Essays of Kodo Sawaki

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In the Spring of 2004 I was 22 years old. I lived at the San Francisco Zen Center with my teacher Kosho McCall, who at the time was receiving Dharma Transmission from Blanche Hartman. Blanche studied o-kesa sewing with Rev. Joshin Kasai, a disciple of Kōdō Sawaki Roshi. Blanche shared her appreciation for Sawaki’s teaching style with Kosho, and Kosho shared his appreciation of Sawaki with me. In 1990, Soto-Shu Shumucho published “The Zen Teachings of Homeless Kōdō,” Shohaku Okamura’s English translation of Kosho Uchiyama’s 1975 "Yadonashi Hokkusan." For the next ten years, that slim volume was about all there was in English by or about Sawaki Roshi. In the 90s, Association Zen Internationale published a magazine called “Zen Revue.” The first half was in French, and then it would repeat itself (sans photos) in English. I was very excited when I found several issues of this magazine in the reading room at City Center. Being a recently retired punk rocker, I felt compelled to make a fanzine. I spent a glorious day in the City Center copy room amongst boxes of back issues of “Wind Bell.” I felt nervous about being caught as I cut and pasted away while I was supposed to be working. The only person who saw me was Blanche’s husband Lou who asked what I was up to. I told him I was making a Homeless Kōdō magazine for Blanche and Kosho and he said, “far out.” The bits in the second portion of the zine are what was available on the Antai-ji webpage at the time. There’s a lot more available now, but I’ve decided to keep this volume as it originally appeared when it was made. Enjoy. -Koji Dreher Further reading: www.antaiji.org www.zen-road.org Living and Dying in Zazen: Five Zen Masters of Modern Japan by Arthur Braverman .

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