Taisen Deshimaru

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Taisen Deshimaru
School Sōtō
Personal
Nationality Japanese
Born 1914
Kyūshū, Japan
Died April 30, 1982
Senior posting
Title Rōshi
Predecessor Yamada Reirin
Religious career
Teacher Kodo Sawaki
Website Association Zen Internationale

Taisen Deshimaru (弟子丸 泰仙 Deshimaru Taisen, 29 November 1914 - April 30, 1982) was a Japanese Sōtō Zen Buddhist teacher, who founded the Association Zen Internationale.

Biography

Early life

Born in the Saga Prefecture of Kyūshū, Deshimaru was raised by his grandfather, a former Samurai before the Meiji Revolution, and by his mother, a devout follower of the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Buddhism. Interested in the world, he abandoned his mother's practices and studied Christianity for a long while under a Protestant minister before ultimately deciding that it was not for him either. He returned to his own religion, Buddhism, and eventually came into contact with Rinzai teachings.

Eventually, he also grew distant from Rinzai Buddhism and was unsatisfied by his life as a businessman. In 1935, when he was studying economics in Tokyo, Deshimaru began to practice under Sōtō Zen Master Kodo Sawaki.[1]

War years

Deshimaru was exempted from the Imperial Japanese Army because of his near-sightedness. He went to the island of Banka, Indonesia, to direct a copper-mine.[2] He defended inhabitants against the violence of his own people, and was therefore thrown in jail, but released by "the highest military authorities in Japan".[2]

Thereafter Deshimaru went to the island of Billiton, to direct a copper mine which was captured from the Dutch.[2] After the war Deshimaru was taken prisoner by the Americans, and sent to a camp in Singapore.[2]

Further Zen studies

Deshimaru quickly rejoined Kodo Sawaki. He studied with him for fourteen years, until Sawaki's death in 1965. Deshimaru received the monastic ordination shortly before Sawaki became ill, and received dharma transmission at Sawaki's death bed. Sawaki is said to have expressed his wish to spread Zen to other parts of the world on his death-bed, and asked Deshimaru to travel to Europe and spread the teaching.

Europe

In 1967, Deshimaru went to Europe and settled in Paris in order to fulfill his master's wish and spread the teachings of Zen. In an interview Deshimaru affirmed he chose France to teach because of its philosophical tradition; he cited Michel de Montaigne, René Descartes, Henri Bergson and Nicolas Malebranche as philosophers who understood Zen without even knowing it.[3] In the 1970s, his mission grew. In 1970 Deshimaru received dharma transmission from Master Yamada Reirin.[1] He became Kaikyosokan (head of Japanese Soto Zen for a particular country or continent) in Europe.

He died in 1982, after he had solidly established Zen practice in the West. After Master Deshimaru's death, three of his closest disciples, Etienne Zeisler, Roland Rech, and Kosen Thibaut, traveled to Japan to receive the shiho from the highest Soto authority, Master Rempo Niwa.

Influence

Deshimaru founded the Association Zen Internationale in 1970, and La Gendronnière in 1979. Deshimaru trained many disciples, and was the catalyst for the creation of a multitude of practice centers. His teachings and multitude of books helped spread the influence of Zen in Europe and America, particularly of the Sōtō sect.

Students

  • Reiryu Philippe Coupey, dharma transmission from Kojun Kishigami, who received dharma transmission from Kodo Sawaki.[4]
  • Kosen Thibaut, dharma transmission from Niwa Zenji in 1984.[5]
  • Robert Livingston

Books

  • Za-Zen, the practice of the Zen
  • Sit: Zen Teachings of Master Taisen Deshimaru
  • The Ring of the Way: Testament of a Zen Master
  • Questions to a Zen Master
  • The Zen Way To Martial Arts
  • The Way of True Zen
  • The Voice of the Valley

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Association Zen Internationale, Master Taisen Deshimaru and the arrival of zen in Europe
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 buddhanet: Deshimaru
  3. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAsZu-8KkwE
  4. ↑ Kansas City Zen Center, Lineage
  5. ↑ European Zen Center, Master Kosen

External links

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