Nyogen Senzaki
| Nyogen Senzaki | |
|---|---|
| School | Rinzai |
| Personal | |
| Born | 1876 Japan |
| Died | May 7, 1958 |
| Senior posting | |
| Title | Zen Master |
Nyogen Senzaki (千崎 如幻, 1876–1958) was a Rinzai Zen monk who was one of the 20th century's leading proponents of Zen Buddhism in the United States.
Details of Senzaki's early life are unclear. Town records in Fukaura, Aomori state Senzaki was born on October 5, 1876 as the Senzaki family's first son. He was named Aizo Senzaki. As a youth Senzaki's grandmother told him he had been abandoned as an infant and was discovered by a fisherman from Sakhalin island, Siberia who reportedly brought him back to Aomori Prefecture.
His 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 Senzaki was adopted by a travelling Kegon Buddhist priest and brought back to Japan.
When Senzaki was five years old his mother died. He 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 Senzaki was 16 his grandfather died, stating to Aizo just before dying:
Even though you have told me that you want to become a monk, when I look at the way Buddhism is now in Japan, I am afraid you may regret it. So think it over.
When his grandfather died Senzaki left his grandfather's temple and enrolled in a school to prepare for medical school. According to his own account, he read the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin while in school and tried to imitate Franklin's approach toward spirituality. He felt himself drawn a bit to Christianity during this period, but ended up meeting a haiku poet who taught him about Matsuo Bashō. By the age of 18 he had read the entirety of the Tripitaka. During this period he read about how Tokusan had burned a volume of Diamond Sutra commentaries he himself was currently studying. This was Aizo's turning point, and he decided to become a Zen Buddhist monk.
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