Gyomay Kubose (June 21, 1905–March 29, 2000), born Masao Kubose was a Japanese-American Buddhist teacher. In 1944, after leaving the Heart Mountain internment camp, he founded the Chicago Buddhist Church, later renamed the

Buddhist Temple of Chicago The Buddhist Temple of Chicago (BTC) was founded in October 1944 by Gyomay Kubose, a minister of the Higashi Honganji branch of the Jōdo Shinshū ("True Pure Land School") sect, along with several laypeople who had been released from the Japanes ...

Early Life

Although born in the United States, he spent a large amount of his youth in Japan. After graduating from

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

, Kubose moved back to Japan where, for five years, he studied under his spiritual instructor

Haya Akegarasu was a Shin Buddhist priest in Ōtani-ha. For a decade he was a student of the Shin reformer Kiyozawa Manshi. Akegarasu was also a former head of administration of the Higashi Hongan-ji who was a major inspiration to the formation of the Doboka ...

, who was in turn a student of

Kiyozawa Manshi was a Japanese Shin Buddhist reformer and priest of samurai background who studied at Tokyo University in Western philosophy under the American philosopher Ernest Fenollosa.Popular Buddhism In Japan: Shin Buddhist Religion & Culture by Esben A ...

, a Meiji-era reformer of

Shin Buddhism Shin may refer to: Biology * The front part of the human leg below the knee * Shinbone, the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates Names * Shin (given name) (Katakana: シン, Hiragana: しん), a Japanese g ...

Buddhist Ideas

Kubose was a

non-sectarian Nonsectarian institutions are secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group. Academic sphere Examples of US universities that identify themselves as being nonsectarian include Adelp ...

Buddhist and followed Kiyozawa's message that

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

should be implemented as a personal voyage, and not merely a communal tradition as it had become prior to the Meiji era. He also extended a great amount of influence in North America, and traveled much of the United States on his lecture tours. In addition to founding one of the first non-sectarian Buddhist temples in America, he also established the American Buddhist Association, the Buddhist Educational Centre in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Scouting Clubs, and many among other groups. Rev. Gyomay was a pioneer in American Buddhism, preaching Pureland Dharma while also conducting Zen meditation sessions. Returning to Japan in 1966, he attended

Ōtani University is a private Buddhist university in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan. Ōtani University is a coeducation institution with an emphasis on Buddhist studies. A two-year private junior college is associated with the university. The university is associated wit ...

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

for three years, pursuing special studies in Buddhism. Rev. Gyomay extended the Buddhist ideal that duality is an illusion created by egotism, and that primordially everything is Oneness. Many of his lectures and teachings focus upon this, using a juxtaposition that oneness and individuality can coexist, provided one does not allow the ego to get in the way. Another focus of his was the extension of Kiyozawa's message, that Buddhism should be a personal experience and it is not sufficient to merely attend temple services and recite sutras. The experience must come from within, or there is no substance. To that end, Kubose placed the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

in the same field as

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

, in that Buddhism should be regarded as a philosophy first, and a religion second. Philosophy is something a person contemplates anew, and while one may rely on the teachings of a religious tradition, the deeply personal practice of realizing Oneness and thereby

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

must be one’s own. He published several books of his own Dharma writings, including ''Everyday Suchness'' and ''The Center Within'', published collaborative works with other authors, and also published English translations of Japanese Buddhist texts, such as those by

with his own accompanying commentary.

Legacy

Gyomay Kubose’s son, Koyo Kubose, was named his spiritual successor in 1998. Rev. Koyo later founded Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism to carry on the Dharma legacy of his father, a center which has thus far trained approximately one hundred non-sectarian Buddhist ministers.

Works

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External links

References

1905 births 2000 deaths 20th-century Buddhists American Buddhists American Buddhist spiritual teachers American people of Japanese descent American writers of Japanese descent Buddhist writers Buddhist translators Japanese-American internees Japanese Buddhists Pure Land Buddhism University of California, Berkeley alumni {{Buddhism-bio-stub