The 300-Year-Old Monastery in Japan That’s Full of Westerners
January 6, 2025
In the rural mountains of Okayama sits Songenji — a 300-year old Zen temple that is both a pillar of Japanese discipline and tradition and a maverick of globalism and progress. It’s a place where women live and study Zen side-by-side with men as coeds (something once unheard of), and the sangha (monastic order) is mostly Western foreigners.
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Eric R Stone
Eric R Stone is an American journalist and translator living in Taipei, Taiwan. He specializes in politics, history, philosophy, and ancient Chinese literature. He's translated four books: Happiness & Suffering, Tao Te Ching: Wondrous Revelations, The Secret of Chan, and Emptiness Energy. In his free time, he boulders, dances Lindy Hop, and runs Dungeons & Dragons adventures in Mandarin for his Taiwanese friends.
