The Yujo Nyusanji temple is located in Occitania, 60 kilometers north of Béziers, on the border of the Hérault, Tarn, and Aveyron departments. In the municipality of Rosis, it is close to Lamalou-les-Bains and Bédarieux.
Founded by Master Kosen in 2009 to provide a permanent living and meeting center for his European sangha, it is a place dedicated to the practice and teaching of Zen meditation (zazen).
He named it Yujo Nyusanji
, which means Leaving the castle and entering the mountain
. He chose this name to confirm his separation from the AZI which led to his eviction from La Gendronnière, the temple of his master, Taisen Deshimaru, where indeed there is a real castle.
The name also recalls Prince Siddhartha who left his princely castle to seek the answer to his spiritual questions, entered the Indian mountain and, after long research, sat in zazen under the Bodhi tree and became the Buddha Shakyamuni.
It is a very appropriate name for this temple located at an altitude of 850 meters, at the foot of Mount Caroux, in the Haut-Languedoc regional natural park. It is also called the Caroux Zen Temple.
Practicing zazen is like abandoning one mind to enter another. It is not only entering the mountain, but becoming the mountain, studying and transforming the mind. The thought of the one who enters the mountain and the non-thought of the mountain itself become unity. It is hishiryo, the alternation of the consciousness that thinks and the one that does not think. It is studying one’s mind during zazen.
Zazen is the opportunity to become the mountain, simple, silent, to actualize this profound, impersonal, calm, eternal nature.
Surrounded by Mediterranean nature, far from any civilization, this temple is a place conducive to disconnecting from daily life and inner resourcing. Pure air, proximity to nature, one can relax to the sounds of rivers and forests, live a moment in a vast and preserved setting, rest and recharge.
You can visit the entire temple in the following video:
Throughout the year, Zen practitioners from all walks of life meet at the temple for sesshins, or the summer camp (periods of intensive zazen practice) as well as for samu.
Between sesshins, a monk or nun welcomes people wishing to learn the practice of Zen meditation (zazen) as well as to practice regularly, see the page Introduction and daily practice.
You can also stay there for a longer or shorter period, when the need to take a spiritual break in your life is felt.
Anyone staying at the temple, for a sesshin or any other reason, must accept the internal rules.