HISTORY

Two thousand six hundred years ago, in India, Siddhartha Gautama awakened under the Bodhi tree in zazen; he became the one called Buddha, "the Enlightened One".

The source of Soto Zen goes back to this Buddha experience that has been transmitted from master to disciple from India over the centuries. Under the impetus of Bodhidharma, this practice of awakening spread to China in the 6th century, then to Japan in the 13th century with Master Dogen. Master Deshimaru arrived in France in 1967 and taught Soto Zen practice in Europe.

He died in 1982. His mission continues with his disciples who in turn became masters, thus perpetuating in the modern world the authentic tradition of the ancient patriarchs...