QUESTION (resumed) :
Shiho
QUESTION (original) :
I would like to know why Master Kosen received the Shiho from the lineage
of Master Niwa Zenji rather than from the lineage of Master Kodo Sawaki
or Narita Shuyu Roshi ?.
ANSWER :
To receive the Shiho from the lineage of Kodo, my master would have to have
given it to me before dying, but he did not had time to give it to anybody.
Similarly, Kodo, when he died, had not the time to give it to Deshimaru.
Deshimaru received the shiho later, from the highest zen authority in Japan,
Master Hata Zenji, abbot of the Eihei-ji temple at that time.
I followed the same path, because only a master like Niwa Zenji,
abbot of Eihei-ji at my time, could replace a master like Deshimaru.
And why didn't I choose Narita Roshi to receive the shiho?
Why take a deux-chevaux (famous French car, very cheap, the cheapest)
when one can offer oneself a Porsche?
KOSEN!