Background
Yamda Mumon was born on July 16, 1900.
("The Ten Oxherding Pictures" uses the ox as a symbol for ...)
"The Ten Oxherding Pictures" uses the ox as a symbol for Buddha nature―the original possession of all human beings―and the taming of the ox as a symbol for the practice of realizing that nature. This volume contains lectures on the text given by Yamada Mumon Rôshi to his monks while master of Shôfuku-ji Monastery. It is the first authentic explication of a Zen text by a traditional Japanese Zen master.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0824828933/?tag=2022091-20
2004
Yamda Mumon was born on July 16, 1900.
Mumon graduated from Rinzai-shu (Rinzai Sect) University in 1925. This university was founded in 1872, initially as a seminary for those entering the priesthood.
Yamada Mumon underwent meditation in Zen at Semmon Dōjō (Seminary for Priesthood) of Tenryuji Temple at Kyoto (1929-1949). He became chief priest at Reiun-in Temple (1949). Since 1949, he was a president of Hanazono University.
("The Ten Oxherding Pictures" uses the ox as a symbol for ...)
2004Yamada Mumon was a Buddhist. He went to Europe and opened the East West Spiritual Exchange between Catholicism and Buddhism, himself entering and living in nine contemplative monasteries in Europe, experiencing the life of the monks there. His disciples settled all over Europe, strengthening his extensive karmic ties with the West.
Quotes from others about the person
G. Victor Sōgen Hori: "Students of Yamada Mumon Rōshi say that outside the sanzen room, he looked and acted like a tiny, wispy, immaterial Taoist hermit, but that inside the sanzen room, he suddenly turned into a lion".
