Shoganji in
Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki

 

Childhood - Chapter One of  - setting is Shoganji

Ch 2 Master and Disciple

 

While not huge, Zoun-in was much larger and more impressive than Shoganji.

 

Many mornings he'd go back to sleep, and his eyes would next open when he heard the sounds of the Heart Sutra coming from the buddha hall--"*Kanjizai bosatsu gyo jin hannya haramita ... ." At Shoganji he'd heard his father chant that alone in the mornings and with others in ceremonies.

 

In 1919, when Shunryu was fifteen, Sogaku and Yone killed the deal with So-on and took their son back to Shoganji from Rinso-in. This time Shunryu had agreed, as had So-on. In the minds of Shunryu's parents, maybe he'd get Zoun-in down the road and maybe he wouldn't, but it wasn't worth sacrificing him for it.

 

Ch 3 - Higher Education

 

In April 1924 Shunryu Suzuki was almost twenty. Having skipped his last year at Kaisei, he was now a junior at the Soto preparatory school in Tokyo, living in the dorm and studying hard. In terms of age, he was still way behind because of all the time he'd spent serving So-on and helping with the two temples. But that was not considered a handicap. This school was attached to the Soto college, where Soto Zen monks from all over Japan came to get the degrees now required by the government.

Shoganji wasn't far away.

 

On August 21, 1926, in a private ceremony at Rinso-in, Shunryu Suzuki received *shiho, dharma transmission, from So-on. … So-on wanted Shunryu and his family to be responsible for Zoun-in, and the ceremony authorized the transfer.

 

…

 

This was a big event for Sogaku as well. He retired as abbot of Shoganji, leaving it to a priest from Shizuoka, and finally moved with his wife, Yone, and daughter Aiko back to Zoun-in to be *inkyo, retired master. So-on was still the abbot of Zoun-in in name, but Shunryu's family resided there and was in charge.

 

Ch. 5 - Temple priest

 

Even though Buddhist priests had been getting married since the previous century, it was still controversial. When Shunryu's parents were married, it was legal for priests to do so, but the prohibition against women being lodged in temples was still part of the Soto regulations when he was born at Shoganji.

 

End matter

 

Acknowledged Takei Yuzo, priest of Shoganji for assistance.

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