ロバートエイトキン老師逝去 The passing of Robert Aitken Roshi
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| Robert Aitken Roshi (1917-2010) |
エイトキン老師は、第二次世界大戦中、グアムで日本軍捕虜となり、その後日本の捕虜収容所の中で同じく捕虜となっていた英国人作家Ｒ．Ｈ．ブライスを通じて、禅と初めてめぐり合いました。
第二次大戦終了後、エイトキン老師はハワイへ戻り、ハワイ大学で芭蕉の俳句に対する禅の影響について研究、修士号を1950年に取得しました。エイトキン老師は日本へ何度も戻り、中川宋淵老師や安谷白雲老師の下で修行を継続しました。1959年、ハワイでの禅修行者をサポートすることを目的としてダイアモンドサンガを設立し、中川、安谷両老師を招き、正式な摂心を実践してきました。1974年には、エイトキン老師は禅の指導者と認可されました。また、エイトキン老師は世界平和、人権、社会的平等を目指して、市民活動にも積極的に参加していました。
エイトキン老師は、禅仏教に関する多数の著作を残しました。残念ながら日本語に翻訳されたものはありませんが、なかでも禅仏教の基本的な教えや修行方法の基礎をまとめたThe Taking the Path of Zenや、仏教徒の戒律、利他行、倫理に関するThe Mind of Clover等はアメリカに限らず世界中で広く読まれています。
心からご冥福をお祈りいたします。
エイトキン老師のブログ
ホノルルダイヤモンドサンガのホームページ
エイトキン老師の著作集（ハワイ大学図書館）
Robert Aitken, one of the first Americans fully authorized as a master of Zen Buddhism and the author of thirteen books on that subject, died August 5 in Honolulu at the age of 93. The memorial service will be held at Palolo Zen Center on Sunday, August 22nd at 10:00 AM.
At the outbreak of war in the Pacific he was captured by Japanese army on Guam, where he had been working as a civilian. His introduction to Zen came during his ensuing years of internment in Japan, through a fellow internee, the British writer R.H. Blyth.
After his release, Aitken resumed his interrupted studies at the University of Hawaii, graduating in 1947 with a degree in English literature. He returned to the University for a master’s degree in Japanese studies, which he received in 1950, and his thesis, concerning Zen’s influence on the work of the great haiku poet Basho, later became the basis of his first book, A Zen Wave.
With his late wife Anne Hopkins Aitken, he founded the Diamond Sangha in 1959 as a community supporting formal practice of Zen, bringing a succession of Japanese masters, Soen Nakagawa and Hakuun Yasutani to the islands to instruct the group. It flourished, especially after he received sanction to teach independently in 1974, and today the Diamond Sangha is a network of affiliated groups in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Argentina, and Chile as well as the United States. Its main temple in Hawaii is Palolo Zen Center in Honolulu; Maui Zendo and Hilo Zen Circle offer venues for practice on the neighbor islands.
After World War II, Aitken maintained a steady involvement in organizations dedicated to peace, social justice, and civil rights. He helped establish both the American Friends Service Committee program in Hawaii and the local office of the American Civil Liberties Union and continued to take an active part in the latter into his eighties. He also was a co-founder of the nationwide Buddhist Peace Fellowship, whose offices are in Berkeley.
His numerous publications include Taking the Path of Zen, The Mind of Clover, The Gateless Barrier, Zen Master Raven, and The Morning Star. The most recent of them — Miniatures of a Zen Master —appeared in 2008, after he turned 90. Many of these books have also been published in translation.
Aitken’s first marriage, in 1947, was to the late Mary Laune of Honolulu, and he is survived by their son, Thomas Laune Aitken, and three granddaughters. His death came suddenly and peacefully, following a long period of declining health, mostly spent in residence at the Honolulu temple.
For further information on his life, consult a brief 2003 autobiography on the website of the University of Hawai'i library, whose Special Collections hold his papers: http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/speccoll/aitken/autobiography.html. A colorful account of his Zen background is available in "Willy-Nilly Zen," an appendix to Taking the Path of Zen. Additional material can also be found at the Honolulu Diamond Sangha website, http://www.diamond-sangha.org, and at his blog, http://robertaitken.blogspot.com.
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