Shōhaku Okumura
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Shōhaku Okumura (, born June 22, 1948) is a
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
Sōtō Zen Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dòngshān ...
priest and the founder and
abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...
of the Sanshin Zen Community located in
Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...
, where he and his family currently live. From 1997 until 2010, Okumura also served as director of the Sōtō Zen Buddhism International Center in
San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, which is an administrative office of the Sōtō school of Japan.


Biography

Shōhaku Okumura was born in
Osaka, Japan is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 ...
in 1948. He received his education at Komazawa University in
Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, where he studied
Zen Buddhism Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), an ...
. On December 8, 1970, Okumura was ordained at
Antaiji is a Buddhist temple that belongs to the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism. It is located in the town of Shin'onsen, Mikata District, in northern Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, where it sits on about 50 hectares of land in the mountains, close to a ...
by his teacher
Kōshō Uchiyama was a Sōtō priest, origami master, and abbot of Antai-ji near Kyoto, Japan. Uchiyama was author of more than twenty books on Zen Buddhism and origami, of which ''Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice'' is best kno ...
, where he practiced until Uchiyama retired in 1975. Following Uchiyama's wishes, Okumura traveled to the United States where he co-founded Valley Zendo in
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
and continued Uchiyama's style of
zazen ''Zazen'' (literally " seated meditation"; ja, 座禅; , pronounced ) is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. However, the term is a general one not unique to Zen, and thus technicall ...
practice there until 1981. In that year, he returned to Japan and began translating the writings of Uchiyama and Eihei Dōgen from
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
into
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
. He spent some time teaching at Kyoto Sōtō Zen Center. After returning to the United States, Okumura was a teacher at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1993 to 1996 and then founded the Sanshin Zen Community in 1996. Okumura's daughter, Yoko Okumura, made a short documentary film entitled ''Sit'' described as "a film about purpose in life, seen through the eyes of a Buddhist monk and his son." The film explores parts of Okumura's way of thinking, how his views affected his parenting and the results this had on Yoko and her brother Masaki,with a strong focus on Masaki.


Teaching

Okumura attributes his desire to become a Buddhist to the discovery of a book while he was in high school called ''Self'' (, ) by
Kōshō Uchiyama was a Sōtō priest, origami master, and abbot of Antai-ji near Kyoto, Japan. Uchiyama was author of more than twenty books on Zen Buddhism and origami, of which ''Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice'' is best kno ...
, who would become his teacher not long after. After Okumura became a teacher in his own right, his message remained much the same as Uchiyama's and is centered around the practice of
zazen ''Zazen'' (literally " seated meditation"; ja, 座禅; , pronounced ) is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. However, the term is a general one not unique to Zen, and thus technicall ...
, largely to the exclusion of other rituals associated with the tradition. Okumura also focuses on the translation of the works of Eihei Dōgen and associated texts into English, as well as aiding his students in the study of such writings. His practice of zazen is built on what Uchiyama called "
sesshin A ''sesshin'' (接心, or also 摂心/攝心 literally "touching the heart-mind") is a period of intensive meditation (zazen) in a Zen monastery. While the daily routine in the monastery requires the monks to meditate several hours a day, d ...
without toys.” These sesshins of three, five, or seven days are completely silent and consist of fourteen hours of zazen each day, punctuated only by meals and sleep in the evening. There are no services, chants, or work periods. These alternate with " retreats", which are five days of intensive study of one or more fascicles of Dōgen's collection of writings called the ''
Shōbōgenzō is the title most commonly used to refer to the collection of works written in Japan by the 13th century Buddhist monk and founder of the Sōtō Zen school, Eihei Dōgen. Several other works exist with the same title (see above), and it is som ...
''. He has published several translations of material previously unavailable in English such as ''Dōgen’s Pure Standards for the Zen Community'' and ''
Eihei Kōroku ''Eihei Kōroku'' (), also known by its English translation ''Dōgen's Extensive Record'', is a ten volume collection of works by the Sōtō Zen monk Eihei Dōgen. The bulk of the text, accounting for volumes one through seven, are "Dharma hall d ...
'', both with
Taigen Dan Leighton Taigen Dan Leighton (born 1950, grew up in Pittsburgh, PA) is a Sōtō priest and teacher, academic, and author. He is an authorized lineage holder and Zen teacher in the tradition of Shunryū Suzuki and is the founder and Guiding Teacher of Ancien ...
.


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *


See also

* Buddhism in Japan * Buddhism in the United States *
Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States Below is a timeline of important events regarding Zen Buddhism in the United States. Dates with "?" are approximate. Events Early history * 1893: Soyen Shaku comes to the United States to lecture at the World Parliament of Religions held in ...


References


External links


Sanshin Zen Community
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okumura, Shohaku Komazawa University alumni Zen Buddhism writers Buddhist translators People from Osaka Prefecture Soto Zen Buddhists Zen Buddhist abbots 1948 births Living people Japanese Zen Buddhists American Zen Buddhists American Buddhist monks