Passing of Nishijima Roshi

I read with sadness today of the passing of Gudo Wafu Nishijima Roshi, a Japanese Soto Zen teacher who has had a wide influence on the landscape of Western Zen practice.

Link: sweepingzen.com/obituary-gudo-wafu-nishijima/

He was an interesting figure, who moved from the centre of the Soto Zen establishment (he received Dharma transmission from the head of the Soto Zen sect) but was also influenced by Kodo Sawaki Roshi and his emphasis on restoring zazen to the heart of Buddhist practice.

Many will know him only though his two successors - Brad Warner and Jundo Cohen. Both Brad and Jundo, though very different, seem to reflect much of their late teacher's characteristics, bridging the conservative and radical tendencies in Soto Zen. Jundo leads a fairly typical existence as an abbot in Japan - but has started a very successful sangha that exists online, the Treeleaf Sangha, while Brad is famous for is iconoclastic approach to Zen practice and literature through books like Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up, while at the same time showing a fierce zeal in protecting a pure zazen practice from anything he sees as corrupting it.

With Nishijima Roshi's passing, another line of succession is now firmly in the hands of Western Zen teachers and their students, with less and less institutional or cultural oversight from the Sotoshu.

What will we make of this wonderful gift as our various lineages grow into adulthood?

Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate: Bodhi svaha!