26 Facts About Nyogen Senzaki

Nyogen Senzaki was a Rinzai Zen monk who was one of the 20th century's leading proponents of Zen Buddhism in the United States.

Town records in Fukaura, Aomori state Senzaki was born on October 5,1876, as the Senzaki family's first son.

Nyogen Senzaki's father is unknown, but he was either Russian or Chinese.

Aizo's grandmother was perhaps misinformed in her version of events, because some accounts state young Nyogen Senzaki was adopted by a travelling Kegon Buddhist priest and brought back to Japan.

Nyogen Senzaki was sent to a Pure Land temple run by his grandfather, with whom he began the study of many Chinese classics.

The elderly priest had a profound influence on him, which was, as Nyogen Senzaki later wrote, "to live up to the Buddhist ideals outside of name and fame and to avoid as far as possible the world of loss and gain".

When Nyogen Senzaki was 16 his grandfather died, stating to Aizo just before dying:.

When his grandfather died Nyogen Senzaki left his grandfather's temple and enrolled in a school to prepare for medical school.

Nyogen Senzaki felt himself drawn a bit to Christianity, during this period, but ended up meeting a haiku poet who taught him about Matsuo Basho.

The word Nyogen Senzaki means "Like a dream, like a fantasy" in Japanese and came from the concluding verse of Diamond Sutra.

Nyogen Senzaki says he would have preferred to be ordained at a Rinzai temple, but there was none in his area.

The next year Nyogen Senzaki went to Kamakura to Engaku-ji where he studied Zen under Rinzai master Soyen Shaku.

Nyogen Senzaki was becoming disconcerted with the institutional practices of the monastery at the time, and turned to books as a means of release.

In 1901, Nyogen Senzaki asked Soyen if he could leave the monastery to open a kindergarten.

Nyogen Senzaki called it Mentorgarten, a place free of religiosity and ritual where children could be children.

Soyen needed an attendant for his time there, and asked Nyogen Senzaki to come with him.

Nyogen Senzaki jumped at the opportunity, for he was dissatisfied with the nationalism all around him and the institutional way in which Zen was then being practiced.

Nyogen Senzaki stayed in the USA for the rest of his life, with the exception of a trip in 1955 back to Japan to visit his friend Soen Nakagawa.

Nyogen Senzaki was studying English and developed a good grasp of the language.

In 1919 Nyogen Senzaki received word that Shaku had died back in Japan.

Nyogen Senzaki continued this, moving from place to place throughout the city teaching about Zen meditation.

Nyogen Senzaki moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s, where he again rented out an apartment and continued the so-called "floating zendo" model.

Soon Nyogen Senzaki became familiar with the community of Japanese immigrants there.

Nyogen Senzaki cared for the boy in exchange for room and board.

Nyogen Senzaki was extremely impressed with these poems, so he contacted Soen and they began corresponding with one another.

Nyogen Senzaki spent the duration of World War II in Heart Mountain, Wyoming.