When Rev. Ben Connelly was in Japan this spring, he had the very special opportunity to meet with Shundo Aoyama Roshi. A revered nun, illustrious training abbess, and author of Zen Seeds, she was the first woman to be appointed to the rank of Daikyoshi (Great Teacher) in the Soto Zen school and is now considered a living treasure.
Meeting with Ben, Aoyama Roshi was eager to talk about her friendship with Katagiri Roshi. They had gone to college together at Komazawa University, where she was one of the first nuns to receive a Master of Arts degree. She told Ben that Katagiri Roshi was one of her early and strongest supporters. Throughout her career, he supported her moving up and pushing through barriers to her authority. He was also the first person to invite her to the United States, one of only two trips she has made here.
Hearing this story warmed my heart. I see that Katagiri Roshi was already a staunch supporter of parity for women in Zen long before he arrived in the West.
 
Peace, Andrea

​Today is the anniversary of Katagiri Roshi’s death in 1990. Following Zen tradition, as the end of his life came into view, he composed this bequeathed verse, known as a yuige: 

     Living in vow, silently sitting
     Sixty-three years
     Plum blossoms begin to bloom
     The jeweled mirror reflects truth as it is
 
Shohaku Okumura Roshi gave an excellent talk on this yuige to the MZMC community last November. He said that while he was long familiar with the poem, recently seeing it written in Japanese had given him new insight into its meaning. This is a wonderful talk to listen to. ​You can find it at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs_sWLkyS5o

​ Peace, Andrea

We celebrated Katagiri Roshi’s 96th birthday last week (although it’s been 34 years since we celebrated it with him). In 2024, honoring Soto Zen’s Chinese roots, we also celebrate the Year of the Dragon. Emyo Nakayama, one Katagiri Roshi’s original dharma heirs, recently offered these wonderful words on dragons, and the significance of his birth in a dragon year:
 
“Katagiri Roshi was born in a dragon year. The dragon is characterized by a lot of energy/power and people born in these years are charismatic, intelligent, confident, and lucky. When I was given something by him - be it instruction or something like a book - he referred to it as "the dew of a dragon". I have never forgotten that and in this new year, I am reminded all the more of his gifts to me. In Chinese Zen Buddhist teaching, the dragon is a symbol of attainment, and many stories talk about something that perseveres and in the blink of an eye becomes a dragon. Katagiri Roshi was, more than anyone I have ever known, a person who persevered. For this reason, I will always think of him together with the image of a dragon.”
 
With appreciation, Andrea

Here at the Katagiri Project, we do our best to maintain a chart of Katagiri Roshi’s dharma family. The lineage chart is a family tree of the priests and lay teachers in the Katagiri lineage who have received dharma transmission or are actively engaged in practice that might lead to that. Katagiri Roshi formally entrusted his dharma to twelve priests in 1989. Now his dharma family tree has 122 names in five generations. Folks in the fifth generation can name Katagiri Roshi as their dharma great-great grandfather!
 
We recently posted an updated version of the lineage chart (www.mnzencenter.org/biography-and-lineage.html).   If you know of other people who belong in the chart, or any other updates, please let me know about them via [email protected]. Thank you so much!
 
Peace, Andrea

Wonderful news! Katagiri Roshi’s new book, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life, will be published by Shambhala on November 28, 2017. Pre-orders can be made now at most booksellers. Here’s the description on the back cover:
​
“The universe is alive with a dynamic energy that creates and sustains our lives. It surrounds us, flows through us, and is available to us in every moment. Spiritual practice, according to Dainin Katagiri Roshi, is about aligning ourselves with this everpresent life force–sometimes referred to as chi, qi, or ki. This collection, edited from his talks, focuses on cosmic energy as it relates to all aspects of Zen practice. With references to classic texts and personal stories that bring the teachings to life, The Light That Shines through Infinity is also a powerful antidote to the notion that practice is in some way about transcending the world around us. It is in fact about nothing other than relating to it compassionately and wholeheartedly.”

March 1 is an significant date for me. It is the day in 1980 that I received lay ordination from Katagiri Roshi. It is also the day in 1990 that he died. Today, in memory of Katagiri’s passing, I give you his poem “Peaceful Life.” He wrote this wonderful poem while teaching at Hokyoji in southeast Minnesota, just a few months before cancer forced him to retire.

