 
Kyozan Joshu Sasaki
Roshi Joshu Roshi was born into a farming family in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan in April 1907. At the age of fourteen, Roshi traveled five hundred miles to Sapporo in Hokkaido, northern Japan, to become a zen student. There he was made a novice monk under Joten Soko Miura Roshi, who went on to head Myoshin-ji, one of the two preeminent Rinzai temples in Japan. Roshi was ordained an osho (priest) at the age of twenty-one, receiving the name Kyozan. At the age of forty, he received authority as a roshi. In 1953, Roshi became abbot of Shoju-an in Iiyama, Nagano Prefecture. Shoju-an, the temple founded by Hakuin's master was in disrepair, and Roshi set about restoring it. Roshi taught at Shoju-an until he was sent to the United States in 1962. Dr. Robert Harmon and Gladys Weisbart, both members of the Joshu Zen Temple in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, had been independently trying to bring a Rinzai Zen monk to Los Angeles. Once they found out about each other's efforts, they began a united campaign. In Joshu Roshi, Dr. Harmon found an interested candidate. After working out the details by correspondence, the Kancho of Myoshin-ji, Daiko Furukawa Roshi, formally requested Joshu Roshi to begin teaching Zen in the United States. Roshi arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on July 21, 1962. Over the next few years, Roshi would conduct Zen meetings at his housein Gardena, as well as at the houses of some of his students. By 1968, Roshi's teachings were attracting so many students that a property was bought in south central L.A., named Cimarron Zen Center (since renamed Rinzai-ji). Three years later, Rinzai-ji's main training center, Mt. Baldy Zen Center, was opened. Located in the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles, this Center has gained a reputation in international Zen circles for its rigorous practice. Most of Rinzai-ji's monks and nuns have received some or all of their training there. In 1974, Jemez Bodhi Mandala, now Bodhi Manda Zen Center, was founded. Bodhi Manda, located in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, became Roshi's second training center, offering daily zazen and communal work practice. Roshi's students have gone on to establish Zen centers across the UnitedStates and Canada, as well as in Europe. Haku-un-ji Zen Center is
one of the Zen centers affiliated with Joshu Roshi and has attracted many
students from all over Arizona and the Southwest. |
 Roshi
at Haku-un-ji
When Kyozan Joshu Roshi led a three-day retreat at Haku-un-ji in April 2000 he was interveiwed by several reporters. The following article appeared in the Arizona Republic on May 20, 2000.
By 5 a.m., when the sun and the birds begin waking, Zen practitioners already are meditating in a quiet, residential neighborhood in Tempe. There is sitting meditation and walking meditation, chanting and tea four mornings a week at the Haku-un-ji Zen Center. But, the truth, according to a 93-year-old Zen master who visited recently, is that most Americans don't grasp Japanese Rinzai Zen, a traditional and rigorous meditation practice. Americans have been taught that they cannot exist without God, said Kyozan Joshu Roshi, who led a retreat at the center. ''From the Buddhist point of view, God is not a living thing you can look upon,'' said Roshi, who speaks in Japanese and uses an interpreter. ''God is not something you can take as an object. Buddhism says there is no God, there is no absolute personified being other than the manifestation of the complete self.'' The person who takes God as an object is the mistaken self, he said. Zen practice brings people to their true selves. That is a dangerous concept in a country where most people believe in God, he said. The goal of Zen is zero, or the state of emptiness. At that point, Roshi said, there is no God and no need to take God as an object because a person is experiencing God. ''That is God. That is the perfect self. There is no need to ask God for help,'' he said. ''There is no need to want to see God.'' But he likes Americans, even if they have a hard time understanding Zen. They like to try new things, and they have a strong will to make a new culture, he said. ''I'm over 93 years old, so I don't really care if Zen is really born in America or not. I'm just here, practicing with you,'' he said. Roshi has founded two major training centers for Americans who do want to pursue this path, with the major center near Los Angeles, at the Mount Baldy Zen Center. The center opened about 30 years ago, a few years after Roshi came to the United States from Japan. The Haku-un-ji Zen Center is the only center in Arizona affiliated with the Mount Baldy Zen Center and is one of 14 affiliates in the United States. Roshi visits the Tempe center twice yearly to lead retreats. The Tempe facility opened in 1994 under the guidance of founding priest Sokai. He chose the Valley because it is halfway between two major training centers in California and New Mexico. They chose a neighborhood, Sokai said, because it is quiet. ''We keep a pretty low profile and pretty much let people seek us out. I wanted a place where people could feel supported in their practice,'' Sokai said. In Japan, Zen is the largest school of Buddhism. Sokai trained with Roshi for more than 10 years before starting the Haku-un-ji Zen Center. ''To me, he's the most profound human being I've ever met, the deepest and certainly the happiest person,'' Sokai said One student who discovered the center is Chris Burawa, a Chandler resident who works for an Internet company. He had been practicing on his own before coming to the center seven years ago. The 40-year-old was drawn to the practice to find balance in his life, he said, and appreciates the support of the community at the center. ''It's a guided practice in understanding the source of the universe and of yourself, really discovering the universe through yourself,'' he said. ''It's a means of breaking through. It's beyond conventional thinking.'' He goes to as many retreats as he can because there, away from work and the commuter traffic and the telephone, he can seriously concentrate on what Roshi teaches, the dissolving of the self. The Haku-un-ji Zen Center can be reached at (480) 894-6353 or at www.zenarizona.com. Photo by Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic
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