Letter to Masanori Yuno, February 1977
Originally appeared October 2026
My teacher, the late Sawaki Roshi, often made the following self-evaluation: “I am an eternally deluded person. No one is as deluded as I am. I am deluded with gold trimmings. How clear this is to me when I do zazen!”
Yokoyama was one of the most unusual Soto Zen monks whose life reminds one of another ordained monk, Ryokan, who is best known for his poetry and love of playing with children. Neither one of them served as head of a temple or trained other monks. Their choice to live without ceremony or pretension demonstrated a purity of practice expressed through everyday life
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