Dharma Rain Zen Center - Stillpoint

The Last Japanese Ancestor
Keido Chisan Koho Zenji

by Cindy Unkai McKinley

Koho Hakugan looked across the dead body and spoke to 7-year-old Zenzo, saying “I, too, lost my mother when I was very young.” The boy, with a child’s clarity, understood the Truth of Impermanence.

Keido Chisan was born Okuda Zenzo on August 16, 1879, in Toyoma Prefecture. His father died two weeks after his birth and his mother was forced to take Zenzo and his older brother to live with her parents. They were fortunate in that his grandparents were wealthy farmers and well connected to the Sotoshu. However, Zenzo was unfortunate that the customs of the time demanded that his mother remarry, take her oldest son, and live with her new husband’s family. So, Zenzo was left with his grandparents. Fate also dictated that young Zenzo would be steeped in the traditions of Soto Zen almost from birth. His aunt and uncle were both ordained within the Soto tradition and since the entire family was a wealthy patron of the Sotoshu, he had the opportunity to meet many great teachers.

By the time Zenzo was five years old, both of his grandparents died. But his aunt and uncle loved him a great deal and he was well cared for. He spent time with both of them at their hermitages and was exposed to the monastic traditions very early in his life. His uncle’s teacher was Morita Zenji, a revered Zen teacher at Eihei-ji. Once when visiting the family farm, Morita said to the boy, “Perhaps I will take you with me.” He felt compassion for the young boy who had lost so many loved ones. Although young, Zenzo was very bold, perhaps stubborn one might say, and would not go with Morita to Eihei-ji.

Zenzo found friends and extended family as best he could and was particularly fond of a younger niece. As if cursed by constant loss, the little niece died as well. The family, being so closely associated with the Sotoshu, called upon Koho Hakugan to oversee the funeral rites. At the time, Koho Hakugan was the abbot of Yoko-ji. Zenzo was immediately drawn to the great teacher, and sat next to him throughout the week-long memorial ritual. At the end of that week, Koho Hakugan looked across the dead body and spoke to 7-year-old Zenzo, saying “I, too, lost my mother when I was very young.” The boy, with a child’s clarity, understood the Truth of Impermanence. All mothers, fathers, grandparents, and nieces are impermanent. The losses were not personal to Zenzo and he saw even then that all is, by nature and necessity, impermanent. When all is taken away, when all you loved is gone, what is being offered? The opportunity for all creation arises from impermanence. This would become one of the foundations of Keido Chisan’s legacy to the Soto Zen lineage.

At age eleven, Zenzo became a disciple of Koho Hakugan and at thirteen he was ordained and given the name, Keido Chisan. As a young monk, he was expected to fulfill his duties at the temple and attend school. Although no longer living with his mother, he was very devoted to her and often made a three hour detour between the temple and schoolhouse to visit with her. From an early age, he had great respect for women. This was primarily due to the close relationship that he had with his mother and his aunt, who was a Soto Buddhist nun. It was during this time that the rules for nuns were beginning to loosen up allowing them to marry and grow their hair. So his formative years as a young monk were accompanied by a general shift, however slight, towards more equality for women in the monastic ranks.

The young monk was something of a bookworm and became interested in western philosophy. He wrote many scholarly articles that were published in the philosophy magazines of the time. He could easily have chosen the career of a Buddhist scholar, given the breadth and depth of his study. Although he served as a principal for a Soto middle and high school for many years, he was primarily a monk. When he was 29 years old, Koho Hakugan called upon him to rebuild Raigaku-ji which had been destroyed by fire. He met the challenge of rebuilding with joy and tremendous energy. It was such a success that he was called upon to rebuild other temples. He became known as a rebuilder of many temples and halls and as a tireless fundraiser for these efforts.

Over the years, he served as abbot of several temples: Yoko-ji, Soji-ji, Saijo-ji, Senpuku-ji, to name a few. Eventually, he planned to retire at Fukuju-in in Tokyo. He had collected over 5,000 rare and treasured books over the years and stored them at Fukuju-in, hoping to enjoy them in his retirement. In March, 1945, in the heat of WWII, Tokyo was brutally bombed by allied forces. The first bombers to fly over were very close to the ground and intentionally dropped bombs to create a large circle of fire around almost a third of the city. Fukuju-in and Keido Chisan were in the middle of this circle. Hundreds of thousands of people were trapped behind this firewall as the second bomber formation flew over to drop bombs in the middle of the circle. Fukuju-in was destroyed, all of the books were destroyed, and over 100,000 people died.

In Keido Chisan’s text, Soto Zen, he writes about WWII, saying, “…on the one hand it was a great tragedy, but on the other, it was responsible for bringing about a great cultural interchange between East and West. Needless to say, we earnestly desire this interchange, but without the curse of war.” It should not be a surprise therefore that he would bring the first Westerner into Soji-ji to train as a monk. Better still, that Westerner would be a woman. The loss of life and the loss of his personal treasures during the war were opportunities to give both East and West the Buddha’s teachings on the Immaculacy of Impermanence.

His method of emanating this teaching in so many directions was brilliant. He taught the Truth of Impermanence to the monks at Soji ji through the presence of Jiyu Kennett. Jiyu Kennett was brought to Soji-ji not so many years after the brutal bombings by allied forces. Many of the monks at Soji-ji were still suffering with hatred for all Westerners. Keido Chisan, now known as Koho Zenji, brought what was left of that war to their doorstep in the personage of Jiyu Kennett. In this way, he contributed to the cultivation of Zen in both cultures. Much like Keizan, he was interested in honoring the traditions of the past but letting the Dharma grow with the times. Jiyu Kennett played a critical role in showing that Westerners, and even women, were capable of training in the same Zen monastic tradition as Japanese men. While the fundamental traditions and teachings of Zen remained untouched, the Dharma was spreading to the West. Koho Zenji was insistent that the Dharma be carried to the West by a Westerner who understood the culture of the West. The monks at Soji-ji who were ready to see and hear beyond their personal and national tragedy received the treasure of the knowledge of the ever present Truth of Impermanence.

