2 Quotes & Sayings By Bankei Yotaku
Bankei Yotaku, the founder of Zen in America, was born in Kyoto. His parents were scholars in Zen Buddhism and as a child he studied with them as well as with other teachers. In 1227 he went to China, where he studied under some of the greatest teachers of his time. In 1239 he returned to Japan and remained there for twenty years, becoming a scholar, a philosopher, and a teacher
He established a monastic school that attracted the leading scholars of the day. He became a master of the art of xiao xue (sitting meditation), and established new methods of teaching Zen. He died in 1252 at the age of fifty-one.