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My master always put his personal ideas and intentions aside for the sake of Dharma, especially if it were a case of reviving and restoring the practice, and by practice I mean community level practice. This made a big impression on me. My first meeting with him happened in Eiheiji, right after I was admitted. On the first or second day after I was admitted to the monk's hall I was just sitting with everyone else and from where I was sitting the teacher's place was to the back of me, I couldn't see the teacher. On this day Ikko Narasaki Roshi was giving a talk on a poem by Daichi Zenji as a kind of farewell to the community of monks because on that day he was leaving Eiheiji and returning to his own monastery, Zuioji after serving for three years as Godo, a head training teacher at Eiheiji.

I didn't know what the poetry was but it was so wonderful and his voice was so clear and that made a strong impression on me. It was the custom that when a teacher exits finally not to return, all the monks gather at the main gate. After the teacher finishes making three prostrations facing the Buddha Hall all the monks recite the Heart Sutra with him. When he did this I saw that he was just wearing the monk's gear, the travelling gear, so I knew that he had entered and was leaving as a monk does and that really impressed me because I went through that entering process as a novice monk a month earlier and it was tough! For a teacher like him and a person of some 60 years of age to do that! That was impressive!

At that time I didn't even know his name but after that I heard about him and I became interested in him and his teachings. He emphasized Dogen Zenji's teachings, the level of practice that he fostered was community level practice and training, especially the study of Bendoho, the zendo at Zuioji was built for that and that was of some interest to me. Later on I went to his monastery, Zuioji, and I had one year of training there. That was my third year in Japan, at that time, in 1980, I was a permanent resident in the United States so my practice base was not Japan but California and I could only stay one year at a time in Japan.

My connection with him became very important to me and our relationship developed to such a degree that after returning to Japan in 1982 for the three month practice period he offered me the position of head monk, the Shuso, the head training monk for the three month practice period from May 15th to August 15th 1982. This step was very important because it established my practice at the next stage, the adult stage, you could say. This stage of practice prepares you to receive Dharma transmission so, naturally, it was very important to me.

Shuso is a level of training where you practice as a leader for the community; you are totally responsible for the spirit of the trainees' practice for that period. And that is a very important period, as I said it's like becoming an adult, you receive rights and responsibilities and you can really function in society, so this time is a crucial period in a monk's training. And I was so grateful that I was given that opportunity in a training monastery where practice is on a community level. Nowadays, if Shuso training happens in a local temple it is often done in an abbreviated way, more like a ritual, but in a training monastery the three month period is undertaken fully and no one leaves the monastery for the entire practice period.

From 1983- 1986 I was going back and forth from the United States to Japan and I met with my teacher during these trips. I was developing my own small community, Kojinan Zendo in Oakland and sometimes I was practicing at San Francisco Zen Center. In 1987 I was at Tassajara and my master called from Japan and said, "Ekai could you come back to Japan for six months" " Why?" I asked, and he answered "because I want you to come to my temple in the mountains Shogoji. I'm also abbot of that temple and it's very run down and small and I want to turn it into a training monastery. No monk is there right now but I was planning to send two monks from Zuioji. I want to prepare it for American monks to come and train, to make it into an international training monastery. We need you. Can you come back?" And I said "yes" I didn't think anything. That answer came totally out of nowhere - yes! That was quite contrary to my own wishes because I was starting my small kind of practice, establishing the zendo in Oakland, meeting people, making ties and I said yes! Once it's said there's no taking it back and then after that I had to figure out how to do it - well six months is not so long [laughing]

My teacher's idea of discipline was from his training in the prewar period so it was very strict. Once something was set there was no changing it and he expected his disciples to be the same. What I saw in the United States, where my practice started, was kind of like an opening, the possibility of opening up the path. Like a birch tree whose branches go this way and that way, my ideas were fluid and developing so the thought of going back to that rigid training system was difficult! I knew that I had to be prepared to become a Bonsai, [laughing] a Bonsai tree with all my branches cut down and my roots confined to the shape my master wanted. That was the kind of image I had, going back to Japan was quite contrary to what I wanted but I said yes, yes for six months [laughing].

The first monk I trained was Nonin Chowaney who now has the Nebraska Zen Centre. But after six months it was necessary for me to stay on as it was an important period in his training "How could you leave now?" Then I had to stay until he finished his training and Nonin came for a minimum of two years training. This was a great commitment on his behalf following his teacher Katagiri Roshi's wishes. So then six moths was turning into two years! I knew that if I didn't return to the States within two or three years I would lose all the connections that I had made with the community that I was starting and all my previous work would be gone. That was another big decision but I said yes! I had no choice actually! [laughing]

Things always seemed to be going backwards - I felt I wanted to go one way and I was continually pulled the other way, a way that pulled me in another direction. Three years later, in 1989, Nonin's training was pretty much finished and the Japanese monks had some understanding of working with Westerners so the format that we had set up at Shogoji to accommodate foreign monks was working. I then said to my master "Hojo-san, three years have passed. I need to go back if I don't go back my work in the United States will be finished" and he just gave me a surprised look and said "Ekai, aren't you settled enough? Are you still wandering?" He was thinking that after Shogoji was properly set up and working that he would retire and that I would take care of it. He was offering me a carrot! That's the way he presented it!