MBZC is a community engaged in the study and practice of Rinzai Zen Buddhism of the Nyorai-Nyoko sect of the Rinzai school, out of the Myoshin-ji Temple. According to LaVon Gentry, one of the active lay participants at MBZC, this is a small school within Rinzai Zen, and it allows only 80 roshis at any given time (Private communication, March 31, 1995). However, the one of the books published by MBZC claims that it is part of the largest of the 14 schools of Rinzai Zen, one that, prior to World War 2, was active in "missionary" work to Japanese emigrants to China, Japan and elsewhere. Whichever is the case, this monastery was founded in 1971 by Joshu Sasaki Roshi, or Kyozan Joshu Roshi (both names are used in MBZC publications). MBZC has been the primary residence for its founding roshi since its inception, and has served as the training site and home for numerous monks and nuns (Radin 1992). In fact, despite several attempts to get the information, a complete list of all those who have been trained at or lived at MBZC could not be obtained, and it is not clear if such a list exists anywhere. One of the current monks estimated the number of full-time and lay monks and nuns ordained by the Roshi at 75-100 (Kido 1/20/96).

Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism which, while having roots in India, was developed primarily in China and was first taken to Japan in the twelfth century. Emphasizing monasticism and meditation, there are two schools of Zen, Rinzai and Soto, Rinzai being the smaller of the two in Japan (Kapleau 1965, 344).

Practitioners of Rinzai Zen face outward during zazen, or seated meditation, and use koans to advance toward enlightenment, which may be achieved in an abrupt dramatic event of satori, or awakening, although there is also an element of continually growing in understanding (Ellwood and Pilgrim 1985, 118; Fischer-Schreiber, Ehrhard, and Diener 1991,178, 255; Ives 1992, 21; Kapleau 1965,45-46).

Roshi is the Japanese term for Zen teacher or master. Joshu Sasaki Roshi was born in 1907 in Japan, to a farming family in Odeira, and was ordained as a monk in 1921 at the age of fourteen, having gone alone 500 miles from his home to the island of Hokkaido. Joshu was noticed by the leaders of the temple as one with a special kind of strength and intuition. He was ordained as a priest in 1947, having demonstrated that he had mastered desire and reached enlightenment, at which time he also became Roshi and abbot, or Yotuku-in, of the monastery at Zuigan-ji. He then became abbot of Shoju-an in 1953. Joshu Roshi remained in Japan until 1962, when he came to live in the United States (Radin 1992; Gallagher 1994, 219).

Prior to Roshi's travel to the West, Daiko Furukawa Kancho came to the United States in 1960 to introduce Zen. He was the head abbot of the Myoshin-ji Temple, which still has its Dharma line in Japan. Shinichi Osho was in the party that accompanied Daiko Furukawa Kancho and Osho stayed behind to work in Los Angeles, while the rest of the party returned to Japan. Osho was contacted by Dr. Robert Harmon, a medical doctor, who wanted someone to teach him the practice of Zen. Dr. Harmon agreed to sponsor a missionary from Japan. Joshu Roshi, still in Japan, agreed to come to California (Radin 1987, 1-4).

On July 18, 1962, Joshu was given the Gate Farewell, the traditional Monso farewell, implying that the one who is being sent off has clarified the Dharma. He arrived in Los Angeles on July 21, 1962, and lived for five years in a house in Gardena provided by Dr. Harmon. Joshu soon began training two disciples in the garage of the house (Radin 1987, 5, Newsletter 1994). According to Jim Muhs, a long-time student of Joshu Roshi, moving to America makes a Zen master special. "It was an act of compassion [a key Buddhist virtue] for a Japanese Roshi to come to America and stay and teach Zen. When he came, he said he was coming to die here, and for a Japanese to leave Japan and die in America..." (Muhs 1994). Joshu Roshi has returned to Japan from time to time for official functions related to the group that sent him, but he is permanently resident in the United States.

Those people who have come to study Zen with Joshu Roshi in the United States are called "students," rather than "novices," whether they come as laypersons or as monastics preparing for ordination. We were unable to ascertain the original reason for this, but in Japan a monastic would be culturally separate from the laity, while at MBZC this is not true. There are many ordained "lay monks" or "lay nuns" who, although they were chosen and ordained by the Roshi, did not go through the monastic training. Monks and nuns normally go through two or three years of training at MBZC prior to ordination, and remain celibate during that time. Some of these will continue in a monastic existence at MBZC or other centers, but others will return to life as a layperson, marry, raise a family and so on. Thus, while there are many formal trappings which come from Japan, the Zen practice has been adapted in many ways to fit Americans. All of those who study with the Roshi are his "students" only some, the monks, are students all-day, year-round, and others are students on a more part-time basis. Thus the difference is more like being at different parts of a continuum than like being on entirely different scales (Gentry 1/19/96; Muhs 1994).

When Joshu Roshi came to the United States, he also brought his wife, Haruyo Sasaki, whom he had married in Japan. She is very much in the background, for when she married him, it was to be a roshi's wife and caretaker, not to become a student of Zen.

When she came to the United States, she was a very traditional Japanese wife, but in the years they have been in the United States, she has become much more Americanized than the Roshi, and is much more fluent in English (Gentry 1/19/96).

