Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Buddhist
Recalling Daiun Sogaku Harada & the New Koan Way

Recalling Daiun Sogaku Harada & the New Koan Way

Last updated on: December 13, 2021 at 6:32 pm by James Ford

Recalling Daiun Sogaku Harada & the New Koan Way 2021-12-13T18:32:11-08:00 James Ford

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Daiun Sogaku Harada died on this day, the 12th of December in 1961.

He is a central figure in the establishment of what would become my spiritual path. And, for many more as well, both in Japan and eventually in the West.

The roshi was born in Obama, Fukui Prefecture on the 13th of October, 1871. He was tonsured as a Soto monastic at seven. At twenty, although Soto, he entered the Rinzai monastery Shogenji. There he had several openings into the intimate way. He also undertook academic studies at the historic Soto affiliated Komazawa University.

Sogaku Harada received Dharma transmission within the Soto school from Harada Sodo Kakusho.

Starting in 1911, he taught at Komazawa University for twelve years before assuming full time responsibilities as abbot of his own monastery, Hosshinji. He served there 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. And more importantly the rigorous practice.

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. And also, justly, he was recognized as an eclectic and creative teacher drawing on aspects of both the Rinzai and Soto traditions both in his own training, and later leading his own community.

In his formation he studied with a number of Soto & Rinzai masters including Harada Sodo Kakusho, his ordination master, but also Oka Sotan, Akino Kodo, Adachi Tatsujun, Hoshimi Tenkai, Unmuken Taigi Sogon, and critically Kogenshitsu Dokutan Sosan. This broad and deep training is the most important thing. He taught from the perspectives he gained working with these teachers from both of the great lineage traditions of Japanese Zen.

And there’s a lacuna. There is an ongoing debate within the Zen community as to whether he received dharma transmission from Dokutan Roshi, this principle Rinzai teacher, or even whether instead he received his teacher’s blessing to teach with koans.

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, and he informally blessed Harada’s using koans in his own teaching, there was no formal transmission. In that time and place, according to Maezumi Roshi, such a formal recognition would have also had Harada leave the Soto school. This was something that Harada had no desire to do.

On the other hand I’ve conversed with several people who practice within Rinzai lineages who flatly deny either a formal transmission or even an informal permission. On the other hand the Sanbo Zen community states unequivocally that Harada Roshi received Inka, full transmission from Dokutan Roshi. Until very recently, including recorded in an earlier version of this reflection, I felt that Maezumi Roshi’s version was likely the correct one.

However, I’ve been forced to reassess. The Zen priest Dosho Port reports that a direct successor to Harada Roshi, Harada Tangen Roshi, told him unequivocally that Dokutan gave Harada Inka. For the reasons stated above it was a private ceremony, but it wasn’t informal, or a general blessing, it was Inka, just not recorded within the Rinzai institution. Second, another of Harada Roshi’s heirs, Hakuun Yasutani has publicly stated the same thing. Informal and private and blessing are complicated words, of course.

Beyond that Harada Roshi gave Inka to fourteen of his students. For someone with his reputation for rigorous honesty, it seems highly unlikely he would have offered this without having received it himself. And, finally, tipping whatever lingering doubts I might have had, in his old age, Dokutan Roshi had his purple okesa delivered to Harada Roshi.

For the whole of his life Harada Roshi was a committed practitioner, teacher, and even professor within the Soto church. For years he guided Hosshinji, a monastery considered a fiery furnace guiding people into the depths of the intimate way. His lineage has produced exciting and creative teachers. No doubt.

The bottom line. He was the real deal. And his legacy continues.

The Roshi’s most important contribution for us in the West without a doubt is his reformation of the koan training program he had inherited from Dokutan Roshi. His program began in the same way as the Rinzai Takuju system he learned, with a dharmakaya koan, almost always Mu. This koan and what it points to is deeply investigated.

From Mu the student moves on to a short-course of brief koans that familiarize them with the nuances of koan introspection practice, introducing standard tropes, and the form of the dance.

After that Harada’s system continued the normative Takuju style investigating the Gateless Gate and the Blue Cliff Record. After that he diverged from Rinzai practice, substituting two classic Soto koan collections, the Book of Equanimity and Keizan’s Transmission of the Lamp for those used within orthodox 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.

While I don’t think this could have been his intention, this slightly modified curriculum Harada created made it relatively easy to transmit a curricular koan practice to the West. The lack of formal capping phrases in the system meant one did not need to have a familiarity with East Asian literary tags in addition to the deepening of the eye that the curriculum otherwise guided people toward. This also practically meant one could “conclude,” and please note the quotes around conclude, formal koan study within five or ten years, or even less if living full time in a monastery from the initial insight.

