Biography
Joshu Sasaki became an ordained monk at age thirteen under his teacher, Joten Soko Miura. Soon after, he followed Joten Soko Miura to Myoshin-ji, the head temple of one of the largest branches of Rinzai. Having been awarded the title of roshi in 1947, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki took the position of an abbot at Yotoku-in. In 1953 he was appointed abbot of Shojuan.
In 1962, at the request of Daiko Furukawa, Joshu decided traveled to the United States to teach students in the West, founding a Zen center in Los Angeles.
As of 2011, he is still actively teaching at the age of 104. Joshu Sasaki regularly offers formal training sessions at both the Mount Baldy Zen Center and the Bodhi Manda Zen Center, occasionally offering sesshin at the Rinzai-Ji Zen Center in Los Angeles and Haku-un-ji Zen Center in Tempe, Arizona. Roshi's teaching schedule greatly depends on his health, however.
Joshu Sasaki has given full Rinzai priest ordination to approximately 20 students, which grants them the title oshō. But Kyozan Joshu Sasaki did not give dharma transmission, which is in Rinzai the qualification needed to train students in a trainghall to become a priest. Nevertheless, several of his students are recognized by their community "as wise guides of various communities".
One of his best known students is Canadian poet and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, who served as personal assistant to Joshu Sasaki during his 1990s seclusion to the Mt. Baldy monastery. Many of the poems in Cohen's 2006 Book of Longing refer to Mt. Baldy and Joshu Sasaki (mostly referred to as "Roshi").
In a 24 December 2009 interview Eshin Godfrey, Abbot of the Zen Centre of Vancouver and a student of Sasaki-roshi, said of his teacher,
He has become a precious golden Buddha! You can only have great gratitude for your teacher, even though I’ve found it a bitter-sweet relationship. As the western styles of Zen develop I’m grateful to have started study in the traditional way.Read more about this topic: Kyozan Joshu Sasaki
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