It should be noted that while the Roshi is more comfortable with Japanese and uses that language for intellectual work, all informal conversation at MBZC is in English. The monks, nuns, and other students are not required to learn Japanese, but continue to use English for all their work.

On April 21, 1968, Joshu Roshi and his students moved to Cimarron Street in Los Angeles and established the Rinzai-ji school. Soon thereafter, Kodo Osho, one of the first students, founded the Joshu Zen Temple in Redondo Beach, becoming, according to MBZC history, the first ordained American Rinzai monk to establish his own temple (Radin 1987, 5). All of the monks mentioned in this study, from this point on, unless specifically noted otherwise, have been trained and ordained by Joshu Roshi.

After a short time, the Cimarron Street Center became too small for the number of people involved. Approximately fifty students were studying there and the center was still growing. Therefore, the group began to look at Mount Baldy, where there was an abandoned Boy Scout camp for sale. The decision was made to buy the property that is now MBZC, for use as a monastery and residential training center. Gessin Osho, a nun and the Roshi's main assistant at the time, went to Mount Baldy and made all of the arrangements necessary, including getting approval to use the site to house a certain number of people and permission to install chemical toilets and make other minor changes. Beyond the new toilet facilities, the camp basically was left in the condition in which it was purchased. The only major addition has been a bathhouse built a few years ago using a Japanese architectural style. (Muhs 1994). The Cimarron Zen Center remained, and is now known as the Rinzai-ji Zen Center (Newsletter 1994).

When the Roshi moved to MBZC in 1971, making it his headquarters, he left Gentei, one of the ordained monks who assisted him, in charge of the Cimarron Zen Center (Muhs 1994).

Since the purchase of Mount Baldy, the Cimarron, or Rinzai-ji, Center, has been used primarily for ordinations and as a practice center for the lay community of Los Angeles, although dai-sesshins, intensive formal silent practice for a week at a time, are also held there from time to time (Newsletter 1994). The Rinzai-ji center is also the headquarters for major Rinzai-ji celebrations.

At the same time MBZC was founded, several students of Joshu Roshi left Los Angeles and established other centers, including that of Genro Herbert Koudela, who established the Bodhidharma Zendo Wien, in Vienna, Austria. Joshu Roshi also established several other centers in subsequent years, contrary to his early expectation that "I would have six students;" Roshi also recalled "I had no plan to create temples or centers..." (Radin 1992). All these centers are considered to be a part of Rinzai-ji, and will be discussed further under Community (Radin 1987 6).

In 1972, the Roshi entered into several dialogues with Christian monastics and began meditation practice with some of them. He travelled to St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, and held sesshins for the Trappist monks and visiting Zen students. He continued doing these eight-day sesshins with in Massachusetts once or twice a year until 1981. The Roshi wore the robes of a Christian monk occasionally when discussing doctrine with the Trappists. (Radin 1987, 81-82).

Much of the history of MBZC is found in volumes written by the students of Joshu Roshi and printed privately for the every five year celebration of the anniversary of his arrival in the United States; the books used in this summary were those done for the twenty-fifth and thirtieth anniversaries. These volumes include many pictures of the people and activities of MBZC, and its related centers, discussions of Rinzai-ji and transcriptions of some of Joshu Roshi's teachings. At the Roshi's five-year anniversaries, at least up to the present, there have been large gatherings of many of his students. In the other years, the day is celebrated with a luncheon and service at the Rinzai-ji Center.

(Gentry 1/19/96) No one knows if there will be another large celebration in 1997 when the Roshi will be 90 years old, and be celebrating 35 years in the United States.

Outside of two articles, published in 1982 and 1994, and a blurb in the book Buddhist America, no other written sources about MBZC were located. LaVon Gentry mentioned that the Roshi put out a book privately in 1972, titled Center of Gravity, which could not be located. Because the Roshi is more interested in the experiential approach than an intellectual one, he published no more books. This book and MBZC are also mentioned in another handbook on Buddhism, according to Gentry (1/16/96; 1/19/96).

Recently Joshu Sasaki Roshi was given a new title: "Kyozan," meaning "mountain with apricot trees (Kido 1/20/96)." This is his new name as an Osho, and is a higher and more significant title than "Roshi," implying the need to give greater respect to the bearer. The title was given by the Japanese school to which the Roshi is attached, because he is now the oldest living Roshi in the school, a significant attainment in the Japanese culture (Gentry 1/19/96).

As the Roshi ages, the future of MBZC is uncertain. His wife will inherit the property when he dies, but that will not be the biggest difficulty. A far greater question is whether he will name a successor to become roshi after him, which is something he has declined to do so far, and whether the school he is associated with will acknowledge that person, or if they would be interested in sending a new roshi themselves. These seem to be questions which, if they concern any of his students, are not usually raised or discussed with outsiders. In what they do say, the students trust Roshi, acknowledging that he is probably not saying if there is a successor, because he wants everyone to keep working toward fuller realization of satori. There is also a sense among the monks that no roshi is better than having someone who is not qualified trying to serve. In the end though, as good practitioners of Zen, they do not seem to let such concerns disturb them.