Omori Sogen

At nineteen he became critically ill. Every morning for a month during the middle of winter, his mother went to the well, threw water over herself, and prayed, "Please exchange my life for my child's." Omori Roshi recovered, but his mother died soon after. Omori Roshi reflects, "My mother is here; she has become me. I have come to believe this. Because my life is my mother's life, I must take care of and value my life and live for as long as I can. I must carry on the life of my mother who died so quickly and so young."

After his recovery he began his training in Zen under Maeno Jisui. For three years every night Omori Roshi went to sit zazen at Jisui's dojo.

Around the age of 20 he began questioning the value of Kendo as a practice solely concerned with winning and losing and sought instruction from Yamada Jirokichi, the fifteenth master of the Jiki Shin Kage School of fencing. The essence of this school is to "remove all bad habits and addictions acquired since birth and to restore the original pure and bright permanent body."

To do this, one practiced the Hojo, a sword form consisting of four parts patterned after the four seasons. Ten minutes of intense concentration is required to perform the exacting movements of the Hojo.

Also at this time, he was arrested for knocking over stone lanterns at a cemetery. Initially he could not budge these lanterns, but he kept at it every night until eventually he overturned them all. When arrested, he fought with the police and was overwhelmed by their numbers. He began Judo because he thought that, had he been able to remain on his feet, he would not have lost to them. At this time, though, he was only five feet two inches, yet his chest measured forty inches in circumference.

Around the age of 24, Omori Roshi began training in shodo (the way of the brush, calligraphy) under Yokoyama Setsudo. Yokoyama Sensei also practiced the Hojo, and gradually the spirit of the Hojo and shodo blended to form the style of calligraphy called Hitsuzendo.

At age 25, after twenty days of preparation in a secluded mountain temple, Omori Roshi and Onishi Hidetaka began the hyappon keiko, the grueling practice of doing the Hojo a hundred times a day for seven days. Omori Roshi recounts:

We got up at four in the morning, went down the mountain, and bathed in a river. Before breakfast we did the Hojo fifteen times. After that we rested a while then practiced thirty more times. After lunch we rested and did the Hojo fifty-five more times until dusk. We did zazen in the evenings.

By the third day I could shout more loudly and powerfully during practice, but my voice was so hoarse I could not speak at all. At night my body was so hot that I could not sleep. Food would not go down my throat; I had only water and raw eggs. My urine was the color of blood. The arms that held the wooden sword could not be raised. We were resigned to death. I could not go before Yamada Sensei and say, "I failed." Onishi and I got out our notes and letters and burned them all as we prepared to die.

On the fourth day a strange thing happened. The same arms that had difficulty in even holding the wooden sword went smoothly up over my head. As my arms went down, I felt a strength that was not physical coming out of both arms. It felt as if this downward cut extended to the other end of the world.

In this manner, for seven days, we practiced the Hojo a hundred times daily. After the seven days, Yamada Sensei praised me saying, "This is the Muso (No-thought) Style." I was able to cultivate mental strength entirely because of this Hojo.

At 21, Omori Roshi met Seisetsu Genjo, his greatest teacher. Seisetsu Roshi struck him as a huge man with piercing eyes who spoke sparingly and was difficult to approach. Omori Roshi trained under him at Tenryu-ji, and after eight years of concentrated effort on the koan Mu at the age of 29, he broke through. He describes his experience:

My experience is not very impressive, so I don't like to talk about it, but.... I finished zazen and went to the toilet. I heard the sound of the urine hitting the back of the urinal. It splashed and sounded very loud to me. At that time I thought, "Aha!" and I understood. I had a deep realization.

"I AM," I thought, and I was very happy. But it was not a showy or flashy experience. It was even not very clean ....

At the right time you will be able to break through the state of nothingness. You will attain this realization because of some thing and you will know with your entire being that you are at the center of absolute nothingness, at the center of an infinite circle. To be at the center of an infinite circle in this human form is to be Buddha itself. You have been saved from the beginning. You will know all these things with certainty.

At the age of 30, Omori Roshi founded the Jiki Shin Dojo and taught Kendo, Judo, zazen, and Japanese classics through the end of World War II. He asked Toyama Ryusuke the son of Toyama Mitsuru to be an advisor. Omori Roshi considered Toyama Ryusuke "a great man that one can meet only once in a lifetime." Omori writes:

He was indeed a very slow moving person, but he was also very patient. He was a quiet man but warm....But when angered, he was terrible like a fierce tiger. One of his roars would make most people cower.

During his student days at Dobun Shoin, a very good friend had tuberculosis. Seeing this person who was depressed and in despair vomit blood, Toyama Sensei said, "Tuberculosis is nothing. Watch this!" and drank down the blood.

If you say it is absurd, it is absurd. If you say that he had no knowledge of hygiene, he had none. However, this is where no one can imitate him. He was not able to console his sick friend through words. It is said that, as part of his training in jyo-e funi (clean and unclean are one and the same), Yamaoka Tesshu swallowed the vomit of a drunk beggar. But for Toyama Sensei this was not training. It was an awkward way, but it was also a very warm way to console his friend. For him it was all he could do.

Whether he became infected because he swallowed the vomit or because he was living with this friend is not clear. In any case, his friend passed away. He carried the ashes to his friend's parents in Kagoshima. Upon his return he became bedridden with an incurable disease.

When we all had difficult times and problems and became frustrated, we would go to see this sick man. Since he was a man of very few words, there were times when we went to see him and left without him saying a word. When he heard a person's story, he often just put his hands together in gassho [salutation] and smiled. But he had a strange gift. If one spent an hour with him, one would be full of energy for one week.