Recently I was reading Shohaku Okumura’s excellent book “Living by Vow” (Wisdom, 2012) and was happily surprised to find his insightful commentary on “Peaceful Life” as an explanation of the Four Noble Truths. Another significant commentary was made by Zoketsu Norman Fischer, who spoke about the poem and Katagiri in a 2006 dharma talk. You can find that audio file posted here on the website of Norm’s Everyday Zen Foundation.
Peace, Andrea
​
Peaceful Life
by Dainin Katagiri
Being told that it is impossible,
One believes, in despair, “Is that so?”
Being told that it is possible,
One believes, in excitement, “That’s right.”
But, whichever is chosen,
It does not fit one’s heart neatly.
Being asked, “What is unfitting?”
I don’t know what it is.
But my heart knows somehow.
I feel an irresistible desire to know.
What a mystery “human” is!
As to this mystery:
Clarifying,
Knowing how to live,
Knowing how to walk with people,
Demonstrating and teaching,
This is the Buddha.
From my human eyes,
I feel it’s really impossible to become a Buddha.
But this “I”, regarding what the Buddha does,
Vows to practice,
To aspire,
To be resolute,
And tells myself, “Yes, I will.”
Just practice right here now,
And achieve continuity,
Endlessly,
Forever.
This is living in vow.
Herein is one’s peaceful life found.

Dokai Georgesen, Hokyoji’s head teacher and a dharma heir of Katagiri Roshi, offered these heartfelt dharma words to his teacher during the recent 25-year memorial ceremony:

​Dear Hojo san,

It is clear to me that I do not know who I am, where I am, what I am doing or how I am doing. It is also with astounding clarity that I see this all has something to do with our encounter with each other. For this I will be eternally grateful, as I am every morning when I offer you a little water to drink and a bow.

I know you felt the same. It all had to do with some people who you encountered as well who I never met. It is clear that there is transmission between human beings—something is intimately communicated. There is nothing in the entire world with all of our exact science and sophisticated knowledge that is more real than this. What it is, however, defies description—once there are words, generally speaking, confusion arises so easily. Even Gautama was very careful about this.

All I can say is it is about you and me and at the same time it is not. The same can be said even about Gautama, himself, and all those before and after him. So I take care of this moment the best that I can—the same as you did—acknowledging that we are not so strong as we would like to be and knowing that at times there is some aimless wandering with disregard for careful attention.

We have chosen to live a way in this world in which all we experience is just the continuous suffering of all creatures, large and small, human and non-human. Our hearts are always breaking with desire for it to cease. You were taught and taught to me; do not stay here for long; take a step forward, hold and embrace this breaking with subtle delicacy. Not knowing what to do and just letting the pain in as far as it can go, trust. In some way or another, our hearts mend and open again. Joy and contentment touch us and everything is perfectly fine, just the way it always has been.
​
Dokai

Katagiri Roshi passed away 25 years ago on March 1. Today, this inspiring eko was chanted at a special service held at Hokyoji, the rural practice center in rural Eitzen, Minnesota, that he founded:

The body of the pure dharma world
Neither appears nor disappears.
The strength of the vow of great compassion
Manifests in life and death

Revering the Buddhas,
We aspire to have their illuminating wisdom shine upon us.

Prostrating ourselves before the Buddhas,
We aspire to have their true compassion embrace us.
Today we gather to offer incense, flowers, candlelight, sweet water and tea.
We respectfully chant the Song of Jewel Mirror Samadhi and the Dai Hi Shin Darani.

The merit of this recitation is dedicated to the great teacher in America and this temple’s founder.
Jikai Danin Daiosho.
Humbly we offer our deepest graditude.

We yearn for the teaching of his dharma.

As the sun and moon break the darkness, so the eye of the
dharma will illuminate our path.

May his magnanimous teaching embrace the earth
And continue as a stone of iron.

Living in vow he transmitted the ancient way.
The path glitters in the moonlight, sometimes it takes lightning and thunder to awaken us.

With his whole body he penetrated the ancestors’ marrow,
Cultivating the clouds and planting the pines.

Thereupon, all creation rejoices and reflects its beauty in this sangha.
Luxuriant leaves and blossoms are flourishing in this temple
and great trees are attended to and are growing strong.
The gates are open inside and out.
​
Respectfully, we offer our true heart.
May it limitlessly fill the Tathagata’s bowl.

Greetings to everyone who is thinking fondly of our great teacher, and his passing twenty-five years ago today. Our hearts are together.

Jikai Dainin Daiosho, Katagiri Roshi’s dharma name plus honorific title, is the last in the long list of the “Names of Buddhas and Ancestors” that is chanted at Zen centers within his lineage. After reciting those names, we dedicate our effort, saying:
​
We express our heartfelt gratitude
And acknowledge our debt
To all successive Buddhas and Ancestors
who have transmitted the right dharma
through India, China, and Japan