Joshu Sasaki

Kyozan Joshu Sasaki (1907–2014) was a Japanese Rinzai master who taught in America for over fifty years, becoming one of the longest-serving Zen teachers in the West. Born in Miyagi Prefecture, he entered Zuiryū-ji monastery in Hokkaido at the age of fourteen, where he became a disciple of Jōten Sōkō Miura. He trained with fierce dedication and received the title of roshi at forty. After decades of teaching in Japan, he came to the United States in 1962, eventually founding Rinzai-ji Zen Center in Los Angeles in 1966 and the Mt. Baldy Zen Center in the San Gabriel Mountains, which became known for its rigorous training schedule.

Joshu Sasaki developed a distinctive approach to koan practice centered on what he called the dynamic of "plus and minus" — the fundamental activity of tathagata, the expansion and contraction that he saw as the underlying movement of all reality. His teisho (dharma talks) were dense, often challenging even for experienced practitioners, and deliberately resisted easy conceptual packaging. He emphasized the direct, embodied experience of this dynamic rather than intellectual understanding. Among his students was Leonard Cohen, the poet and songwriter, who spent extended periods in residence at Mt. Baldy.

Sasaki continued teaching into his hundred and sixth year, making him one of the oldest active Zen teachers in recorded history. His legacy, however, is complicated by revelations of sexual misconduct that came to public attention in 2012, leading to a formal acknowledgment by the Rinzai-ji organization. His career thus embodies both the extraordinary depth that traditional Rinzai training can produce and the institutional failures that can allow the abuse of spiritual authority. He died at Mt. Baldy in 2014.