Gudo Nishijima

Gudo Nishijima was born in Yokohama, Japan in November 1919, and graduated from the Law Department of Tokyo University in September 1946.

In October 1940 he first met Master Kodo Sawaki, whose teaching he received until Master Kodo’s death in December 1965. During this time, he combined the daily practice of Zazen and study of Shobogenzo with a career at the Japanese Ministry of Finance and at a securities financing company.

In December 1973 he became a priest under the late Master Renpo Niwa, and in December 1977 he received the transmission of Dharma from the same Master, who subsequently became the abbot of Eihei-ji temple. Shortly thereafter he became a consultant to the Ida Ryogokudo company, and in 1987 established the Ida Ryogokudo Zazen Dojo in Ichikawa City near Tokyo.

He continued to give instruction in Zazen, and lectures on Master Dogen’s works, in Japanese and in English, in Tokyo and Osaka and at Tokei-in temple in Shizuoka prefecture into his eighties. He passed away in 2014 at the age of 94.

Gudo Nishijima’s other publications in English include How to Practice Zazen with Joe Langdon, To Meet the Real Dragon with Jeffrey Bailey, and Shinji Shobogenzo with Michael Luetchford and Jeremy Pearson.

Shobogenzo.net is an archive site that Mike created for the works of his teacher. It contains all of Nishijima Roshi’s writings in English, audio and video recordings of his weekly lectures and information about the books published in English and other languages, plus a large amount of reference material on the Shobogenzo.