Born 1937, Hitoyoshi City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan.
Graduating in Buddhist Studies from Hanazono University in 1959, begins 12 years of training under Yamada Mumon Roshi at Shofuku-ji Monastery. Thereafter, continues studies under the Hanazono University President Omori Sogen Roshi, receives the transmission of the Dharma, and is given the name Muishitsu.
Through the Zen Culture Research Institute, currently Vice Dean of the Religions Department at Hanazono University.
NHK Culture Center Lecturer, Asahi Culture Center Lecturer.
Councilor, World Religionists Peace Council, Japan Committee (WCRP).
Chairman, Kameoka Forum for Friendly Religious Dialogue.
Kyoto International Zendo Roshi.
Rinzai Zen Myoshinji Subsect Toko-ji Head Priest.

This is the presentation and biography of Hozumi Gensho Roshi, taken from the site of the International Kokusai Zendo

Hozumi gensho Roshi and Master Tiberti during a Sesshin

These sanzen are not taken literally or registrated

Sanzen, 2nd day of Easter Sesshin, during Sarei (or Tea Cerimony): "We can see the quality of our Zazen when we "move" and by the way we "move"." ("move" means the global and integrated modality of the expression of the Energy-Body-and-Mind complex in the everyday existence.)

Sanzen, Easter 2002's Sesshin: "Today is the last day of the Sesshin:in these three days we have been making an effort, it is not a little thing. We have to be proud of what we have done, but through this effort we must comprehend how much it has still to be done. Therefore we have to be proud but humble to get better in everyday life, to bring the Practice in our life, bring in it the Spirit of Zazen." (or ZazenShin)

9th July 2002 Sanzen: "The ideogram that symbolizes Zazen represents two men sitted on a heart. Who are these two men? They are "Me" and "Me". Rinzai, the founder of our school, talked about "a Real Man without Rank". Who is this Real Man without Rank, who is sitted on this mass of red flesh and blood? The students didn't understand, then Rinzai uttered his "Kwats" (Kiai of the Master): "Do you understand- he said- do you hear now?".

Group of Zazen during a stage on Città Ducale(Rieti)

Sanzen of the 1st-2nd and 3rd of November 2002:

1st November 2002 Sanzen:

"Today is the first day of the Sesshin. It hasn't been easy coming here: we had to organized, asking for permission or favours. Then let's use well this time to practice"

2nd November 2002 Sanzen:

"In the Tea Cerimony there are fundamental principles: Kei, Rei, Jaku and Wa. Wa is the same Kanji that we find present in the Otzuka Sensei's Wado ryu. This condition of armony, that during Zazen we can find more easily, we should make an effort to bring it in our everyday-life. Why when we're in Zazen we find that we move easily in a natural way? The same taste of the tea that we drink during Sarei is different from another tea we can drink in our everyday-life: this is because the experience of Zazen takes us to the Existence's fullness and then we are immersed completely in what we are doing, even drinking the tea. If a person is "disunited" he can't be able to live an experience being totally immersed in it.

Zazen sends us towards a condition of naturalness and harmony.

Let's think about instead, for example, how in the everyday life occasions in which an experience is shared all together, like being at the table, are often cause for fighting: many people fight and "argue" at the table; this whole thing is very sad.

Then we have to learn first to find again this condition of naturalness and harmony in the Practice, and then bring it into our everyday life.

Master Shunryu Sukuzi used to say: "Make a good bread" : to make a good bread we need the right dose of flour and water, the man who makes the dough, the right grade of leavening and baking. If the ingredients are absent, it won't be possible to make the bread, if we don't follow carefully every phase the bread will be maked but it won't be good.

Originally there is a condition of harmony in our mind, it is present yet, but, even if it's present yet, we have paradoxically to restore it. Then we can see how many things we can learn even from a little thing like serving the tea."

