Egoku Domyo

Egoku Dōmyō (Japanese慧 极 道 明; * 1632 in the Japanese province of Nagato, † 1721) was a monk, an early convert to the Japanese Obaku shū of Japanese Zen Buddhism, which significantly the young organization with built.

Journey

Egoku Dōmyō was born the fifth son in the Oda family, vassals of the daimyo of Chōshū -han. His mother died when he was young, so he was raised by an uncle. Nine -year old he was placed in a small temple, which belonged to the Rinzai shū. There he took the tonsure at age 17.

When he learned in 1650 that Yeh -lan, a Dharma heir of the Chinese Zen master Yin Yuan wanted to come to Japan, he went with Jikuin on the way to Nagasaki. On the way they met at a roadhouse Tao - che (道 者, Japanese Dosha Chōgen ). Egoku followed this in his temple Sofuku -ji. After three years he left the temple to go on tour. The reason was that he had heard, like a Patron ( danochi ) had expressed the monks were effeminate, because they, true to the Chinese practice, in the afternoon a third - " medical " - ate supper. From 1658 he went for six years in the seclusion of a hermitage.

Tao - che asked on his deathbed in 1662 that his disciples should go to Yin -yuan for instruction. Egoku and 20 others made the now in Mampuku -ji established teachers to pay their respects. Egoku was ordained in 1665 in the style of Obaku again and remained for several years in their main temple, where he was taught by Chi -fei.

From Mu to 1671 then he received inka (印 可). This put him in 1674 as his second Dharma successor, after Tetsugyū Doki, a. He devoted many years to the creation or restoration of temples, a total of 12 lead him as the founder of which also be the main temple, the Daiho -san Houn -ji (大 宝山 法 云 寺) in the province of Kawachi. He was then from 1687 abbot of Zuishō -ji. He held in 1691 from the largest to date ordination ceremony ( sandan kaie ), as about 2000 people attended the various vows.

The members appointed by him 42 Dharma heirs and their successors were the Shōrige - line within the Obaku.

Literature and sources

• Helen Baroni: Obaku Zen. The Emergence of the Third Sect of Zen in Tokugawa Japan. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu 2000, ISBN 0-8248-2195-5
• Masafumi Rinoie: Obaku sanketsu Egoku Dōmyō the Zenji. Tokyo 1981

Comments

• Obaku Zen
• Person of Zen Buddhism
• Japanese
• Born in 1632
• Died in 1721
• Man