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Zen Pioneer: The Life and Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki
Ruth Fuller Sasaki, who died in 1967, was a pivotal figure in the emergence and development of Zen Buddhism in the United States. She is the only Westerner — and woman — to be made a priest of a Daitoku-ji temple and was mentor to Burton Watson, Philip Yampolsky, and Gary Snyder, and mother-in-law of Alan Watts. This is the first biography of her remarkable life.
Few devoted their lives to Zen Buddhism as Ruth Fuller did. As a senior student of Sokei — an Sasaki in New York — Ruth helped him develop the infrastructure of what would eventually become The First Zen Institute in New York City. She married Sasaki in 1944, and it was her mission to maintain the Institute and later, to establish The First Zen Institute of America in Japan. Her legacy remains today in the Zen facilities she helped build in New York and abroad and in the many texts she saw through translation, published from the 1950s to the 1970s. For the first time in book form, three of her writings are included here — A Religion, A Method for Religious Awakening, and Rinzai Zen Study for Foreigners in Japan.
Few devoted their lives to Zen Buddhism as Ruth Fuller did. As a senior student of Sokei — an Sasaki in New York — Ruth helped him develop the infrastructure of what would eventually become The First Zen Institute in New York City. She married Sasaki in 1944, and it was her mission to maintain the Institute and later, to establish The First Zen Institute of America in Japan. Her legacy remains today in the Zen facilities she helped build in New York and abroad and in the many texts she saw through translation, published from the 1950s to the 1970s. For the first time in book form, three of her writings are included here — A Religion, A Method for Religious Awakening, and Rinzai Zen Study for Foreigners in Japan.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published September 14, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 24, 2017
The biography section felt a little too much like a hagiography. Any aspect of her life that seemed like it might actually be interesting was quickly glossed over.
The latter selections of Ruth Fuller Sasaki's writings suffer from being dated but otherwise are perfectly nice.
The latter selections of Ruth Fuller Sasaki's writings suffer from being dated but otherwise are perfectly nice.
April 25, 2013
A fine biography of an important figure in Zen studies
On Ruth Fuller's first trip to Japan in 1930, she was introduced to D. T. Suzuki through a mutual friend from Chicago. Suzuki taught the society matron about Zen, giving her a copy of his groundbreaking Essays in Zen Buddhism as a primer. Two years later, Fuller was receiving instruction in zazen meditation from Nanshinken Roshi at Nanzen-ji. After some preliminary training, she was allowed to attend the summer sesshin with the monks in Nanzen-ji's meditation hall. At first, she found the regimen tiring and painful. But she made tremendous progress and soon won over those in the group who had been initially hostile to the idea of having a woman in the zendo. It was a peak experience for Fuller, and she never looked back. Zen was what both she and the West needed and she would do her best to spread this new faith in America.
The middle section of Isabel Stirling's biography takes up Fuller Sasaki's efforts to firmly establish Zen studies in New York City. There had been a fledging organization headed by Sasaki Sokei-an called the Buddhist Society of America throughout the 1930s. During the years 1941-1948, Fuller Sasaki put her considerable talents and her wealth into consolidating the efforts of Sasaki Sokei-an and others into a viable organization. Towards this end, she bought and renovated a five-story brownstone on East 65th Street in 1941. The Buddhist Society (later, the First Zen Institute of America) was to have the first two floors; Sasaki Sokei-an, the third floor; and Ruth and her family the top two floors. But the war soon forced them to radically alter their plans. Sasaki Sokei-an was incarcerated at Fort Meade International Camp and Fuller had to spend the better part of a year extricating him. The couple married after he was released. But Sasaki Sokei-an died soon afterwards, leaving Fuller Sasaki widowed again and the newly formed First Zen Institute of America without a teacher.
