Oda Sessō

Oda Sesso
Religion	Zen Buddhism
School	Rinzai
Personal
Born	1901 Japan
Died	September 16, 1966[1]
Senior posting
Title	Roshi
Predecessor	Goto Zuigan

Oda Sessō (小田 雪窓, 1901—1966)^[2] was a Rinzai roshi and abbot of the Daitoku-ji(大徳寺) in Kyoto, Japan, a Dharma successor of Goto 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,^[3][4] Janwillem de Wetering, Irmgard Schloegl, and Philip Yampolsky.

Snyder described him as "the 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 Roshi we couldn't hear I am beginning to hear today.'"^[5] Alan Watts said, "having a conversation with him is like dropping a pebble in a well and never hearing it drop. The soundless pebble in the bottomless well."^[6]

See also

• Buddhism in Japan
• List of Rinzai Buddhists

Notes

1. ^ Stirling 2006, pg. 125
2. ^ Stirling 2006, pg. 50
3. ^ Snyder 1980, pp. 97, 98
4. ^ Kraft 1988, p. 20
5. ^ Stirling 2006, pp. 74-5
6. ^ Kyger 2000, pg. 264

References

• Kraft, Kenneth; Morinaga, Soko. Zen, Tradition and Transition (1988) Grove Press. ISBN 080213162X
• Kyger, Joanne. Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals: 1960-1964 (2000) North Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1556433375
• Snyder, Gary. The Real Work: Interviews & Talks, 1964-1979 (1980) New Directions Publishing. ISBN 0811207617
• Stirling, Isabel. Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki (2006) Shoemaker & Hoard. ISBN 978-1-59376-110-3

Persondata
Name	Sesso, Oda
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1901
Place of birth	Japan
Date of death	September 16, 1966
Place of death