At the beginning, I thought that he had that effect only on me, but all who went to comfort him felt the same. In Buddhism there is a saying, "Sei Mu I" which means to give fearlessness. Ryusuke Sensei was an example of a true giver of fearlessness.

Omori Roshi was influential in government circles before the outbreak of World War II and strenuously appealed to Konoe, who was to be the next prime minister, to appoint either Ugaki or Mazaki to the post of Commander of the Army instead of Tojo. He hoped to avert Japan's war with the United States. He blamed his own spiritual weakness for his failure. When Japan's defeat was inevitable, Omori Roshi planned to preempt the broadcast of the Emperor's surrender and fight till the end. Unaware of his intentions, Yokoyama Sensei came to his home and suggested they commit hara kiri. Before the appointed time, however, Yokoyama Sensei decided that it was more important to determine why Japan lost the war.

Omori Roshi sought guidance from Seisetsu Roshi who was in critical condition. Seisetsu Roshi's dying wish to Omori Roshi was, "Teach the spirit of universal brotherhood." Omori Roshi describes Seisetsu Roshi's death below.

On October 1, 1945 Seisetsu Roshi said, "When I raise my hand, start chanting the Four Vows. Then, at the end, when you hit the bell, I will stop breathing. Please do that." Yamada Mumon Roshi and two others were at his bedside....At the end, when they hit the bell, the doctor came flying in and injected him with a heart stimulant. Then, Seisetsu Roshi said, "Not today." He added, "Tomorrow, when I raise my hand, you must not give me an injection." He forbade the doctor to give him a shot. On the night of October 2, he raised his hand, and they recited the sutra. When the bell was hit, "Chiinnn," he said, "Aaaaa" with a big yawn and breathed his last. This was truly a magnificent last moment.

Following the death of Seisetsu Roshi, Bokuo Roshi became the abbot of Tenryu-ji, and Omori Roshi entered the monastery. He wrote, "The first half of my life ended when Japan lost the war. According to the Way of the Samurai, I became a Buddhist priest." After three years Bokuo Roshi told Omori Roshi to become the priest at Koho-in, the old home of Yamaoka Tesshu.

The supporters of Koho-in, however, were gone, and Omori Roshi had no means of making a livelihood. His family suffered severe poverty, at times going a week without food. Weakened by malnutrition, their three year old daughter became critically ill with tuberculin meningitis. Extensive penicillin treatment may have been able to save her, but the expense was prohibitive. Omori Roshi recounts this episode:

I told my wife, "Let them treat her. I will raise the money somehow. Let her have the injections." In an emergency parents can be determined. For their child's life, they will do anything.

My wife said to me, "That may be all right for you, but please think of the other children."

In the end the only thing that we could do was to watch our own child suffer and die before our eyes. After her death my wife cried by herself every night for three years. For a parent there is no sadder thing than to have your own child die before you.

The words of Toyama Mitsuru sustained Omori Roshi through these hardships, "Since ancient times there has never been a person who starved from doing the right thing. If you are doing what is right, heaven will surely provide food. Therefore, even if you starve and die, do the right thing." Omori Roshi recollects:

When young people are poor, I tell them, "Don't lose your head. Be calm and stay still." If you can stay still without scurrying around, you will sink to the bottom of the ocean. When your feet touch bottom, if you kick the ground, you will automatically come up and float. Until that time you must endure it.

It is said, "Those who drown are those who grab at straws." Because they grab at straws, they drown all the more. If you do not grab at straws, you will sink quietly. When you reach the limit, put a little strength into your feet and come up. That is my outlook on life....If we have not done anything to shame ourselves, we can sink to any depth....From my own experience in life, I know that if your spirit does not become impoverished, you will never be poor.

Eventually through the introduction of an attorney, Omori Roshi became an arbitrator for the Nakano Court of Justice and kept this position for ten years.

In 1958, Omori Roshi's book, Ken to Zen (Swordsmanship and Zen), was praised by Suzuki Daisetz as "enthralling." Later Suzuki wrote the preface for Omori Roshi's commentary on The Record of Lin-chi, "Reading Omori Sogen's most recent work, I thought that even at this late time, I found someone else who thinks the same way as do." Suzuki also recommended Omori Roshi to the Imperial family as a teacher for the crown prince.

In 1970, Omori Roshi became a professor at Hanazono University (a Buddhist University in Kyoto). In 1975 he was recognized by all Rinzai archbishops and abbots as a Dharma successor of the Tenryu-ji line in a ceremony called Kaido. In 1975 he also established Seitaiji Monastery. In 1978 he became president of Hanazono University.

In addition to his contributions as a religious, political, and social leader and as a prolific author, Omori Roshi transmitted an important line of Zen to America in 1972 when he established Chozen-ji, International Zen Dojo in Hawaii. In 1979 he wrote the canon of Chozen-ji:

Zen is a psycho-physical discipline to transcend life and death (all dualism) and to thoroughly (truly) realize that the entire universe is the "True Human Body." Besides this actual realization, which Miyamoto Musashi called lwo no mi (body of a huge boulder - going through life like a huge boulder) and Yagyu Sekisusai called Marubashi no michi (round bridge - according the myriad changes of life) there is nothing else.

We believe that Zen without the realization of the body is nothing but empty discussion. Martial ways without the realization of the mind is "beastly" behavior.

The authors: Hosokawa Dogen Roshi, of Chozen-ji International Zen Dojo, trained under Omori Sogen Rotaishi and is presently translating several of his works. Mike Sayama is a Clinical Psychologist, and author of SAMADHI, Self-Development in Zen, Swordsmanship, and Psychotherapy (NY: SUNY Press, 1986).