Oda Sessō

Oda Sessō (小田 雪窓, 1901—1966)^[2] was a Rinzai Rōshi and abbot of the Daitoku-ji(大徳寺) in Kyoto, Japan, a Dharma successor of Gotō Zuigan. He was elected abbot of Daitoku-ji upon Goto's retirement from that post in 1955. At Goto's request, Oda opened Daitoku-ji to foreigners. His western students included Gary Snyder,^[3][4] Janwillem de Wetering, Irmgard Schloegl, and Philip Yampolsky.

Snyder described him as "the subtlest and most perceptive man I've ever met....His teisho were inaudible, his voice was so soft. Yet as one of the head monks at Daitoku-ji Sodo said much later, 'Those lectures of Oda Rōshi we couldn't hear I am beginning to hear today.'"^[5] Alan Watts said, "having a conversation with him is like dropping a pebble in a well and never hearing it drop. The soundless pebble in the bottomless well."^[6]

See also

• Buddhism in Japan
• List of Rinzai Buddhists

Notes

References

• Kraft, Kenneth; Morinaga, Sōkō. Zen, Tradition and Transition (1988) Grove Press. ISBN 080213162X
• Kyger, Joanne. Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals: 1960-1964 (2000) North Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1556433375
• Snyder, Gary. The Real Work: Interviews & Talks, 1964-1979 (1980) New Directions Publishing. ISBN 0811207617
• Stirling, Isabel. Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki (2006) Shoemaker & Hoard. ISBN 978-1-59376-110-3