Likewise, the West, unaware of victory’s poison, would soon receive Keido Chisan Koho Zenji at the White House, as he asked permission from President Eisenhower to bring Zen to the West. Perhaps they laughed at the little monk from Japan, but from this small opening grew a thriving Zen culture in the West, with roots in the honored traditions and offshoots of new traditions appropriate for a different culture. Koho Zenji passed along the Dharma that could free both the East and West from attachments to victories and defeats.

Koho Zenji writes:

Existence is not something fixed, immovable; non-existence is not a vacuum, not empty, but immaculate. Impermanence which transcends existence and non-existence is the growth and development of the infinite. It is impermanence which is the true form of the Buddha Nature and the self-development of it. The impermanent Buddha Nature regenerates itself constantly and thereby keeps on growing and extending itself throughout time and space.

The previous moment must evaporate for the present moment to be possible. Every moment something new is created from the decaying past. Existence occurs only right now. The particulars of that existence quickly slip into the non-existent past. The next moment, while not existing yet, is immaculate. So this moment, although conditioned and fertilized by the past, appears on the unstained and pristine canvas of nothingness. But this nothingness contains everything. Recognizing impermanence as the true form of Buddha Nature acknowledges all phenomena as empty while still observing particulars of phenomena.

Keizan tells us to “…observe impermanence, never forget it.” How could we forget or remember? Perhaps Keizan is simply stating that in the observation of impermanence, it is in fact impossible to forget it. One must be fixed in the delusion of permanence to forget it. And only in the release of such delusion is remembrance remotely possible. Even so, it is not really remembrance as much as seeing or not seeing what is always present. Impermanence, as the true form of Buddha Nature, is neither remembered nor forgotten if we truly see. In the same passage, Keizan says, “You should observe that the matter of life and death is a great one, and impermanence is swift…” and, in my observation, immediate. Even if this body still appears to be alive with the same particulars as past moments, it is only because I lack sufficient patience to see the infinitely fine granularity of birth and death. These remarks about impermanence are found in Keizan’s Zazen Yojinki, or “What to be Aware of in Zazen.” In our practice of zazen, we develop patience to observe, to simply notice, the rise and fall of thoughts, emotions and phenomena.

As Keizan and Koho Zenji both understood, the observance of what is useful from the past does not exclude the present unfolding with new life, thus expanding the Dharma. Furthermore, expansion and growth naturally occur without the need to destroy the past. Shall we say that they co-exist? Yes, but only right now. Existence is always only right now. If the Wisdom of Impermanence guides our steps, we need not consider the Dharma as increasing with the present moment or decreasing in previous moments or disappearing or appearing in any realm of time or space. It does not rely on existence or non-existence. Sitting in silence, we fall into this ocean of Oneness, rising with the individual wave within our own minds, and then receding into the depths that know nothing of the waves. Neither the wave nor the still depths are to be avoided. They both elegantly manifest the vast ocean as always shifting and always changing. The wave does not cease to be the ocean when it rises, nor does it return to the ocean when its cycle is complete since it never separated from the ocean. Consider this beautiful passage attributed to Manzan:

Great perfect awareness is the ocean of ultimate peace; still and silent, myriad forms and images reflect therein. Yet suddenly when the wind of objects arises it turns into an ocean of birth and death, with waves of consciousnesses and feelings billowing day and night, where all sentient beings appear and disappear, with no end in sight. Although the two oceans seem different, really they come from the same source, mind. Originally there is no sign of distinction in the mind source; life and death and nirvana all revert to the essential nature of the source. Therefore, when you realize the mind-source, the whole universe is a great round perfect ocean. But how to realize the mind source? You must liberate body and mind on the sitting cushion before you can do so.

Dogen tells us that “awareness of impermanency is inseparable from recognition of the timelessness of a moment.” And he notes, “No one knows where and when this dew-like existence will drop into the grass. Not recognizing impermanence is truly regrettable.” There is a restful joy in the constant unfolding of this universe. While much care and energy is given to “rebuilding” the “temple destroyed by fire,” we should not rebuild with the hopes of recreating what once was. The death of the temple was a complete event in and of itself. The birth will be equally complete in its time. This is the peace of surrendering to the Truth of Impermanence.

Please allow me to offer a verse as you travel the Way.

Shadows playing with sunlight
On late day windows
My eyes applauding.

Note: Translation of Keido Chisan’s biography, written in Japanese by Hidefume Matsu’ura, was provided by Mikio Daicho Ohgushi. I greatly appreciate not only the verbal translation but also Daicho’s insights into Koho Zenji’s life and WWII from a Japanese perspective.

Bibliography

Cleary, Thomas. Timeless Spring: A Soto Zen Anthology. New York: John Weatherhill, Inc., 1980.

Dogen, Eihei. Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen. Ed. Kazuaki Tanahashi. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1985.

Keido, Chisan. Soto Zen: An Introduction to the Thought of the Serene Reflection Meditation School of Buddhism. Ed. Rev. Jisho Perry. Mt. Shasta: Shasta Abbey Press, 2000.

Matsu’ura, Hidefumi. Biography of Keido Chisan Zenji. Sojiji, Kanagawa Prefecture: Sotoshu Head Temple, 1973.

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