures for students in this section are necessarily rough. I have 
	gathered information primarily from conversation with members of 
	these various centers.

22 	Personal interview, May 8, 1979.

23 	The relationship between Eido and Yasutani is described in Nyogen 
	Senzaki, Soen Nakagawa and Eido Shimano, Namu Dai Bosa (New York: 
	Theatre Arts Books, 1976), pp. 182-188.

24 	Mui Shitsu Eido,"White Cloud," in ZCLA Journal, 3.3 & 4 (1973): 50.

25 	Ibid., 51.
"
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