Robert Aitken Roshi's Passing

Robert Aitken Roshi passed away on August 5, 2010

The world and the many people he touched and helped will remember the courage and wisdom of the great Zen Master, Robert Aitken Roshi, who passed away in Honolulu yesterday on Thursday, August 5, 2010. Born June 19, 1917, Aitken Roshi was a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He was captured by the Japanese and put in an internment camp at the beginning of WWII, where he met Robert Blyth and learned about Zen. His primary Zen teachers were Yasutani Roshi and Koun Yamada Roshi.

He co-founded the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in Honolulu, Hawaii with his late wife, Anne Hopkins Aitken. Aitken Roshi was actively engaged in social justice throughout his life, and was one of the original founders of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in 1978. For many, he was a guiding light in applying Zen teachings to the larger world of social justice and the work for peace. 

During his life he wrote over ten books on Zen. At our Zen Life & Meditation Center, students in Zen training, when studying the precepts, often refer to Aitken Roshi's book on this subject,  "The Mind of Clover".  To read a Teisho by Joshin Roshi about a teaching from Aitken Roshi, click here. To read an article by James Ford about Aitken Roshi's story and legacy click here. 

We remember Robert Aitken Roshi with much love, respect and gratitude.