At age 16, Muhō was introduced to
zazen by one of his
high school teachers and soon had the wish to become a Zen
monk. To prepare for his stay in
Japan, he studied
Japanese at the
Free University of Berlin, along with
philosophy and
physics. During his studies, he spent one year at
Kyoto University and learned for the first time about
Antai-ji. At age 22, he spent six months there as a lay practitioner. Three years later, after graduating from university, Muhō was ordained as a
Sōtō Zen monk under the
abbot Miyaura Shinyu Rōshi. Apart from
Antai-ji, he has trained for one year at the
Rinzai monastery Tōfuku-ji in
Kyoto, and one year at
Hosshin-ji in
Obama, Fukui. After obtaining the transmission of
dharma (
shihō) from his
teacher Miyaura Rōshi, Muhō decided to live as a
homeless monk in a park in central
Osaka, where he led a
zazen group in 2001. Six months later, in February 2002, he learned of the sudden death of his teacher and was called back to
Antai-ji. He succeeded his teacher as the ninth
abbot in the spring of that year. In 2020 he retired after 18 years as the abbot and appointed Ekō, a Japanese nun, as his successor. Since he retired as abbot, Muho spends most of his time in Osaka, where he leads a Zen group that meets every Sunday in Osaka castle park (except when it is raining). Muhō has published numerous books and translations in both Japanese and German. He has also featured in several films, including documentaries by director
Takeshi Kitano and broadcaster
Peter Barakan's "
Begin Japanology", as well as
Werner Penzel's
feature film "Zen for Nothing". ==Bibliography==