Harada, Sogaku
(On Being a Zen Teacher) "For forty years I have been selling water by the bank of the river." (04/09/2022)
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Harada Daiun Sogaku | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Title | Rōshi |
| Personal life | |
| Born | October 13, 1871 |
| Died | December 12, 1961 (aged 90) |
| Education | Komazawa University |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Zen Buddhism |
| School | Sōtō |
| Senior posting | |
| Successor | Hakuun Yasutani Harada Tangen |
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Daiun Sogaku Harada (原田 大雲祖岳, Harada Daiun Sogaku, October 13, 1871 – December 12, 1961) was a Sōtō Zen monk who trained under both Sōtō and Rinzai teachers. He became known for his teaching combining methods from both schools.[1] The Harada–Yasutani zen lineage founded by his disciple Hakuun Yasutani has become one of the major Zen traditions in the West. He is known as the "Great Cloud".
Biography
[edit]Born in an area known today as Obama, Fukui Prefecture, he entered a Sōtō temple as a novice at age 7 and continued training in temples during his primary and high school years. Haunted by existential questions, at age 20 he entered Shogen-ji, a well-known Rinzai monastery; it is reported that he experienced kensho after two and half years there.[citation needed] In 1901 he graduated from Komazawa University (then Sōtō-shu Daigakurin), the Sōtō university.
He eventually studied under various Sōtō-priests such as Harada Sodo Kakusho,[2] Oka Sotan, Akino Kodo, Adachi Tatsujun, Hoshimi Tenkai, and Rinzai-priests such as Unmuken Taigi Sogon and Kogenshitsu Dokutan Sosan, with whom he completed koan-study. From the years of 1911 to 1923, Harada held a professor position at Soto-shu Daigakurin.
A very strict disciplinarian, he served as abbot at various Sōtō temples throughout Japan: Hosshin-ji, Chisai-in, Bukkoku-ji, Sōji-ji and Chigen-ji. Until almost age 90, he conducted week-long sesshin at Hosshin-ji 6 times a year; he also held sesshin elsewhere.[citation needed]
Harada Roshi's teaching integrated the Rinzai use of Kōan, a practice which was abolished in the Sōtō-school in the 19th century under influence of Gento Sokuchu (1729–1807).[3] He also departed from the Sōtō conventions of his day by training lay persons with monks rather than separately.
A well-known heir in the West is Hakuun Yasutani Rōshi, a Sōtō monk who he also trained in koan study. This led ultimately to the spread of combined Sōtō and Rinzai methods by the Sanbo Kyodan (today Sanbo-Zen International), Zen-community founded by Yasutani which became influential in the West. Harada himself, however, remained within the Sōtō sect. It is often claimed in the West that he received Rinzai inka shomei (dharma transmission) from Dokutan Rōshi; he didn't, as he didn't want to leave the Soto-sect.[note 1]
Harada Rōshi may be viewed as an eclectically talented Sōtō teacher who did not abide by sectarian boundaries in regard to practice method.
Criticism
[edit]Harada has been criticized for his support of the Japanese War-endeavors.[4] A famous quote from Harada, cited in Zen at War, is:
Nonetheless, Japanese support for the war effort is frequently misunderstood by westerners unfamiliar with Japanese history & culture. For example, it is often overlooked that Japanese viewed themselves as “liberating” Asia from western imperialism, a perspective that justified the war in the minds of many Japanese people at the time. Furthermore, anyone familiar with Zen Buddhist history in Japan knows that Zen was hugely associated with traditional Samurai warrior culture… so that the idea of a Zen monk embracing militarism is not as “out of character” as interpreted by Brian Victoria. In fact the above quote by Harada is taken wholly out of the context of the Zen Buddhist world view: that everything is an illusion, and therefore doing “one’s duty” in whatever situation, is free of any moral or ethical judgment; which is still a common cultural outlook in Japan today
Dharma heirs
[edit]Dharma-heirs from Harada Roshi are:[7]
- Hakuun Yasutani Rōshi, founder of Sanbo Kyodan
- Harada Tangen Rōshi Head of Bukkoku-ji temple;
- Ban Tetsugyu Soin Rōshi, Head of Tosho-ji temple in Tokyo;
- Watanabe Genshu, Head of Soji-ji temple among others.
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ * James Ford, The Great Cloud Dies: Recalling Zen Master Daiun Sogaku Harada: "There is debate within the Zen community as to whether he [Daiun Sogaku Harada] actually received dharma transmission from Dokutan Roshi. I was told by Maezumi Roshi that while Dokutan Roshi considered Harada Roshi to have completed all necessary training with him to be an independent master of the koan way, there was no formal transmission. In that time and place such a formal recognition would have also had Harada leave the Soto school, something that he had no desire to do."
