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Shodo Harada Roshi was born in 1940 in Nara, Japan. He began his Zen training in 1962 when he entered Shofuku-ji monastery in Kobe, Japan, where he trained under Yamada Mumon Roshi (1900-1988) for twenty years. He was then given dharma transmission (inka) and was subsequently made abbot of Sogenji monastery in Okayama, Japan, where he has taught since 1982.
Harada Roshi (Roshi means "teacher") is heir to the teachings of Rinzai sect Zen Buddhism as passed down in Japan from Hakuin and his successors. Harada Roshi's teaching includes the traditional Rinzai practices of daily sutra chanting, zazen (seated meditation), sanzen (private interviews with the teacher), susokkan (breathing), koan ('past cases') study, samu (work), sesshin (intensive retreats), teisho (lectures by the teacher), and takuhatsu (alms receiving). While the outward appearance of this type of training may seem rigorous and spartan to some, it is important to note that Harada's teaching is formed by deep compassion and permeated by the simple and direct Mahayana doctrine that all beings are endowed with the clear, pure Original Buddha Mind. The purpose of our training is to realize this mind in ourselves and in all other beings.
With this all-embracing view constantly in mind, Harada Roshi has been training people of various backgrounds at Sogenji since 1982 and welcomes serious students (men and women, lay and ordained) from all over the world. Over the past twenty years, he has trained men and women from Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Iran, Greece, Sweden, India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Vietnam, and Japan.
In 1989, Harada Roshi made his first visit to Seattle, where he led a sesshin at the home of one of his senior students. He has returned since then to lead sesshins, at first once and then twice each year, at other locations in Washington state, including Cloud Mountain Retreat Center, Bastyr University, and the Whidbey Institute. Several years ago, as facilities were developed on site, the Roshi began to lead sesshins at Tahoma One Drop Zen Monastery on Whidbey Island, with expectations of increasing his visits to Whidbey Island--and hence the number of sesshins he will lead--to three each year.
The Roshi also visits Europe and/or Asia once each year to lead sesshins and maintain his connection with students there. In past years, he has led sesshins in Denmark, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, and India.
When possible, the Roshi plans to take up permanent residence as the abbot of Tahoma One Drop Zen Monastery on Whidbey Island, at which time the practice and sesshin schedule will be significantly expanded and intensified.
- For sesshin of Harada Roshi check the current events section
One of the foremost men of the Rinzai sect, Yamada Mumon (1900-1988)
was known for his high level of activity and functioning. When he was young
his father wanted him to become a lawyer. In law school he heard that Confucius
had said that rather than learning how to preside over trials, it is better
to make a world where there is no need for trials. When Mumon Roshi heard that,
he knew that becoming a lawyer was not the answer and began to search for a
way to make a world where there is no need for lawyers.
One day he heard that Kawaguchi Ekai, the first Japanese Zen master to enter Tibet, had returned from his travels and went to hear him speak on "The Way of the Bodhisattva." Kawaguchi taught that if we could cover the entire world in soft leather, then we could walk everywhere without ever cutting our feet. But since doing so is impossible, what we can do instead is put soft leather on the bottoms of our own feet, so that everywhere we walk is soft. Likewise, while it is impossible to put a roof over the entire world to keep everyone dry when it rains, if everyone had an umbrella we could all walk anywhere protected from the rain. To save every single person seems to be impossible, but if one person's mind clearly experiences and expresses the truth, then many people will put on the soft shoes of awakening and have an umbrella of living in awakening. This is the way of the Bodhisattva. Even if one person cannot literally liberate all people, each person who realizes the truth will manifest true light and show that possibility of awakening to all people without ceasing. The source point of the awakening of all beings even today is this liberation without ceasing, and the Way of the Bodhisattva remains the true way of liberating all beings.
Mumon Roshi became a student of Kawaguchi Ekai, but in attempting to follow this path with his own body he became very ill with tuberculosis. After living in isolation for several years, on a clear, bright June day he saw a nanten flower and wrote this poem:
All things are embraced
Within the universal mind
Told by the cool wind
This morning.
He was deeply awakened, and with this his body was cured. He went to a sesshin at Empukuji near Kyoto and was able to completely realize his True Nature. He then went to Tenryuji and under Seisetsu Genjo deepened his state of mind until, at the age of fifty-one, he became a master. He went first to teach at Kyoto's Reiunin Temple and then became the master of Shofukuji Temple in Kobe, where he raised many disciples.
During the Second World War, while with Seisetsu Roshi, he visited many places of war, and what he saw left him with deep feelings of repentance. In 1967 he went on pilgrimages to various Southeast Asian countries to apologize to and say sutras for the war dead of all religions, and he taught this posture of repentance to his students as well. Although he knew only a few words of English, he taught many students from abroad and established many strong karmic connections. He traveled to the opening of Dai Bosatsu Zendo in New York State, to the San Francisco Zen Center, to the Mount Baldy Zen Center in California, and to Mexico. He made a pilgrimage to India and at Bodhgaya built a Japanese temple. He went to Europe and opened the East West Spiritual Exchange between Catholicism and Buddhism, himself entering and living in nine contemplative monasteries in Europe, experiencing the life of the monks there. His disciples settled all over Europe, strengthening his extensive karmic ties with the West.
He later became the abbot of Myoshinji and the head of Hanazono College. He was a brilliant scholar and a great master with many disciples, but he never accepted any words of praise; rather he lived his entire life as just one citizen. This was Yamada Mumon Roshi.
by Shodo Harada Roshi
