Moro'oka'ji Temple - Pasadena, California | |||||||||||
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Soji-ji Temple, Japan. One of the two head temples of the Japanese SotoShu School of Zen. Keizan Zenji was the Abbot of Soji-ji and it is where Soyu Matsuoka Roshi studied. | |||||||||||
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Dokusan/Mentoring Why do we have a photograph of Soji-ji Temple on our home page?Our Soto Zen Order is in the lineage of Soyu Matsuoka, Roshi, who studied at Soji-ji Temple in Japan, which is one of the two head temples of Soto-Shu (the main Japanese Soto organization). Soji-ji is famous for being run by Keizan Zenji (1268-1325), regarded as the co-founder of Soto Zen along with Dogen. We treasure the teachings of Matsuoka, Keizen and Dogen as foundational to our Zen Order. The name of our temple in Pasadena, California, is "Moro'oka'ji" which is the original name of Soji-ji and is named in honor of Keizan Zenji. The other main temple in the Soto tradition is Eihei-ji, founded by Dogen Zenji (1200-1253), the original founder of Japanese Soto Zen, which has its origins in Chinese Caodong 'Chan' (which becomes 'Zen' when pronounced in Japanese). Caodong was founded by Dongshan Loangjie and Caoshan Benji. Dongshan Loangjie is known as Tozan Ryokai in Japan, and Caoshan Benji is known as Sozan Honjaku. So just as Caodong derives from the names of the original Chinese founders of the Chan School, so Soto is the combination of the Japanese names for the Chinese founders. SCZO is not, however, associated with SotoShu in Japan: it was the specific intention of Matsuoka Roshi in forming his version of Zen in the 1960s that it be a Zen custom tailored for Western practicioners independent of the Japanese Soto organization. Why is SCZO not associated with the Japanese SotoShu? First and foremost, because our lineage founder Soyu Matsuoka Roshi established his version of Zen as a truly Western Zen, and he chose not to have any of his priests registered with SotoShu in Japan for this reason. We are following his tradition. But secondly, we do not require our priests to shave their heads which immediately makes our priests ineligible to be registered with SotoShu. This is something we hold strongly, that here in the West it should not be required that Soto Priests have their head shaved since our system here in the West is largely not a monastic one, but one in which our priests live and work in the world just like anyone else, not desiring to stand out from others by their appearance. This is also also why our priests do not wear their priest vestments in everyday life, they wear their Zen clothing at the Zen Center or when performing a liturgy or, say, a marriage ceremony.
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(c) 2023 Still Center Zen Order (a California Non-Profit Religious Organization) Updated: 9/10/23 |
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