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In an obituary of Robert Aitken Roshi in the Los Angeles Times, one of the late Zen teacher's dharma heirs spoke of Aitken's contribution to western Zen:

"He made Zen Buddhism workable for Westerners," said Michael Kieran, who studied under Aitken and now oversees Diamond Sangha's main temple as master teacher. "He removed a lot of the patriarchal language from the tradition, which had been mainly transmitted to us through the monastic tradition."

I would say that the "workableness" of Aitken Roshi's Zen goes way beyond just removing patriarchal language. Thanks to what he accomplished, westerners do not have to penetrate a Japanese language and cultural barrier to access Rinzai Zen.

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"He Made Zen Buddhism Workable for Westerners"

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