* Barry Kaigen McMahon, The Evolution of the White Plum. A short and incomplete history of its founders and their practice: "Maezumi Roshi told Mr. Yu Ohgushi, a Hannya Dojo roommate of mine and frequent visitor to ZCLA, that it was indeed doubtful if Harada ever actually received or accepted dharma transmission from Dokutan Sosan. The reason being that Harada had already received transmission in the Soto school and it would have been religiously/politically incorrect to get it in the Rinzai school at that time. As Maezumi Roshi did receive dharma transmission from Koryu Roshi perhaps it had become a non-issue after the war."
References
[edit]- ^ "About | Sanbo Zen International". Retrieved 2024-10-25.
- ^ Dharma Heirs and Teachers of the Harada-Yasutani school (Edited by Dr T. Matthew Ciolek)
- ^ Heine & Wright 2000, p. 245.
- ^ Victoria 2006.
- ^ Victoria 2006, p. xiv.
- ^ Tiltenberg 2002, p. 41.
- ^ Harada School
Sources
[edit]- Heine, Steven; Wright, Dale S. (2000). The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511748-4. OCLC 41090651.
- Tiltenberg (2002), Zen Without Dirty Hands? Report from a seminar and retreat at De Tiltenberg, Vogelenzang in the Netherlands July 17–22, 2001, Couste Que Couste, ISBN 90-807042-3-7
- Victoria, Brian Daizen (2006), Zen at war (Second ed.), Lanham e.a.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
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The Great Cloud Dies: Recalling Zen Master Daiun Sogaku Harada
Daiun Sogaku Harada died on this day, the 12th of December in 1961.
He was born in Obama, Fukui Prefecture on the 13th of October, 1871. Sogaku was tonsured as a Soto monastic at the age of 7. At twenty he entered the Rinzai monastery, Shogenji, where he had several openings. He also studied at the historic Soto affiliated Komazawa University.
Sogaku Harada received Dharma transmission within the Soto school from Harada Sodo Kakusho.
He taught at Komazawa for twelve years before assuming full time responsibilities as abbot of his own monastery, Hosshinji, which he served for forty years. The monastery was famous for its harsh location on the Japan sea, with as Wikipedia tells us, hard rains, snow storms, and even typhoons.
In his training he studied with a number of Soto & Rinzai masters including Harada Sodo Kakusho, his ordination master, Oka Sotan, Akino Kodo, Adachi Tatsujun, Hoshimi Tenkai, Unmuken Taigi Sogon, and critically Kogenshitsu Dokutan Sosan.
There is debate within the Zen community as to whether he actually received dharma transmission from Dokutan Roshi. I was told by Maezumi Roshi that while Dokutan Roshi considered Harada Roshi to have completed all necessary training with him to be an independent master of the koan way, there was no formal transmission. In that time and place such a formal recognition would have also had Harada leave the Soto school, something that he had no desire to do.
Harada Roshi was a prominent figure within the Soto church. And he has been criticized, and I think justly, for his fervent support of Japanese nationalism in the years running up to and through the Second World War. A caution, I feel, for all of us as we necessarily engage the cultures within which we live.
The Roshi’s most important contribution for us in the West his without a doubt his reformation of the koan training program he had inherited from Dokutan Roshi. His program began in the same way as the Rinzai system he learned, with a dharmakaya koan, almost always Mu.
This was followed by a number of questions deepening insight into the nature of emptiness and our intimate relationship within and as emptiness. Then moving on to a short-course of brief koans that familiarize the student with the nuances of koan introspection practice, introducing standard tropes, and the form of the dance.
After that he continued the normative Rinzai style within the Takujo school, of taking on the tradition book the Gateless Gate and the Blue Cliff Record. After that he diverged from Rinzai practice, substituting two classic Soto koan collections for the two used within Rinzai. And then at the end of the curriculum, he reversed the received order, going first to the Goi koans before “concluding” with the precepts as koan.
There were other modifications, most notably dropping the capping phrase component that had evolved within Rinzai. While, instead, offering occasions to revisit the original use of spontaneous appreciations of particular cases.
This reformed curriculum would become the standard transmitted to the West by the lay community, Sanbo Zen (originally Sanbo Kyodan), and through successor organizations like the Diamond Sangha, Pacific Zen Institute, and Boundless Way. It also was continued through the priestly transmission in the White Plum Asangha. Most likely if one encounters a koan teacher in the West, that person will stand within Harada Roshi’s lineage.
While I received my priestly training and authorization from Houn Jiyu Kennett, it was my training in this koan curriculum with John Tarrant, an heir in this lineage that genuinely opened my heart and allowed me to become the person I am today. I cannot say how much I owe to the Roshi and the tradition that flows from his teachings.
Endless bows…
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