Rinzai-ji

Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi
Joshu Roshi was born in April 1907 in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. He became a novice monk at the age of 14 under Joten Soko Miura Roshi, who went on to head Myoshin-ji, one of the two preeminent Rinzai temples in Japan.
Between the ages of 21 and 40, Joshu Roshi lived as a priest at Myoshin-ji in Kyoto, but in 1947 he received his authority as a roshi and became abbot of his own monastery.
It was 15 years later, when he was 55, that Joshu Roshi was asked by the abbot at Myoshin-ji teach in America.
He arrived in Los Angeles in the summer of 1962, and began teaching out of a house rented in Gardena. 40+ years later Joshu Roshi keeps a rigorous teaching schedule that includes two three-month training periods and many week-long retreats (dai-sesshin). He spends most of his time at Mt. Baldy Zen Center, near Claremont, California and Rinzai-ji Zen Center in Los Angeles.

Rinzai-ji (list of affiliates)

In November 1963, Joshu Roshi and his Zen students incorporated the Rinzai Zen Dojo Association. Over the next few years, as Joshu Roshi’s reputation spread, he led group zazen in homes in the Hollywood Hills, Laguna Beach and Beverly Hills.

In July 1967, Roshi decided to commemorate his fifth anniversary in the U.S. by conducting his first seven- day Dai-sesshin in the mountain village of Idyllwild, Calif. In January 1968, the Rinzai Zen Dojo Association name was changed to Rinzai-ji, Inc., and it bought its first property, Cimarron Zen Center.

A complex of buildings surrounded by high walls, Cimarron Zen Center needed extensive renovation before it was formally dedicated on April 21,1968, and Roshi took up residence there along with a group of students. Cimarron now is known as Rinzai-ji Zen Center, and is the Head Temple for Rinzai-ji, Inc.

Three years later, Rinzai-ji’s main training center, Mt. Baldy Zen Center, was opened high in the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles. Located in the middle of a national forest, Mt. Baldy Zen Center has gained a reputation in American Zen circles for its rigorous practice, which includes 19-hour-a-day sesshin schedules. Most of Rinzai-ji’s monks and nuns have received some or all of their training there.

With the establishment of the Rinzai-ji Zen Center and Mt. Baldy Zen Center in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Joshu Roshi had laid the groundwork for a corps of ordained monks, nuns, and priests to help him carry out his work. In 1974, Jemez Bodhi Mandala was founded, now known as Bodhi Manda Zen Center. Bodhi Manda became Rinzai-ji’s second training center, offering daily zazen and communal work practice. Like Mt. Baldy, Bodhi Manda’s setting is magnificent. The property borders the Jemez River, in a dramatic, steep- walled canyon. The facility includes dormitories, a communal dining hall, and a small guest house, hot pools, an orchard, and large garden.

Another important component of Rinzai-ji’s work in the United States has been the Summer Seminar on Buddhism series, begun at Mt. Baldy Zen Center in 1977. Over the past 27 years, the seminars have drawn Buddhist scholars from the US, Japan, and elsewhere to examine the fundamental principles of Buddhism. The Seminar is co-sponsored by Rinzai-ji and the University of New Mexico, and has been held at Bodhi Manda Zen Center since 1985.

Roughly twenty-five Zen centers are Rinzai-ji affiliates in places as diverse as Vienna, Austria, Vancouver, BC, Mt. Cobb, CA and Princeton, NJ.