| Soyu Matsuoka | |
|---|---|
| Religion | Zen Buddhism |
| School | Sōtō |
| Personal | |
| Born | 1912 Hiroshima, Japan |
| Died | 1997 |
| Senior posting | |
| Successor | Richard Langlois, Zenkai Taiun Michael Elliston (East Coast), Hogaku Shozen McGuire (West Coast) |
| Religious career | |
| Website | http://www.azszc.org/dedication.htm |
Dr. Soyu Matsuoka (松岡 操雄, 1912—1997), along with Sokei-an and Nyogen Senzaki, was one of the first Zen teachers to make the United States his home, and possibly the first official representative of the Sōtō tradition to do so.
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He established the Chicago Buddhist Temple in 1949 (now the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago), and in the 1960s grew a following of Americans. Additionally, he gave Dharma transmission to one of the first American heirs—Richard Langlois. In 1970 he left Chicago and moved to Long Beach, California, where he continued to preside over other communities. Somewhere along the line Matsuoka and the Soto school of Japan had some sort of falling out, and the two went their separate ways. Matsuoka held that Zen was a personal experience and the authority of the Soto Sect and its training monasteries (専門僧堂) had inhibited the practice of Zen. Over his tenure as a Zen teacher Matsuoka named many Dharma heirs, which has led many in the Zen community to question their qualifications as teachers. However, from extensive examination of Matsuoka's documentation, it is clear these critics may be mistaken (see note, Sampson).
There are four living Dharma Heirs of Soyu Matsuoka: Hogaku Shozen McGuire, Zenkai Taiun Michael Elliston,and Kaiten Johndennis Govert,Shogaku Zenshin Stephen Echard Musgrave,the later retired from the Zen institue of San Diego do to ill health. Matsuoka died in 1997.[1][2][3]
Hogaku established Daibutsuji Zen Temple in Cloudcroft and the Zen Center of Las Cruces, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. So Gozen is now the Abbot of Daibutsuji and the Zen Center of Las Cruces.[4] So Daiho Hilbert left Daibutsuji to establish the Order of Clear Mind Zen, a socially engaged sangha in New Mexico.[5] Taiun Elliston Sensei established the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and is working to establish an order honoring Matsuoka.
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