Soko Morinaga Roshi

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Soko Morinaga Roshi (1925-1995) was a Rinzai Zen Buddhist Master. He was head of Hanazono University and abbot of Daishuin temple in Kyoto, one of the twenty-four sub-temples of the Daitoku-ji temple complex.

He began his Zen training in his early twenties at Daishuin under Zuigan Goto Roshi, formerly abbot of Myoshin-ji and at that time abbot of Daitoku-ji, after finding himself adrift at the end of World War II. Later, he became head monk of Daitoku-ji. He was Dharma successor to Oda Sesso Roshi, who was also a disciple of Zuigan Goto Roshi and who succeeded him as abbot of Daitoku-ji.

He had a number of Western students and made frequent visits to England to teach at The Buddhist Society's annual summer school. In 1984 he ordained Venerable Myokyo-ni, head of the Zen Centre closely affiliated to The Buddhist Society, and who had trained at Daitoku-ji while he was head monk there.

His autobiography, Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity was first published in English in 2002.

[edit] Publications

• Pointers to Insight: Life of a Zen Monk (1985)
• The Ceasing of Notions: Zen Text from the Tun-Huang Caves (with Ven. Myokyo-ni and M. Bromley, 1988)
• Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity (2002)