Sanzen 03/11/2002:

"There is a word in sanskrit: "Karma" and it means literally "Causal Law of Retribution". This concept exists in the indian culture before the Buddhism. It means that every act we do produces an effect.

We accept this Law, which is a Phisical Law too, that scientifically we accept so well, with many difficulties we accept for our spiritual life.

Zazen bring us to see this law: from a good thought come infinite good thoughts, from a bad thought come infinite bad thoughts. So a negative attitude can generate a series of effetcs, and the same thing is for a positive attitude. The Law of Karma teaches us that there is nothing that it's separated from another thing. Zazen practice put us in front of our Karma.

As we know, Zazen has the symbol of an ideogram which represents two men seated on a heart, that are literally "I and I": we can see, through Zazen, our bad part and our good part.

We can look our suffering in the face. Of course, for example, our positive Karma resides in the fact of being here and having the chance to experience this practice, and receiving this teaching. Regarding to our negative part, when we look at it, we must have the strenght to change it. To comprehend the Karma we must understand the Intercorrelation between the Things: Intercorrelation means that all the things are linked together, and because it is so, it means that all the things are empty; but we must understand that the concept of the "Void" doesn't mean that nothing exists. One day Master Hozumi took a flower and, showing it, said to me: "This flower blossoms from the Void". Life itselfs comes from the Void.

It is said in Zen: "From the Void the Admirable Being appears". Therefore the Void is the condition for things to be in exsistence. Since there is the Void you can hear while I talk to you, you can see my hand if I move it: this is "I-shin-den-shin". In the Zen it is said about the "Courageous Mind": the Courageous Mind is the one that sees this negativity in the face, directly and changes it, acting resolutely, without esitations. We don't have to think about the suffering we feel during Zazen as a "Self-Mortification"; Zazen is not that.

I will read now few verses, written by Buddha: "But the Suffering is just an aspect of the exsistence. If you stay in the cage of your suffering you won't ever see the beauty of your hearts, the beauty of your bodies. Notable Guests, take a moment"- the moment of which Buddha talks is Here and Now-"to look at a stream, or at the golden petals of a flower, or at the sunbeams of the first morning."- The look of the Buddha is an infinite, eternal look- "If you are closed in your prison you won't be able to see the world with a sense of wonder, but there will only anxiety, depression and suffering for you."

Therefore if we are closed in this cage of which the Buddha talks, we can't feel wonder or gratitude towards life. The ultimate sense of Zazen is not to suffer. Coming here, sitting and then sitting correctly: that's it; we can't think "this pain will end" or "now I can't, I will do it another time": this is attachment! Here and Now is the Eternity. It has not a moment different than now. There isn't an occasion similar to this. Besides, we couldn't feel a suffering that is not exsisting yet at first. And then let's see, with our Courageous Mind, our Karma. We see during these days the earthquackes and the suffering of those involved and we say: "This is not fair"; for having acquired a little bit of cognition, we feel like we have the right to be dismayed towards existence.

This is not the right attitude, or even a mean saying: "Fortunately it wasn't my turn". A right attitude is saying:"I am alive. In which way do I demonstrate my gratitude for the fact that I exsist?". In which way are we grateful for being alive?

Once a famous Master answered to the question about what was gratitude: "Sitting all alone in my temple". Apparently this answer could seem a position of egoism, but it isn't at all. That which the Master referred to was the gratitude for having had the enormous possibility to practice.

The position that we occupy in our life is connected to Karma, and if it creates the conditions for us to practice, we must be very grateful. But as long as we remain, as Buddha says, caged in the prison of our Ego, we won't be.

If it wants to rain, it rains, if the Earth wants to tremble, it trembles and if our hearts want to beat they do, if they want to stop they stop.

One day the Master Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, finding himself in Los Angeles for a conference, during which the greatest scientific minds of that era was comparising impressions with each other about the greatest philosophical System, intervened saying:" If now, just only for a second, the Earth trembled hard, what would be of all your philosophical System?".

