Shodo Harada, or Harada Rōshi, is a Rinzai priest, author, calligrapher, and head abbot of Sōgen-ji — a three-hundred-year-old temple in Okayama, Japan. He has become known as a "teacher of teachers", with masters from various lineages coming to sit sesshin with him in Japan or during his trips to the United States and Europe.
Biography
Shodo Harada was born into a Zen temple in 1940 in Nara, Japan. While still in high school he encountered his teacher, Mumon Yamada, while running an errand for his father to Myōshin-ji. He was impressed by how little he knew of Buddhism at this encounter. After college he entered Shofukuji and began his training in 1962 under Rinzai Zen master and Japanese calligrapher Mumon Yamada, from whom he received Dharma transmission in 1982. In 1982 he was sent by Mumon to Sogen-ji to help an elderly abbot tend to the building and training schedules, which is the main of the four pillars where he is still teaching now. In September 1989, Harada came to the United States to provide instruction for students and in 1995 founded Tahoma Sogenji Zen Monastery on Whidbey Island in Island County, Washington, where the practice mirrors the practices found at Sogen-ji. This is the second pillar. The third pillar being Indozan Sogenji near the town of Adilabad in Telanaga state, central India. Long time student Bodhidharuma Osho is teaching there and offering training for young boys in residence and sesshins for locals. Harada Roshi leads a sesshin in Indozan once every August. The fourth pillar is Hokuozan Sogenji in Asendorf Germany, being the central place for the many One Drop groups all over Europe. Taikan ShoE is in residence there. Harada Roshi is leading sesshins 3-4 times a year in Hokuozan. Further information and teachings can be found on the website Onedropzen.org Nearby the Tahoma One Drop Monastery, Harada has opened a hospice known as Enso House in 2001. Among those Western teachers that study with Harada Roshi are Hogen Bays, Jan Chozen Bays, Mitra Bishop, Alan Hozan Senauke, and Paul Haller. Roshi flew to the United States to perform the Jukai ceremony of Damien Echols. Echols was wrongly convicted of the 1993 murders of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Whilst in prison, Echols began practicing Buddhism.
