Harada Seicho was born on August 26, 1940 in Nara, Japan, to a temple priest and his wife. He was
their third child and second son; three younger children, all girls, completed their warm and loving
family. He had a normal childhood, playing with his younger sisters and leading them into the usual
mischief children get into, including devising creative ways to get unto the theaters for free to view his
passion- adventure films. The temple was poor and times were hard; there was no extra money for
such things.
Although his father was an Osho-san and he was raised in a Buddhist temple, young Seicho was not
interested in becoming a Buddhist priest. As a child he was fascinated by rockets and wanted to
become a pilot. By his teenage years he was thinking of becoming a psychologist, having by then
developed a keen interest in the nature of the human mind.
This plan was to change abruptly one day when his father asked him to deliver something to Myoshin-ji,
the headquarters temple of his family temple. In his own words:
It was early, so the buses were very crowded. I had to push through his packed crowd of people to
board the bus. then move all the way to the back. As I did so, all of a sudden I came up someone who
struck me as most unusual. He had a mysterious presence – there was something luminous about him.
There he was, an old priest in robes, wearing glasses and reading a book, yet he glowed with a type of
light. In comparison, the people around him seemed so weighed down by their thoughts and cares. I
stood in the aisle, a youth who didn´t like Buddhism and lived in a temple only because of the
circumstances of his birth, and yet I was deeply moved by this intelligent- looking man who seemed so
deep and so still and who radiated such brightness of spirit. Why did he seemed so different from
everyone else on the bus? I had never met a person like this before, and I couldn´t figure out what was
so inspiring about him. There I was, having been brought up in a way I didn´t want to continue, thinking
that temples and priests were really not appealing, when all of a sudden this mysterious person
appears with all his great depth, who was obviously a priest. Why would he choose this way of
expressing himself? I was so intrigued by this man and the question he was presenting to me by his
whole presence, that when the priest got off I followed him. It turned out that this person, Yamada
Mumon, was on his way to Reiun-in, a small Buddhist temple in Myoshin-ji. I followed him right to the
gate and saw him go in.
Yamada Mumon Roshi was a Zen master in the lineage of Tenryu-ji, and the abbot of Shofuku-ji in
Kobe. Mumon Roshi was also the abbot of Reiun-in, a sub-temple of Myoshin-ji, and president of
Hanazono University, the Rinzai Buddhist university the young Harada would soon attend.
It was this encounter that made me realize how limited my understanding of Buddhism was. I saw there
was a whole aspect of the religion that I knew nothing about. Despite growing up in the temple world I
had turned my back on its teachings; I doubt I would ever have become a monk if I had not met Mumon
Roshi.
Because of him I saw for the first time how the inner quality of a person can shine forth from his entire
being, and I wished to know more about the teachings that so illuminated Mumon Roshi. While young
Harada was attending Hanazono University his father died, and his older brothers took over the family
temple in Nara. This freed Harada to choose his own path in life. Upon graduating from university, he
headed-on foot, over the mountains and through the forests – to Shofuku-ji in Kobe, and became a
monk under Mumon Roshi. He was given the name ShoDo (True Way).
He trained hard at Shofuku-ji, doing many intensive week-long retreats (sesshins). However, after one
particular sesshin he felt completely dissatisfied with his mind state; though he had been trying very
hard, he still hadn´t realized kensho. After two further years of intense training and still no kensho, he
sought out Mumon Roshi to ask his permission to leave the monastery. He wanted to go into the
mountains to practice alone until he attained awakening, he said. Mumon Roshi said nothing but looked
at him for a few moments, then asked, “What will happen if you don´t realize kensho?” “I won´t come
back until I do!” was the determined reply. He was given permission to go.
Camping in the mountains between Hiroshima and Shimane Prefectures, he sat zazen long and hard,
determined to somehow breakthrough. How much time passed, he did not know. Then one Sunday
afternoon some hikers encountered him and stopped to ask questions: “Are you a Buddhist monk?”
Answered in the affirmative, they commented, “How fortunate you are to be able to practice all day, all
week like this! We have to work in the world, so we only have this one day in which to come up onto the
mountain and chant the Buddha´s name.” Suddenly,
it was like all of my burdens had dropped off, as if someone had hit me on the back and everything was
awakened within. I realized right then the mistake I´d been making and immediately went back to the
monastery. That day on the mountain I realized that there was no self to be bothered! I had been
crushing myself and making myself miserable worrying about the problem of realizing enlightenment,
when in fact it was found in the living of every single day! Everything would come to me even if I did
nothing and ceased worrying about my own little problems. Not to isolate myself up on a mountain,
closed off from everyone, turning them all away and worrying about my own small state of mind, but to
go and be what every day brought to me-that was my practice and the expression of my enlightenment!
