Taïsen Deshimaru
The journey of this Zen master (on France 2)
Born in Sage Prefecture, on the island of Kyosho, Deshimaru was raised by his grandfather, a former samurai, and by his mother, a fervent disciple of Jodo shinsho, a Japanese Amidist school. Out of curiosity, he moved away from Buddhist spiritual practices to study Christianity under the guidance of a Protestant pastor. He then returned to Buddhism, followed the teaching of the Rinzai school, from which he also moved away.
He then met the great master of soto ZenKodo Sawaki", whose teachings he often followed. He would henceforth devote himself entirely to the practice of Shikantaza.
Deshimaru received monastic ordination shortly before his master Sawaki fell seriously ill. He told him of his wish to see Zen spread throughout the world and asked him to go to Europe for this.
Following his master’s wish, Deshimaru went to France in 1967 by the Trans-Siberian Railway. Arriving in Paris, he worked in a macrobiotic food store. While he only speaks rudimentary English, he practices Zazen which is the main meditation posture that Buddha used in the back room, which gradually attracts disciples to him who he thus initiates into Zen. /p>
Deshimaru founded more than a hundred dojos around the world as well as the Temple "de la Gendronnière" (International Zen Association or AZI) in the Loire Valley, which became the first and largest Zen temple in the whole of Europe. According to temple records, he ordained more than five hundred monks and nuns, and more than twenty thousand people practiced alongside him at one time or another. The first monk ordained in France by Deshimaru was Taigen René Joly (Prajñonanda).
Considered in Japan as the "Bodhidharma".
Deshimaru died in 1982 in Japan from pancreatic cancer.