Abstract
In the first half of the twentieth century, long before most Americans had heard of Zen Buddhism, Shigetsu Sasaki (1882–1945), using his ordination name of Sokei-an, taught a small group of New Yorkers to sit silently in meditation and to empty their minds. His goal was to bring Buddha’s teaching to the people of the United States even though he believed the time was not right and the people were not ready. Sasaki found himself in this unlikely, but rather Zen-like, position as a result of the travels of an earlier Zen master, Soyen Shaku (1859–1919). Soyen, after two trips to the United States, told a former student of his to gather a group of followers and go to California to open a zendo (Zen center). Sasaki was one of those followers.
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Notes
Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki, Cat’s Yawn: The Thirteen Numbers Published from 1940 to 1941, Facsimile (New York: First Zen Institute of America, 1947), 19.
Isabel Stirling, Zen Pioneer: The Life and Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki (Berkeley, CA: Shoemaker Hoard, 2006), 20.
Rick Fields, How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America, 3rd ed. (Boston: Shambhala, 1992), 175.
James Ishmael Ford, Zen Master Who? A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen (Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2006), 62.
Michael Hotz, Holding the Lotus to the Rock: The Autobiography of Sokei-an, America’s First Zen Master (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003), 131.
Mary Farkas, “Introduction,” The Zen Eye: A Collection of Zen Talks by Sokei-an, Sokei-an (Shigetsu Sasaki) (New York: Weatherhill, 1994), xiv; Hotz, Holding the Lotus, 9.
Robert Lopez, “Introduction,” Zen Pivots: Lectures on Buddhism and Zen, Sokei-An (Shigetsu Sasaki) (New York: Weatherhill, 1998), 17.
Shigetsu Sasaki, “Preface,” Saraba Nihon Yo (Farewell to Japan), unpublished trans. Akiko Yamanaka, 2009 (Tokyo: Hakata Seishou-dou, 1922).
Shigetsu Sasaki, “Mixed Marriage” in Beikoku Wo Horo Shite (Vagabond in America), unpublished translation by Akiko Yamanaka, 2009 (Tokyo: Nippon Hyouron-sha, 1921).
Sokei-an, The Zen Eye: A Collection of Talks by Sokei-an, ed. Mary Farkas (New York: Weatherhill, 1994), 85–88Ngot, 91.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self Reliance,” The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, centenary ed., vol. 2 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1903), 43–90.
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© 2014 Anne R. Richards and Iraj Omidvar
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Milstead, C. (2014). Shigetsu Sasaki: Zen Vagabond in the United States. In: Richards, A.R., Omidvar, I. (eds) Historic Engagements with Occidental Cultures, Religions, Powers. Postcolonialism and Religions. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137405029_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137405029_12
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