Ever since I realized that, my whole life has been completely different. I know there is no problem for
myself, because there is no one there to feel that there is a problem. When I came back from the
mountain I knew that what I had to do with my life was to live it totally with the purpose of bringing this
crystal clear awareness to other people. And that´s all I really wanted to do-that was, in fact, what I´d
been doing from the beginning, but I had stifled it in a small, egoistic way. I´d gone to the mountain for
only my own enlightenment; it had been an expression of my ego. But because of that I´d been able to
awaken to that greater purpose, awaken to that greater Self that had work to do in this world.
Afterwards my zazen was very different. Before when I sat I would do so with a heavy sense of myself.
Now I didn´t have that at all, but felt in my sitting as though I was being lived through by another great
energy. For the first time my eyes wouldn´t move during zazen, but would be drawn into the floor where
I was looking. During kinhin -walking mediation- my eyes would be drawn into the place I was looking,
and I wouldn´t feel like looking around. This went on for several days, bringing me to a place where I
could answer koans much faster. The things that had been obstructing me weren´t there anymore. I
saw how easily I could understand what my teacher was saying. The koans and the words I received
when I passed the koans seemed obvious to me, and I could grasp their meaning very quickly. I sat
lightly and energetically, and didn´t feel heavy anymore. What had happened to me on the mountain
had turned my life around.
Shodo Harada practiced at Shofuku-ji for twenty years. One day the elderly abbot of Sogen-ji called on
Mumon-roshi and requested a successor for the temple. Mumon-roshi chose Shodo Harada, and in
1983, having received inka -formal transmission, Harada came to Sogen-ji to teach, welcoming people
from all over the world. Some years later he journeyed to the United States to teach, leading his first
sesshin there in 1989 for the group that eventually established Tahoma Sogenji Zen Monastery on
Whidbey Island, Washington. A few years later he began traveling and offering sesshins in Europe.
Eventually a Central place was established by ShoE; Hokuozan Monastery in Asendorf, Germany. Each
year he goes to southern India as well, to lead sesshin at the Indozan Monastery established by his
Indian student Bodhidharma. Groups of his students have sprung up all over the world since then. Truly
living the title Zen Master, he does all of this in addition to keeping an extremely full schedule of
teaching and sesshin in Sogen-ji Monastery in Okayama, Japan. He is utterly dedicated to keeping the
Buddha Dharma alive at its most profound level.
One Drop Community
After having trained for longer periods of time at Sogenji Monastery in Okayama Japan, students of
Harada Roshi returned to their home countries and started small sitting groups to continue and support
their practice. Now there are One Drop Zendos in many countries that offer the possibility for old and
new practitioners to join and practice together. There are three central places of practice: Tahoma San
Sogenji Monastery on Whidbey Island, USA; Hokuozan Sogenji Monastery in Asendorf Germany, and
Indozan Sogenji now being established near Adillabad in Andrah Pradesh in India.These central places
offer the possibility of more intensive practice and host 7-day retreats with Shodo Harada Roshi. You
can find more information on the different groups and monasteries under “Community”.
One Drop of Water from Sogenji
When Giboku Zenji was nineteen years old he entered Sogenji monastery and trained under Gisan
Zenrai Zenji. One day the young monk was making the bath. When he felt it was ready, he called Gisan
Zenrai Zenji to come, yet when hismaster tried to enter the bath the water had become too hot. In those
times the baths were an iron pot filled with water and heated from below by a wood fuelled fire, so when
the water seems just right the still burning fire will continue to raisethe temperature further. To get it to
the most comfortable heat Gisan Zenrai Zenji ordered his student to bring cold water. Giboku Zenji ran
to the well and began bringing cold water in wooden buckets. It was hard work running back and forth
and pulling the water out of the well by a rope. After enough buckets had been brought his teacher said
that it had becomethe perfect temperature and asked him to stop adding the cold water. Thinking that
his work was over he threw the water remaining in the buckets away, without a thought. Suddenly Gisan
Zenrai Zenji was screaming at him, “Why are you throwing away this water? Why didn’t you take it
outside and pour it ona plant where it could have turned into that plant’s life energy. If you just discard it
then it is meaningless water.” The nineteen year old was so remorseful about his behaviour that he
vowed to follow his master’s teaching and never waste evenone drop of water again. He also changed
his name to Tekisui (One Drop) Giboku Zenji. Later he became the successor of Gisan Zenrai Zenji and
returned to be abbot of Tenryuji during a time of political changes. Many people during this civil war died
and lost their homes and even Tenryuji was burned down to the ground.Buddhism, which had for 300
years supported the political system of Japan, was now forbidden. Yet with the help of his student, the
great swordsman Yamaoka Tesshu, Tekisui Giboku worked hard to have Buddhism re-established,
even bringing his case to the highest politicians. After five years of struggle, the ban on Buddhism was
removed and it flourished again. In his death poem it says: “The one drop of Sogen, Seventy six years,
Receiving and using the teaching. It never got used up, Moving freely throughout heaven and earth.”