Cat's Yawn: The Thirteen Numbers Published from 1940 to 1941

Abstract: In the first half of the twentieth century, long before most Americans had heard of Zen Buddhism, Shigetsu Sasaki (1882–1945), using his ordination name of Sokei-an, taught a small group of New Yorkers to sit silently in meditation and to empty their minds. His goal was to bring Buddha’s teaching to the people of the United States even though he believed the time was not right and the people were not ready. Sasaki found himself in this unlikely, but rather Zen-like, position as a result of the travels of an earlier Zen master, Soyen Shaku (1859–1919). Soyen, after two trips to the United States, told a former student of his to gather a group of followers and go to California to open a zendo (Zen center). Sasaki was one of those followers.