Religion Zen Buddhism Died September 16, 1966 Predecessor Goto Zuigan | School Rinzai Title Roshi Name Oda Sesso | |
Oda Sessō (小田 雪窓, 1901–1966) was a Rinzai Rōshi and abbot of the Daitoku-ji(大徳寺) in Kyoto, Japan, a Dharma successor of Gotō Zuigan. He was elected abbot of Daitoku-ji upon Goto's retirement from that post in 1955. At Goto's request, Oda opened Daitoku-ji to foreigners. His western students included Gary Snyder, Janwillem van de Wetering, Irmgard Schloegl, and Philip Yampolsky.
Snyder described him as
[T]he subtlest and most perceptive man I've ever met....His teisho were inaudible, his voice was so soft. Yet as one of the head monks at Daitoku-ji Sodo said much later, 'Those lectures of Oda Rōshi we couldn't hear I am beginning to hear today.'"
Alan Watts said,
[H]aving a conversation with him is like dropping a pebble in a well and never hearing it drop. The soundless pebble in the bottomless well."
Janwillem van de Wetering gave an account of his stay at Daitoku-ji in his book "The empty mirror".