Oda Sessō (小田雪窓, 1901 – 16 September 1966)Stirling 2006, pg. 50 was a

Rinzai The Rinzai school (, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng), named after Linji Yixuan (Romaji: Rinzai Gigen, died 866 CE) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, along with Sōtō and Ōbaku. The Chinese Linji school of ...

Rōshi (Japanese language, Japanese: "old teacher"; "old master") is a title in Zen Buddhism with different usages depending on sect and country. In Rinzai Zen, the term is reserved only for individuals who have received ''inka shōmei'', meaning the ...

and abbot of the

Daitoku-ji is a Rinzai school Zen Buddhist temple in the Murasakino neighborhood of Kita-ku in the city of Kyoto Japan. Its ('' sangō'') is . The Daitoku-ji temple complex is one of the largest Zen temples in Kyoto, covering more than . In addition to ...

(大徳寺) in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, Japan, a

Dharma Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold ...

successor of

Gotō Zuigan was a Buddhist Rinzai Zen master#Rinzai, Zen master the chief abbot of Myōshin-ji and Daitoku-ji temples, and a past president of Hanazono University of Kyoto, also known as "Rinzai University." Biography Zuigan was influential in the develo ...

. He was elected abbot of Daitoku-ji upon Goto's retirement from that post in 1955. At Goto's request, Oda opened Daitoku-ji to foreigners. His western students included

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...

,Snyder 1980, pp. 97, 98Kraft 1988, p. 20 Janwillem van de Wetering,

Irmgard Schloegl Ven. Myokyo-ni (born Irmgard Schlögl; 29 January 1921 – 29 March 2007) was a Rinzai Zen Buddhist nun and head of the Zen Centre in London. Biography Raised in Leitersdorf im Raabtal, Styria, Austria, Schlögl obtained a Ph.D. degree in ge ...

, and

Philip Yampolsky Philip Boas Yampolsky (October 20, 1920 – July 28, 1996) was an eminent translator and scholar of Zen Buddhism and a former director of the C. V. Starr East Asian Library of Columbia University. A scholar of Chinese and Japanese religious tra ...

. Snyder described him as

Alan Watts Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British and American writer, speaker, and self-styled "philosophical entertainer", known for interpreting and popularising Buddhist, Taoist, and Hinduism, Hindu philosophy for a Wes ...

said, Janwillem van de Wetering gave an account of his stay at

in his book "The empty mirror".

References

Sources

Kraft, Kenneth Kenneth Lewis Kraft (July 16, 1949October 1, 2018) was a professor of Buddhist studies and Japanese religions (emeritus) at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Education Kraft received a B.A. from Harvard University in 1971. He holds a ...

; Morinaga, Sōkō. ''Zen, Tradition and Transition'' (1988) Grove Press. *Kyger, Joanne. ''Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals: 1960-1964'' (2000) North Atlantic Books. *Snyder, Gary. ''The Real Work: Interviews & Talks, 1964-1979'' (1980) New Directions Publishing. *Stirling, Isabel. ''Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki'' (2006) Shoemaker & Hoard.

See also

References

Sources

Further reading