The Morning Star

Having practiced zazen for more than half a century, Robert Aitken sits today as the senior American Roshi, a teacher of broad reputation and consequence, who numbers as his own teachers and associates some of the legendary figures of Japanese and American Buddhism. His serendipitous beginning as a Buddhist resulted from being a civilian prisoner of the Japanese in the Second World War, where he found R. R. Blythe, the great haiku master, and D.T. Suzuki, the most important and popular chroni…