Zoso Royo

Zoso Royo, or Higan Choro, (1194 - June 5, 1277) was a Japanese Rinzai monk and poet.

Quotes

• I pondered Buddha's teaching
  A full four and eighty years.
  The gates are all now locked about me.
  No one was ever here -
  Who then is he about to die,
  And why lament for nothing?
  Farewell!
  The night is clear,
  The moon shines calmly,
  The wind in the pines
  Is like a lyre's song.
  With no I and no other
  Who hears the sound?
  • Japanese Death Poems. Compiled by Yoel Hoffmann. ISBN 978-0-8048-3179-6

Quotes about Zoso Royo

• When I was in my twenty-seventh year [1252], I converted Hōonji into a temple where the regulations were observed (ritsuin). At twenty-eight, I became a monk without any temple affiliations (tonsei);21 and when, after studying the regulations for priestly behavior for six or seven years I then decided to pursue the practice of meditation, in my thirty-fifth year [1260] while staying at Jufukuji, I listened to Higan Choro lecture on the Explanation of Mahayana and on the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment. (I had heard him speak before on the Explanation [at Chorakuji]" in Serada in my twenty-seventh year.) I practiced zazen but within a year gave it up; being sick with beriberi, I could not achieve zen awareness.
  • Mujū quoted in: Ichien Mujû, ‎Mujū Ichien, ‎Robert E. Morrell. Sand and Pebbles: The Tales of Muju Ichien, A Voice for Pluralism in Kamakura Buddhism. 1985. p. 16-17

• Higan Choro or Zoso Royo (1194-1277), Rinzai monk attached to the Jufuku-ji in Kamakura, succeeded Eicho (d. 1247) at the Chorakuji in Serada, where Muju had heard him discuss the esoteric Shakuron in 1252. Royo's presence at the Jufukuji in 1260 was evidently a temporary engagement for him to lecture on his specialty. His last moments are recorded in Sand and Pebbles.
  • Ichien Mujû, ‎Mujū Ichien, ‎Robert E. Morrell. Sand and Pebbles: The Tales of Muju Ichien, A Voice for Pluralism in Kamakura Buddhism. 1985.

• Eicho's disciple Zoso Royo (1193-1276) succeeded him as head of Choraku- ji, which was considered a Tendai temple.88 Eicho's disciples made his name known and secured for him a place in the history of Japanese Zen.
  • Heinrich Dumoulin, ‎James W. Heisig, ‎Paul F. Knitter. Zen Buddhism: a history. 1989. p. 24

External links

• Yoel Hoffmann (1986) (in en). Japanese Death Poems. Rutland: Tuttle Publishing. Wikidata Q116482757. ISBN 0-8048-1505-4. OCLC 1335736500.