Weekend Zen

Guy taï shin RIVOALLAN has been a Zen practitioner since 1985. The teaching was transmitted to him in the lineage of Master Taisen Deshimaru through Etienne Zeisler, Roland Rech and Philippe Coupey. He became a Zen monk in 1990, practices at DOJO ZEN PARIS and is responsible for a group in Blanc-Mesnil. He works in the social field and loves to travel. He contributed to the writing of Master Taisen Deshimaru’s autobiographical book.

Blanche Ren Myo HEUGEL began practicing Zen in 1997, during her student years. She followed the teaching given by Luc Boussard, a disciple of Master Taisen Deshimaru, and became a nun in 2004. She is a professional puppeteer and practices Aikido. She currently helps organize a group in Paris, “D’Est en Ouest,” and practices Zen under the guidance of Philippe Coupey, one of the main Soto Zen teachers in Europe, a tradition in which transmission is made directly from master to disciple.

The Lineage of Zen Practice:

Master Taisen DESHIMARU (1914-1982) was the disciple of Master Kodo Sawaki who, since the death of Master Dogen, has been the greatest Zen authority in Japan. Master Deshimaru received from Master Kodo Sawaki, as his spiritual successor, the spirit and deep essence of Zen. He was the first missionary sent to Europe, authorized in this by the highest Zen authorities of his country. His mission was also supported by other schools of Buddhism. He was a great friend of Swami Sivananda, who founded the department of religions at Forest University in India.

Before dedicating himself to monastic life, Master Taisen Deshimaru was director of the Institute of Oriental Studies for Japan, India and China, and made countless journeys in the latter two countries. He knew Eastern philosophy in depth and also studied Western philosophies. At the entrance to the amphitheater of Komazawa University there is a life-size wooden statue representing a monk seated in the zazen posture. Taisen Deshimaru served as the model for the sculptor, who worked according to the Master’s indications and example.

The Master arrived in Paris in 1967 after crossing Siberia, Russia and Poland by train from Japan. He wore a single robe, that of his Master. Before his arrival, the Soto Zen Buddhist school and its technique were practically unknown in France. Jean Herbert had already edited a book on Japanese Buddhism, including excerpts from Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zuimonki, translated by General Renondeau, but that book set out primarily rules of conduct and offered the reader too few notions about the technique of zazen. After arriving in Paris, Master Deshimaru began giving conferences in which he demonstrated the zazen posture. It was not, as often happens in the West, a simple discourse made only of words, but a technique, in the Greek sense of the term, “an art”: the art of meditation.