Is the Ocean of Reality: it's unfathomable and very mysterious the Reality of exsistence. Our fenomenic exsistence is not eternal and we have to be grateful to be living in this human form: is this human form that gives us the chance to understand.

Inside us there is an Self-reflection capability, which means that as human beings we are able to be specular towards what happens inside and outside of ourselves. Master Hozumi says:" We have a mirror", that means we own an internal mirror, through which we have the capability to comprehend."

Master Tiberti in Zazen

Sanzen 08/12/20002:

"The last time we talked about the suffering: the Suffering inside Zazen is different from the suffering in everyday life. Why? Because suffering into Zazen is an "opening suffering", that is completely different from that mentioned before. Our suffering is not self-determined: it grows from circumstances, and most of all, from the way in which we interact with them and how we react to them. While we are in Zazen we interact with the circumstances feeling a suffering because we make an effort to open ourselves. Differently, in the everyday life our own reactions often determine our suffering.

A great Master, Yamahoka Tesshu, master of Sword and Calligraphy, wrote the poem:

"Perfect when there are the clouds,

Perfect when there is the sun,

the real essence of the Mount Fuji' peak

it's not touched by that"

What does this mean? Only the one who find himself in that condition, only who is there can say this. This wonderful poem, infact, remains only a cultural and intellectual display if one's not really there. There is the need to posses the right to pronounce such a phrase,which can be true and not only a conceptual affirmation. If this affirmation is true in the heart then it can be pronounced.

Tesshu was a great Master, whose enlightment was recognized by the greatest zen masters to him contemporary, and he had a life full of ups and downs; he was an officer of the Emperor; and yet he always had an unstable economic situation, because he never gave matter to fame and money. Often he was in debt and lived many years of his life in deep poverty. In spite of that, Tesshu practiced compassion over all the sentient beings, over animals too: he saved, infact, from the dog-catcher of those days,who killed them by beating them with sticks, a great number of dogs, hanging on their necks the plate with his name written on it. Everyday there was rice for these dogs.

Moreover Tesshu was a great Master of Sword and a great artist and Master of Calligraphy. In the latest part of his life he fell ill with a stomach cancer, but until tha last day of his life he trained in the sword, he kept on producing great calligraphy pieces, and he practiced Zazen intensively.

When, as commonly it is said, he passed, and as in the Buddhism it is said, he entered the "Eternal Samadhi", he sat in the Lotus Position and after being passed away he stayed in the position. He did not fall, but he stayed in the same posture.

And yet there is a higher level than the one that Tesshu gained, and it's the level that Buddha attained.

But, as long as our Zazen will stay disunited from our life, we won't ever experience such a condition; indeed until our Zazen stays disunited from our existence, and we aren't able to bring it in our everyday life, as long as our zazen and our life are two separate things, there can be only a condition of suffering.

Stage on the Terminillo Mountain: the Master and students practice Tanden-Kokyu after Zazen

Sanzen 26/12/2002:

Daruma, Bodhidarma in Sanskrit, Tamo in Chinese, first Patriarch of the Chinese Zen, gave a very important teaching: he said that: " During Zazen it hasn't to be bear the bearable, it has to be bear the unbearable". In the everyday life the "normal" people bear the bearable, but they certainly haven't the pretensions to become a Buddha, an Enlightened Being. Therefore for those who practice the effort must consist in bearing the unbearable.

Hui-neng, Sixth Patriarch of Zen, said that practicing Zazen means "sitting on the border-line between Life and Death". Dogen Zenjii, founder of the Zen Soto, but recognized as a great Enlightened Master from all of the Schools, says: "sitting in the middle of the problem". Rujing, master of Dogen, during a sesshin of profound meditation, said to Dogen a phrase, after which Dogen had the Enlightment: "Letting go body and mind", in japanese: "Shin Jin Datsu Raku". Datsu Raku means letting go, letting fall. Four Master, therefore, that gave in different ways, the same teaching: the one of letting go the Ego.