The final part of the book documents the Kyoto years (1949-1967), a period of amazing productivity for both Ruth Fuller Sasaki and the First Zen Institute. Although Sasaki was still heavily involved with the goings on of the First Zen Institute of America in New York City, she shifted her time and her energy to developing the First Zen Institute of America in Japan in Kyoto. It was during these years that Sasaki acquired the use of Ryosen-an within the Daitoku-ji complex as her administrative center, rebuilt the main house and constructed a library and a zendo. This activity was followed by an equally prodigious research program that resulted in a series of very high quality books and pamphlets on Zen (Three by Sasaki are reprinted in the Stirling biography).
In 1957, the research team at Ryosen-an included Iriya Yoshitaka, Yanagida Seizan, Kanaseki Hisao, Burton Watson, Philip Yampolsky, and Gary Snyder. Although this core group later disbanded due to a misunderstanding, the work continued under Sasaki's editorship. The First Zen Institute published a translation by Gary Snyder called Wooden Fish in 1961, Zen Koan in 1965, and Zen Dust in 1966. All of these are now considered classics of Zen thought.
Ruth Fuller Sasaki died at Ryosen-an in 1967 at the age of 74. Two other books; The Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang (1971) and The Recorded Sayings of Ch'an Master Lin-chi Hui-chao of Chen Prefecture (1975) were published posthumously.
On Ruth Fuller's first trip to Japan in 1930, she was introduced to D. T. Suzuki through a mutual friend from Chicago. Suzuki taught the society matron about Zen, giving her a copy of his groundbreaking Essays in Zen Buddhism as a primer. Two years later, Fuller was receiving instruction in zazen meditation from Nanshinken Roshi at Nanzen-ji. After some preliminary training, she was allowed to attend the summer sesshin with the monks in Nanzen-ji's meditation hall. At first, she found the regimen tiring and painful. But she made tremendous progress and soon won over those in the group who had been initially hostile to the idea of having a woman in the zendo. It was a peak experience for Fuller, and she never looked back. Zen was what both she and the West needed and she would do her best to spread this new faith in America.
The middle section of Isabel Stirling's biography takes up Fuller Sasaki's efforts to firmly establish Zen studies in New York City. There had been a fledging organization headed by Sasaki Sokei-an called the Buddhist Society of America throughout the 1930s. During the years 1941-1948, Fuller Sasaki put her considerable talents and her wealth into consolidating the efforts of Sasaki Sokei-an and others into a viable organization. Towards this end, she bought and renovated a five-story brownstone on East 65th Street in 1941. The Buddhist Society (later, the First Zen Institute of America) was to have the first two floors; Sasaki Sokei-an, the third floor; and Ruth and her family the top two floors. But the war soon forced them to radically alter their plans. Sasaki Sokei-an was incarcerated at Fort Meade International Camp and Fuller had to spend the better part of a year extricating him. The couple married after he was released. But Sasaki Sokei-an died soon afterwards, leaving Fuller Sasaki widowed again and the newly formed First Zen Institute of America without a teacher.
The final part of the book documents the Kyoto years (1949-1967), a period of amazing productivity for both Ruth Fuller Sasaki and the First Zen Institute. Although Sasaki was still heavily involved with the goings on of the First Zen Institute of America in New York City, she shifted her time and her energy to developing the First Zen Institute of America in Japan in Kyoto. It was during these years that Sasaki acquired the use of Ryosen-an within the Daitoku-ji complex as her administrative center, rebuilt the main house and constructed a library and a zendo. This activity was followed by an equally prodigious research program that resulted in a series of very high quality books and pamphlets on Zen (Three by Sasaki are reprinted in the Stirling biography).
In 1957, the research team at Ryosen-an included Iriya Yoshitaka, Yanagida Seizan, Kanaseki Hisao, Burton Watson, Philip Yampolsky, and Gary Snyder. Although this core group later disbanded due to a misunderstanding, the work continued under Sasaki's editorship. The First Zen Institute published a translation by Gary Snyder called Wooden Fish in 1961, Zen Koan in 1965, and Zen Dust in 1966. All of these are now considered classics of Zen thought.
Ruth Fuller Sasaki died at Ryosen-an in 1967 at the age of 74. Two other books; The Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang (1971) and The Recorded Sayings of Ch'an Master Lin-chi Hui-chao of Chen Prefecture (1975) were published posthumously.
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