Shundo Aoyama

Japan

Shundo Aoyama, well known in Japan as a writer and lecturer on Buddhism, is the chief priest of the temple Muryo-ji and the Aichi Semmon Niso-do, a training temple for female Soto Zen priests. She has written many books and articles on Buddhism.

In her book, Zen Seeds, she writes in plain words about the seeds of enlightenment to be found in every day life. She writes, “The water of the valley stream is always flowing. … Human beings and all things that have life flow. Thought and culture, too, flow. That all these appear to be unchanging is but illusion. We make every effort to keep things as they are, because human beings, alone, lament transience. Yet no matter how we grieve or protest, there is no way to impede the flow of anything. If we but see things as they are and flow with them, we may find enjoyment in transience.”