Robert Yanasak's guest appearances

Robert Yanasak

Audio & Video - Jikoji Zen Center

OwlTail

This week’s talk is by Robert Yanasak. Robert (Seiko Taikan) is retired as a Mechanical Design Draftsman/Supervisor at Perkin-Elmer, Leica and other Bay Area companies.Robert began sitting in the Fall of 1966 in San Francisco, sitting his first Rinzai sesshin with his first teacher Soen Nakagawa Roshi in the spring of 1967. He continued to sit alone but sat sesshins with Soen Roshi when he came in once a year. Eventually he sat with Eido Shimano Roshi at Dai Bosatsu for their first and second practice periods in the fall of 75 and spring of 76. Returning to Berkeley, he began to study with Kobun Chino Otogawa who ordained him a monk in the spring of 1980. He practiced with Kobun until the summer of 1984 when he moved into Berkeley Zen Center, where he lived and practiced with Sojun Mel Weitsman for nine years, sole purpose to dissolve this illusion that practice and having a working life were separate, eventually leaving to practice with Akiba Roshi who gave him transmission in 2006 after two practice periods in Japan, one in 2000 and the other in 2006.He writes: “My attraction to Buddhism wasn’t to be a Buddhist but rather to follow the Buddha’s advice that if I wanted to know what was going on around me I needed to turn my attention inwards and look there. The rest evolved circumstantially. I love my practice more then anything and I know I’ve never been a very good buddhist based on the standards of what that might look like.”

This week’s talk is by Robert Yanasak. Robert (Seiko Taikan) is retired as a Mechanical Design Draftsman/Supervisor at Perkin-Elmer, Leica and other Bay Area companies.Robert began sitting in the Fall of 1966 in San Francisco, sitting his first Rinzai sesshin with his first teacher Soen Nakagawa Roshi in the spring of 1967. He continued to sit alone but sat sesshins with Soen Roshi when he came in once a year. Eventually he sat with Eido Shimano Roshi at Dai Bosatsu for their first and second practice periods in the fall of 75 and spring of 76. Returning to Berkeley, he began to study with Kobun Chino Otogawa who ordained him a monk in the spring of 1980. He practiced with Kobun until the summer of 1984 when he moved into Berkeley Zen Center, where he lived and practiced with Sojun Mel Weitsman for nine years, sole purpose to dissolve this illusion that practice and having a working life were separate, eventually leaving to practice with Akiba Roshi who gave him transmission in 2006 after two practice periods in Japan, one in 2000 and the other in 2006.He writes: “My attraction to Buddhism wasn’t to be a Buddhist but rather to follow the Buddha’s advice that if I wanted to know what was going on around me I needed to turn my attention inwards and look there. The rest evolved circumstantially. I love my practice more then anything and I know I’ve never been a very good buddhist based on the standards of what that might look like.”