Robert Baker Aitken
| Robert Baker Aitken | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| School | Zen Buddhism |
| Lineage | Harada-Yasutani |
| Education |
University of Hawaii University of California |
| Personal | |
| Born |
June 19, 1917 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Died | August 5, 2010 (aged 93) Honolulu, Hawaii |
| Spouse | Anne Hopkins Aitken |
| Children | Tom Aitken |
| Senior posting | |
| Title | Roshi |
| Predecessor | Yamada Koun |
| Religious career | |
| Teacher |
Soen Nakagawa Nyogen Senzaki |
| Website | www.robertaitken.net |
Robert Baker Dairyu Chotan Aitken Rōshi (June 19, 1917 – August 5, 2010) was a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He co-founded the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in 1959 together with his wife. Aitken received Dharma transmission from Koun Yamada in 1985 but decided to live as a layperson. He was a socialist advocating social justice for gays, women and Native Hawaiians throughout his life, and was one of the original founders of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.
Robert Aitken was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1917, then was raised in Hawaii from the age of five.
Living in Guam as a civilian working in construction—at the onset of World War II—he was detained by the Japanese and held in internment camps for the duration of the war. In one such internment camp in Kobe, Japan in 1944 he met the scholar Reginald Horace Blyth, with whom he had frequent discussions on Zen Buddhism and anarchism. At the conclusion of the war he returned to Hawaii and obtained a B.A. in English literature and an MA in Japanese from the University of Hawaii.
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