1. Kodo Sawaki Teachings
2. Kodo Sawaki Quotes
3. Kodo Sawaki Song Of Awakening
4. Kodo Sawaki

Kodo Sawaki (June 16, 1880 - December 21, 1965) was a prominent JapaneseSōtōZen teacher of the 20th century. He is considered to be one of the most significant Zen priests of his time for bringing Zen practice into the lives of laypeople and popularizing the ancient tradition of sewing the kesa.

Kodo Sawaki Roshi 1880–1965, or “ Homeless Kodo,” as he came to be known, was one of the most influential Soto Zen teachers of the 20th century. Born in 1880 and orphaned in early childhood, Sawaki ran away from his caretaker at the age of 16 to become a monk. 'Yadonashi Kōdō Hokkusan' ('The Dharma of Homeless Kodo'), published in 1972 - a collection of Dharma words by Sawaki Kodo with commentaries by Uchiyama Kosho. This book was translated by Ichida Koshi into English and published together with 'On Sawaki Kodo Roshi's Zazen' (translated by Okumura Shohaku) as 'The Zen Teaching of 'Homeless' Kodo' (Tokyo: Sotoshu Shumucho, 1996). Visual productions usb devices driver download for windows 10.

Kodo Sawaki Teachings

• Kodo Sawaki Roshi (1880-1965) Kodo Sawaki, unlike most other Masters, refused to take charge of the monasteries offered him during his lifetime. Nor did he ever settle in a Temple or Dojo. Even after receiving the Shiho from his own Master, Kodo Sawaki remained to the end an.
• Kodo Sawaki Roshi, Uchiyama-roshi’s teacher, was described as being “like an ancient Zen master: fearless and unconventional.” By age 7, both his parents and the uncle who had later adopted him had died, and he was adopted by a professional gambler. At age 16 he went to Eihei-ji with aspirations of becoming a monk.
• Kodo Sawaki (nicknamed “Kodo the Homeless”) – is regarded by many as the greatest Zen Master of the twentieth-century. Kodo Sawaki was born in 1880 in Tsu, in the Mie prefecture. Orphaned at the age of ten, he was adopted by his lazy, gambling-addict uncle and his ex-prostitute wife.

Quotes[edit]

• You can’t even trade a single fart with the next guy. Each and every one of us has to live out his own life. Don’t waste time thinking about who’s most talented.
  • Zen ni kike (To you) (Tokyo: Daihorinkaku, 1987)

• Religion means living your own life, completely fresh and new, without being taken in by anyone.
  • Zen ni kike (To you) (Tokyo: Daihorinkaku, 1987)

• Hey! What are you looking at? Don’t you see that it’s about you?
  • Zen ni kike (To you) (Tokyo: Daihorinkaku, 1987)

• The asshole doesn’t need to be ashamed of being the asshole. The feet don’t have any reason to go on strike just because they’re only feet. The head isn’t the most important of all, and the navel doesn’t need to imagine he’s the father of all things. It’s strange though that people look at the prime minister as an especially important person. The nose can’t replace the eyes, and the mouth can’t replace the ears. Everything has its own identity, which is unsurpassable in the whole universe.
  • Zen ni kike (To you) (Tokyo: Daihorinkaku, 1987)

Kodo Sawaki Quotes

• I went to the Russo-Japanese War and killed people until I had enough of it. If you think about it soberly, this is a serious matter. Today the newspaper writes about the extermination of the enemy or how we clean them away with machine gun fire. That almost sounds like everyday household cleaning. They fire with machine guns and call it 'cleaning away the remains of the enemy'. Imagine that would happen in the midst of the ginza: people getting 'cleaned away' as if you were shooting animals! It would be a serious affair. Compared with today the former war was old fashioned. We shot only one bullet at a time. That was not so gross like shooting your machine gun as if you were spreading water with a watering can, or throwing big bombs, or poison gas. I also once killed enemies at the battlefield of Baolisi, chasing them into a hole, and I was never punished for it. I even received monthly payments as a veteran after I came back from the war. That means that you do not always get punished for killing a person. It depends on the regulations of the time if you get punished or not. But these regulations are made by men.
  • Comments on the Shodoka (Tokyo: Daihorinkaku,1st edition 1940, p. 414)

• We stop the one who can't cease from seeking things outside, and practice with our bodies with a posture that seeks absolutely nothing. This is zazen.
  • 'Zenshu,' Collected Works, vol. 15 (Tokyo: Daihorinkaku, 1966), p. 336

• Once there was a megalomaniac in the Sugamo hospital who called himself 'Ashiwara Shōgun.' He hung a cardboard medal around his neck and bestowed dignified words to those he met to take with them on their way. Now that the war is over, we can see clearly that what the military did wasn’t at all different. And now they want to reintroduce medals yet again.. After winning the Russo-Japanese war, we thought we’d won colonies. But what really came of it? After losing the Second World War, we realized that we had only earned the hatred of the Russians.. Everyone is talking about loyalty to the fatherland. The question is simply where this loyalty will take us. I too was completely convinced when I went to war against the Russians, but after our defeat, I realized that we had done something that we shouldn’t have. In any case, it’s better not to make war in the first place.
  • Zen ni kike (To you) (Tokyo: Daihorinkaku, 1987)

• My sermons are criticized by certain audiences. They say that my sermons are hollow, not holy. I agree with them because I myself am not holy. The Buddha's teaching guides people to the place where there is nothing special.. People often misunderstand faith as kind of ecstasy of intoxication.. True faith is sobering up from such intoxication.
  • The Zen Teaching of 'Homeless' Kodo (Kyoto: Kyoto Soto Zen Center, 1990), p. 72

External links[edit]

Kodo Sawaki Song Of Awakening

Kodo Sawaki