ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how Joshu Sasaki's Zen encompassed a mixture of features from traditional Japanese Zen and features often attributed to so-called modern Buddhism. Sasaki was among the first group of post-World War II Japanese Zen teachers who came to Europe and America as missionaries in order to establish practice centres. The claim that whatever Sasaki (or any other roshi) did was in fact Zen teaching even amounted to declaring that what for the women constituted sexual abuse was really a teaching method. Interestingly, a feature often mentioned in connection with modern Buddhism, namely democratization, has contributed substantially to ending the secrecy and subsequently modernizing contemporary Zen in America. Sasaki's authority and his Zen Buddhist institution began to collapse in late 2012 through the major scandal surrounding Sasaki and senior clergy and board of directors, who assisted in keeping Sasaki's behaviour secret.
