Sando Kaisen

Master Sando Kaisen (* 18 May 1952, Noyon, France) is one of the main representatives of the Soto Zen Buddhist schools in Europe. This school was founded in the 13th century in Japan by Master Eihei Dogen. It was spread through Europe in the 1960s thanks to Master Taisen Deshimaru´s efforts. The main practice of this school is the sitting meditation – zazen, during which the position of the body, the respiration and attention are important.

Biography
Alain Krystaszek (of a monk name: Sando Kaisen ) was born in Noyon, in the Oise region in 1952.

At the beginning of the 1970s, he practiced martial arts enthusiastically and travelled to China. He crossed the Himalayas alone and found a little monastery in the mountains of Wei-fang-shan (the Henan Province) in China. He practiced kung-fu and meditation here led by an old Chinese master Tah Hsu, who taught him how to master his body and spirit and taught him also the traditional Chinese medicine.

When he returned to Paris, he met Master Taisen Deshimaru again, the first Japanese Zen monk teaching Zen in Europe. In 1979, he received an ordination for a monk from Master Deshimaru and received a name Sandó Kaisen a lone pilgrim in a deep mountain″.

Today, hundreds of laymen, monks and nuns follow his teachings in France, in the Hoshoji Temple in Perigord, and in other countries in Europe, which he visits regularly.

Japanese masters, such as Tekifu Honda Roshi, the abbot of the Zuisekiji Temple near Fukuoka and Kosaka Kiyu of the Sengakuji Temple in Tokyo, support his Zen teaching adjusted to the European culture.

Sando Kaisen in a musician, a cook, a petanque player, a painter, a photographer; his teaching takes all forms.

Co-author

 * Kniha pěti kruhů, doplněno o Dokukódó s komentářem Sandó Kaisena, CAD Press (1988). ISBN	80-88969-09-3
 * 36 pytań, wydawnictwo T.T., Kraków (1996). ISBN 9788386032167
 * Tridsaťšesť otázok súčasného sveta, vydavateľstvo Q 111, (1996). ISBN 80-85401-207

CD

 * Qu'est-ce que le Zen ?
 * Comment méditer juste?
 * L'homme qui parlait à la montagne
 * Voyage avec un Maître Zen : Cheminer sur la Voie
 * Vie et mort
 * La Dernière Station de l'Être Humain
 * Quand l'Amour s'éveillera
 * Paroles zen
 * Je donnerai un sens à la vie
 * Devenir disciple
 * L'ermite se rend au temple
 * Zen, dialogue intérieur
 * Méditation du Bouddha
 * Zen, voyage et réflexion
 * Beauté et Compassion
 * Dans la mort je marcherai

Movie
Pył Świata, movie (2004). Poland / France, genre: thriller, 82 mins.