A Teacher
Soyen Shaku
The Rinzai abbot who first spoke Zen aloud on American soil and sent his student to finish the work.
The transmission
Soyen Shaku was a Japanese Rinzai Zen master and abbot of Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji in Kamakura. As part of the Japanese delegation to the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, he became the first Zen master to teach in the United States.
He gave the young D.T. Suzuki the koan Mu and later dispatched him to America, where Suzuki became the leading Western interpreter of Zen. His lectures were collected in Sermons of a Buddhist Abbot (1906), translated by Suzuki and later reissued as Zen for Americans.
What they gave
First Zen master in America: As part of the Japanese delegation to the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, he became the first Zen master to teach in the United States.
- Trained D.T. Suzuki: Gave the young Suzuki the koan Mu and later dispatched him to America to become the foremost Western interpreter of Zen.
- Sermons of a Buddhist Abbot: His 1906 lectures, translated by Suzuki, introduced Zen to American readers, later reissued as Zen for Americans.
- Rinzai transmission: As abbot of Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji, he opened the first direct channel of Zen to the West.
The line they stand in
Taught by / Influenced by: Imakita Kosen, his Rinzai master in the Engaku-ji line.
- Taught / Influenced: D.T. Suzuki, his foremost expositor; Nyogen Senzaki; and Paul Carus, who helped carry Buddhist texts into English.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- Sermons of a Buddhist Abbot1906