When we practice we must let go body and mind, and we mustn't stay attached to our Personal Ego: if we stay, when we practice, attached to our vision of the world to our vision of ourselves and of the way we represent ourselves and to our vision of reality it is not possible that our real "self" manifests itself. If we get up from Zazen only because we moved an allux and we let go the position we must understand that this is wrong, because probably we bring the same attitude in our everyday life. We must stay sitted, in the middle of the problem: if we are able to do it manteining a correct formal position, it's better, of course, but the fundamental thing is staying in Zazen, as we are in that moment. Then even in the suffering of that moment we manifest ourselves: in that moment we are in that way.This is very important, as even Master Hozumi says, doing Zazen with other people and manifest ourselves, even our suffering, without being ashamed. Of course, when we practice Zazen intensively it happens to feel suffering, but we must try to let go our personal ego, and this requirres a great effort.

It's been Christmas in these days: Christmas represents a birth, and even this birth can happen in Zazen.The thoughts and the emotional floating that we feel during Zazen are moments that come into being, determine themselves and die: when I think: " How I feel good in zazen in this moment" this is a thought that comes into being, determines itself and dies, but even when I feel "How I feel bad now in Zazen" is a thought that comes into being, determines itself and dies; in this floating there is the border between life and death: the same cells of our bodies come into being and die many times during the course of our existence. Even later when we don't feel anymore floating of emotions and we have some perceptions, we must be careful because those perceptions are not the truth. During the first sesshin, talking about Zazenshin, the Spirit of Zazen, I said, referring the first Koan of the Master, that is like one, who's hanging in the void over a precipice attached with his teeth to a branch, who's asked to speak: if you can speak about Zazen letting go the branch, if you are able to fear not to fall into the void maybe then there is a Comprehension of the Spirit of Zazen.

Hozumi Gensho Roshi reciting the Sutra "Hannya Shingyo", during the inauguration of the Suikinkutsu in Assisi

Sanzen 05/03/03:

during the sanzen, after have listened to a recording the Master asks the students what is the listened sound: " It is a sound that is produced by the water falling in some particular Japanese pools that, being constructed with some particular stones, produces this sound and the name of such pools is Suikinkutsu. The Suikinkutsu was a Japanese use very ancient that had been lost, but that now it
has been restored. The water comes poured on stones and gives back this sound of peace. In this way the water returns to the earth and neither one drop goes wasted .
This Fountain of the Suikinkutsu
is called also "Japanese ARPA" for the melody that itproduces,
and also the humbler persons possessed one of it. On the1st March has been inaugurated a similar Fontana in the chiostro of the Basilica of S. Francisco in Assisi in order to carry this sound of peace in thecity that is the symbol of the Peace in the world.
It was present also master Hozumi, promotore of this event, that has recited the Sutras and has inaugurated the Suikinkutsu.
Years ago, when I practiced the Misogi with a Master of Aikido, he said with regard to the persons "there is nothumidity". A person with "a not humid" heart is whitered, cold. A dry heart is a heart depressed, full of destruction thoughts, first of all towards himself and then towards the others. Only a barren heart can have thoughts and desires of death, destruction and war. The life, instead, comes from the humidity. In the body of our mother, during the pregnancy, we are in a humid and silent and dark atmosphere, like during Zazen. A flower can be born if the water catches up it and from the seed then the life is born. But the water can be also a terrible destructive force, like in the storms, when it is get loosed in its power. Therefore we do not have to think that the peace is to passively endure the events that happen to us; like in the martial Way that we follow, it is necessary a great effort, because the peace has to be conquered, and it does not exist one external peace without one inner peace. The heart of the man, in its deep nature, is humid, is a peace heart."

Hozumi Gensho Roshi and Master Tiberti outside S. Francesco Cathedral