Sōkō Morinaga

Morinaga Sōkō
Title	Zen Master
Personal
Born	(1925-08-02)August 2, 1925 Uozu, Toyama, Japan
Died	(1995-06-12)June 12, 1995
Religion	Buddhism
School	Rinzai
Senior posting
Predecessor	Oda Sessō
Successor	Ursula Jarand

Morinaga Sōkō (盛永 宗興, Morinaga Sōkō, 1925–1995) was a Rinzai Zen Rōshi. He was president of Hanazono University and abbot of Daishu-in in Kyōto, one of the sub-temples of the Myōshin-ji and Ryōan-ji temple complex.

Biography

He was born in Uozu City, Toyama Prefecture in 1925 as the eldest son of five siblings, with three older sisters and a younger brother. His family had been farmers until his grandfather's generation. His father was a doctor and rented out the family's rice fields. He did not pursue medicine himself but studied humanities at Toyama High School.

While he was still a student the age for conscription was lowered to 19 and he was drafted into the army in early 1945. Just before he was to be sent to war both of his parents unexpectedly died, just one day apart. The war ended before he could be sent off and he returned to high school, graduating in 1947.

After graduating he began his Zen training at Rinzai-ji Temple in Shizuoka. In 1949 he became a monk at Daishu-in under Gotō Zuigan, formerly abbot of Myōshin-ji and at that time abbot of Daitoku-ji. After a rigorous apprenticeship he entered Daitoku-ji monastery and trained under his elder Dharma brother Oda Sessō Rōshi, who was also a disciple of Gotō Zuigan Rōshi and who had succeeded him as abbot of Daitoku-ji. Young Sōkō continued training at Daitoku-ji monastery until he received inka shōmei from Sessō Roshi in 1963. He returned to Daishu-in as the chief priest and served there until his death in 1995.

The Roshi made annual visits of one or two weeks each summer to England to teach at the Buddhist Society's annual Summer School. In 1984 he ordained Venerable Myōkyō-ni, head of the Zen Centre and closely affiliated to the London-based Buddhist Society. He also inaugurated her London training place Shōbō-an as a Zen Temple, where the teachings of Sōkō, Sessō and Sōjun continue to be practiced.

He had a number of Western students, notably Shaku Daijō and Ursula Jarand, both students of many years at Daishu-in in Kyōto. Ursula and Daijō Oshō built Daishu-in West Zen Temple in California, north of San Francisco.

Publications

Morinaga Sōkō Roshi is the author of a dozen books in Japanese.

Published in English are:

• Pointers to Insight: Life of a Zen Monk (1985)
• The Ceasing of Notions: Zen Text from the Tun-Huang Caves (English translation of the German translation of Ursula Jarand, 1988)
• Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity (2002)

In German:

• Dialog über das Auslöschen der Anschauung - Dialogue about the Extinction of Contemplation Jarand, Ursula (translator), Frankfurt am Main: R. G. Fischer Verlag, 1987 - German translation of the Jueguanlun (Zekkanron) and Morinaga Soko Roshi's commentary on this text
• Hui-neng, Das Sutra des Sechsten Patriarchen - Hui-neng: The Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch Jarand, Ursula (translator), München: O. W. Barth Verlag, 1989 - German translation of the Platform sutra and Morinaga Soko Roshi's commentary on this text

See also

• Buddhism in Europe
• Buddhism in Japan
• List of Rinzai Buddhists

External links

• Daishu-in West
• Novice to Master Preface and opening chapter (25 pages)
• There is no trash an excerpt from Novice to Master.