12/06/2026
Memorial Day at Shobo-an:
12th June
Soko Morinaga Roshi's Anniversary
Sōkō Morinaga (1925-1995) began his Zen training after graduating from high school, and trained under Goto Zuigan, at that time abbot of Daitoku-ji. He received the seal of Dharma transmission from Goto Zuigan's successor and Dharma heir, Oda Sessō Roshi. He taught regularly at The Buddhist Society's Summer School. In 1984 he ordained Venerable Myokyo-ni, and inaugurated Shobo-an as a Zen Temple, in the Daitoku-ji line, where the teachings of Sōkō, Sessō and Sojun are still practiced.
“I became a monk because I had lost the sense of any purpose to my life and was spiritually drifting. Since then, forty years have passed. As I see it, these days sadness, grief and pain have by no means disappeared. Every day brings both happiness and pain; however, they are not problems. If you look out at the landscape, there is no problem; there are just trees, grass, clouds. Yet people create problems out of these, like it is cloudy, or that trees are growing too close, or perhaps even the fact that grass is too green!
In a letter I recently received, the writer said that he could not grasp how Buddha- nature can be inherent in trees or grass. Why? if trees and grass, or a desk are endowed with Buddha-nature, why is it that these, unlike human beings, unlike the writer himself, do not feel anguish? My answer to the person looking at the trees, at the grass, or at the desk, would be that if they really want to make a problem out of it, this is the way to do it; not to wonder why trees, etc., do not feel pain or anguish, but rather to ask, why is it that I, endowed with the same Buddha-nature as they have - why is it that I feel anguish? Why don’t I think of my own situation or my own heart, rather than that of the trees, grass or the desk? Why, for example, instead of really trying to understand myself, do I try to understand Zen Buddhism or the Buddha-nature of the desk?”
P19-20 Mumonkan: The Gateless Gate by Mumon Ekai with commentary by Soko Morinaga Roshi. https://rinzaizencentre.org.uk/publications/
Image information: Sōkō Morinaga Roshi. Copyright of The Zen Centre. All rights reserved.
