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Resident teacher in Hokuozan Sogenji Monastery:

Taikan ShoE

Shodo Harada Roshi

One of five Dharma successors of Yamada Mumon Roshi (one the most important modern Zen masters of the Rinzai school). Shodo (Correct Path) Harada Roshi began to practice in 1962 at the age of 22 years in the Shofukuji Monastery in Kobe, Japan. He received permission to teach in 1982, and became abbot of Sogenji in Okayama, Japan where he has primarily taught foreigners. He has disciples and Zen groups in many different countries and also holds Sesshins in Europe, India and The United States of America.

Yamada Mumon Roshi (1900 – 1988)

When he was young, his father expected him to became a lawyer. However, when he started his education, he heard Confucius’ statement: "Rather than lawyers it is better to create a world where no lawyers are necessary." When the young Yamada MuMon Roshi heard this, it became clear to him that the work of a lawyer would not satisfy him. Therefore he began his search for a satisfying path.

One day he heard that Kawaguchi Ekai had returned from a journey to Tibet. He had been the first Japanese Zen Master to go Tibet and now he would hold a talk on "The Way of the Bodhisattvas". Kawaguchi Ekai taught that we could not cover the whole world with soft leather, however if we had shoes on our feet, we could go everywhere constantly walking on leather. He also said that while it is impossible to put a roof over the whole world to protect us from rain, if we all had one umbrella, everybody would be able to protect themselves from the rain. So although it seems to be impossible to free every single person from suffering, if one has experienced the end of suffering themselves, other people will be inspired by this, and they too will aspire to wear the leather shoes and carry the umbrella of enlightenment. This is the Way of the Bodhisattvas. Even if a single person cannot free the whole of humanity they can show its possibility and manifest the true light.

Yamada Mumon Roshi became a pupil of Kawaguchi Ekai but his intense and austere practice of Zen caused him to fall ill with tuberculosis. He lived for many years in isolation waiting for the end when, one sunny day in June, he saw a Nanten flower, and he had an awakening.

He wrote this poem:

All things are embraced by this universal mind

The chill wind spoke of it to me this morning.

His body was also cured. To further deepen this realization of his true Buddha Nature he entered Empukuji for a number of years before moving on to Tenryuji where he continued to work on his understanding of the Buddha Mind until the age of 51 years under Seisetsu Genjo Roshi before starting to teach as the Zen Master of Shofukuji in Kobe.

During the Second World War he saw much suffering and this touched him deeply. From 1967 he made yearly pilgrimages to many South Asian countries to apologize for the actions of the Japanese during the war, reading Sutras for the war dead of all races and religions. He also passed the responsibility for this remorse on to his pupils.

Yamada Mumon Roshi was very active in his life. He taught many foreign pupils, took part in the opening ceremony of the Daibosatsu Zendo in New York State, visited the Mount Baldy Zen centre in California, traveled to Mexico and also India where he built a Japanese temple in Bodhgaya, the place of the Buddha’s Enlightenment. In Europe he helped initiate the East - West spiritual exchange between Christianity and Buddhism.

Later he became the abbot of Reiunin, the Kansho-san (head abbot) of the Myoshinji branch of the Rinzai sect, and the headmaster of the Hanazono college. He was an excellent scholar and a great master with many pupils, yet he still lived to the end of his life as a simple monk, living and giving each minute for other people.