Budo-Dharma: The Way of the Samurai

A collection of oral teachings on Zen and Budo passed down by the master Kaisen over twenty years. At the request of his master Taisen Deshimaru, as well as Chinese masters Hsu-Tah (Hsu-Tah) and Xueng-Nong (Hsueng-Nong), Kaisen began teaching the practice of meditation and martial arts in Europe. His task was to restore the lost essence of Budo practice—zazen. By analogy with the term Buddadharma (“Buddha’s Teaching”), Kaisen developed the term Budodharma—“Budo’s Teaching,” the ultimate essence of which is to stop fighting and submit to the cosmic order.

Master Kaisen was born in 1952 in France. At the age of 9, he began studying sambo and jiu-jitsu. In 1972, wishing to deepen his understanding of martial arts, he went to China by hitchhiking and reached a small Daoist temple in the mountains of Henan province, where he studied kung fu and Chinese medicine.

From 1975 onward, Kaisen taught martial arts to karate, kung fu, iaido, and aikido teachers, while simultaneously studying the Zen path under the guidance of master Taisen Deshimaru, from whom he received the monastic name Sando Kaisen. In 1994, he stopped the practice of martial arts and devoted himself entirely to teaching the path of Zen. Together with his students, he established many Zen centers in France, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Russia. Today, Master Kaisen is the abbot of a Zen monastery in France, where he teaches monks, nuns, and laypeople.