Oda Sessō

Oda Sessō
Title	Rōshi
Personal life
Born	1901 (1901) Japan
Died	September 16, 1966(1966-09-16) (aged 64–65)
Religious life
Religion	Zen Buddhism
School	Rinzai
Senior posting
Predecessor	Gotō Zuigan
Successor	Morinaga Sōkō

Oda Sessō (小田 雪窓, 1901 – 16 September 1966) was a Rinzai Rōshi and abbot of the Daitoku-ji (大徳寺) in Kyoto, Japan, a Dharma successor of Gotō Zuigan. He was elected abbot of Daitoku-ji upon Goto's retirement from that post in 1955. At Goto's request, Oda opened Daitoku-ji to foreigners. His western students included Gary Snyder, Janwillem van de Wetering, Irmgard Schloegl, and Philip Yampolsky.

Snyder described him as

[T]he subtlest and most perceptive man I've ever met....His teisho were inaudible, his voice was so soft. Yet as one of the head monks at Daitoku-ji Sodo said much later, 'Those lectures of Oda Rōshi we couldn't hear I am beginning to hear today.'"

Alan Watts said,

[H]aving a conversation with him is like dropping a pebble in a well and never hearing it drop. The soundless pebble in the bottomless well."

Janwillem van de Wetering gave an account of his stay at Daitoku-ji in his book "The empty mirror".

See also

• Buddhism in Japan
• List of Rinzai Buddhists

Sources

• Kraft, Kenneth; Morinaga, Sōkō. Zen, Tradition and Transition (1988) Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3162-X
• Kyger, Joanne. Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals: 1960-1964 (2000) North Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1-55643-337-5
• Snyder, Gary. The Real Work: Interviews & Talks, 1964-1979 (1980) New Directions Publishing. ISBN 0-8112-0761-7
• Stirling, Isabel. Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki (2006) Shoemaker & Hoard. ISBN 978-1-59376-110-3

Further reading

• Janwillem van de Wetering, The empty mirror