Kosho Uchiyama

Kosho Uchiyama was a student of Kodo Sawaki who became one of the most important Soto Zen teachers of the twentieth century. His book Opening the Hand of Thought is regarded as one of the clearest and most profound modern expositions of zazen practice. After Sawaki's death, Uchiyama served as abbot of Antaiji, where he maintained a rigorous schedule of sesshin (intensive practice periods) that attracted serious practitioners from around the world.

Uchiyama's teaching stripped zazen to its absolute essence: the practice of opening the hand of thought—letting go of all mental grasping without trying to achieve any particular state. He insisted that zazen is not a technique for producing enlightenment but the actual practice of enlightenment itself. His clear, uncompromising articulation of this principle, informed by his own decades of practice, made the deepest dimensions of Dogen's teaching accessible to modern practitioners.