If, and this I fervently believe, formal training can only create a journeyman practitioner and teacher, and only the world and the dance of life can create someone worthy of a term like “master,” then what Harada Roshi created was a sufficient training model to allow this ancient practice of koan introspection, and specifically the uniquely Japanese curricular koan system, to move across cultures. And along the way this amazing gift of koan introspection is transmitted, people are awakened, teachers emerge, along with saints, sages, and masters. And along with various sinners and the odd rogue or two…

And, indeed, his reformed curriculum would become the standard transmitted to the West by the lay community, Sanbo Zen (originally Sanbo Kyodan), Rochester Zen lineage, Diamond Sangha, Pacific Zen Institute, Open Source, Vine of Obstacles, Empty Sky, the White Plum Asangha, Boundless Way, and Empty Moon. To begin a list…

The bottom line of it is, that most likely if one encounters a koan teacher in the West, that person will stand within Harada Roshi’s lineage. I would go a bit farther out on the limb and suggest if the Zen way takes root here in the West, something I’m no longer completely confident will happen, but if it survives the coming great die off of my generation, that Zen will be profoundly marked by this koan discipline.

I cannot say how much I owe to Harada Roshi and the tradition that flows from his teachings.

With many others, I can say it opened the intimate way for me.

I can never repay this kind gift.

And so…

Endless bows…

Uncategorized

Previous Post

December 11, 2021

Doubt & Faith: A Zen Meditation

Next Post

December 14, 2021 Recalling John of the Cross: Mystic of the Dark Night

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Christmas Carol Abolitionist African-American Ahmadiyya Alan Watts Aldous Huxley Allen Ginsberg Amedkar Jayanti American politics American Zen Anaheim Zen Sangha Anglican Annie Besant April Fool Armageddon Art and Religion artificial intellegence Atheist Awakening B R Ambedkar Barlaam & Josaphat Beatnik Between Bhagavad Gita Bible biography birthday bodhisattva Bodhisattva Precepts Book burning Book of Common Prayer Book of Mormon Brahmo Samaj Buddha Buddhism Buddhist Buddhist Lord's Prayer Butterflies Calendars cartoons cat ChatGPT Chicken Tortilla Soup choices Christian atheism Christian mysticism Christian origins Christian Science Christian Zen Christianity Christianity and Buddhism christmas Christmas Truce Christopher Isherwood Church of Later Day Saints Cinco de Mayo circus covenant critical thinking culture D. T. Suzuki Dalit Buddhism Daniel Defoe Desert Fathers and Mothers dharma talk Dogen Donald Trump Dongshan's Five Ranks Dorothy Day dream Duty Easter ecology Edwin Arnold emptiness Empty Moon Zen Network Episcopal Church Eternal Now Ethics evolution existentialism Faith fantasy Fathers Day film film review fire Five Ranks Folk music food Form and emptiness Four Seals Francis of Assisi Francis Xavier Free thinker friendship George MacDonald Gerald Heard Glenn Taylor Webb God Good Friday Gospel of Gospel of Mark Gospel of Thomas grace Graduate Theological Unioin Graduate Theological Union Guanyin H R Blyth Hakuin Ekaku Hanamatsuri Hanukkah Harada Yasutani Zen Heart Sutra Henry David Thoreau Hermann Hesse Hinduism History and Religion history of religion Holy Spirit home Hospitality Icon Ides of March Isaac Newton Islam Islamic mysticism Jack Kerouac James Luther Adams Jiddu Krishnamurti Joan of Arc Johannes Gutenberg John Donne joke Judaism justice karma kensho King James Bible koan Koun Yamada Kyoto School Lewis Carrol Liberal Christianity Liberal Religion Life Plan Community Liminal literature Literature and Religion Liturgy Lord's Prayer Love Mahatma Gandhi Mahayana Martin Luther King Jr Mary Baker Eddy Mary Magdelene Mary Oliver Mayflower Compact Meditation memories memory metaphor money money and religioin Mormons Mother's Day movie review mysticism mythic Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church New Thought Nichiren Buddhism Nonduality not knowing Omar Khayyam Pacific School of Religion pagan Palm Sunday Passover peace Pentecost perennialism Phantastes Philip Kapleau philosophy Pilgrimage poetry Poetry and Religion politics Prayer Precepts Printing Press prophecy prophetic spirituality psychology Pure Land Queer religion queering religion Quietism Ram Mohan Roy rebirth recipe Relationships and religion religion religion and history Religious syncretism Resistance Retirement Retreat review Rissho Kosei Kai Ritual Robert Aitken Roshi Robert Ingersoll Rohatsu Romani religion Rosie the Riveter saints samadhi SanboZen Sangha Satyagraha science science and reigion science and religion science fiction seminary sermon Sesshin Sex and Religion Shinran Sikh Sikh tradition silence Social Justice Socially Engaged Buddhism Society and religion Soto Zen soul spiritual community spiritual practice Spirituality Sufism Suicide superstition Taoism Television Teresa of Avila Thanksgiving theological schools Theosophy Thomas Merton Time Transcendentalism Transcendentalist Trinitarian Trinity Uncategorized unitarian Unitarian Christianity Unitarian Universalist Universalism Vajrayana Vedanta Walking war Willa Cather William Ellery Channing wisdom women and religion women in religion World Teacher Writing zazen Zen Zen Center Zen inspired retriement zen meditation Zen Precepts Zen women

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group is known for having monks who follow the Rule of St. Benedict?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Pentecostals Baptists Lutherans Catholics