1980s & 1990s

Bodhidhamma studied in Buddha Gaya at the Japanese Indosan Nipponji for four years. In 1986 he went to Sogenji Zen Monastery, Okayama, Japan, on October 5th, the mahaparinirvana date of Bodhidharma, the 28th patriarch of Zen. Under Zen Master Harada Shodo Roshi he started his practice in Rinzai Zen. Harada Roshi is a disciple of Zen Master Yamada Mumon Roshi. After three years under Harada Roshi, he was enrolled in the Rinzai School, Myoshinji, headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, and given the name 釈菩提 Shaku Bodai (Shaku Bodhidhamma).

2000s

Throughout his years of practice in Japan, he visited India. In 2000 he started a Zen practice program for Indians in a small Vihara in Bijaragi Village, 20 km from Bijapur City, Karnataka. He invited the Roshi to start a Zen Monastery in India and the Roshi started to come in 2000 to lead Sesshins. The name of the monastery was Indosan Ittekiji Zen Monastery. It started in a small Vihara where 25-30 people could sit in a round building like a stupa.

“When there were more than 30 people, we used a grape yard for sitting, a place where they were drying the grapes to make raisins. We also started a Zen Hostel for poor boys. After that, in Bijapur city, Karnataka, we started our Indosan Ittekiji Zen Monastery there.”

2010s and 2020s

In 2012, Zen Monk Shaku Bodhidhamma moved to Adilibad, Telangana, and he started building the second Rinzai Zen Monastery in India: Indosan Sogenji Dhyan Bhumi Buddha Mahavihara.

While constructing this new Monastery in Adilibad, he began his Master’s and PhD work at Gulbarga University. He got his PhD in 2022 after changing schools, becoming Zen Monk Dr. Shaku Bodhidhamma.

The monastery took ten years to construct. It was built with funds raised from practicing takuhatsu in Japan: begging for alms and collecting donations, walking more than 25 km each day from the 1st of November to 30th of November every year for 10 years. He practiced in Okayama, Hiroshima, Hyogo, Shizoka, Fukuoka, Shikoku Island, Shiga, Fukui, Gifu, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Yamanashi, and Tokyo.

In 2016, with the completion of the Zendo, Bathhouse, Kitchen, and Dining Hall, the Shinzanshiki (Abbot Installation ceremony) took place, led by Harada Shodo Roshi.

In December of 2016, Myoshinji declared Indosan Sogenji as its foreign Vihara, and Zen Monk Shaku Bodhidhamma was enrolled as the head priest of Indosan Sogenji. He was invited to Honzan, Myoshinji headquarters, to receive the formal declaration and documents in the presence of the Kansho (the head Abbot of Myoshinji) and all office bearers, on December 12th, 2016. This is the first Indian Rinzai Zen Monastery that is affiliated with Myoshinji headquarters.

With the support of Zen Master Taitsu Kono Roshi, construction began on the RACK house at Indosan Sogenji Dhyan Bhumi. RACK is an International Buddhist support organization that focuses its work in Asia. As of 2026, its current president is Harada Shodo Roshi.

The completed building was inaugurated in 2018 by Harada Shodo Roshi. While the RACK house was being built, the Kaisando, (Founder’s Hall) was completed: The Honorary Founder of this Mahavihara is Yamada Mumon Roshi.

In 2024, the large Hondo, called the ButsuDen, was completed.

In this way, over the span of ten years, this monastery in Adilibad was completed based mostly on takuhatsu practice in Japan.

Karate and Zen in India

Bodhidhamma was a wrestler in his teenage years. Because of the caste system, he was denied an inter-college competition championship. He quit wrestling, but later on he took up Karate.

While in Japan, he earned two black belts under Nao Kazumatsuo. Every year, Nao Kazumatsuo would come along with Harada Shodo Roshi to India.

Shorinji-Ryu Karate was taught to the boys in the Zen Hostel onwards from the early 2000s. Through Seiga Sensei, a student of Harada Shodo Roshi, the program was able to continue by collaborating with the Slovenia-based Institute 108: Karate, Aikido, and Zen. During the 2010s, at Indosan Sogenji Dhyan Bhumi in Adilibad, two teachers from Slovenia continued to come every year to support the program: Seiga Sensei and Seijitsu Sensei.

In the early 2020s, one boy, Samyak Bodhi, from Dhyan Bhumi went to Slovenia to practice under both teachers for 1.5 months as an exchange student between Indosan and Institute 108.

Intensive Zen Practice Weeks: Sesshins

‘Sesshin’ translates literally to ‘Touching the Heart-Mind.’

Every year in August, there is an International Sesshin, a Dhyan Shibir (shi-beer), led by Harada Shodo Roshi. This Shibir typically has a number of international students as well as around 100 practitioners from all over India who stay for the week. The Sesshin ends with a large Dhamma Prachar event (spreading the Buddha’s teachings) with 1000 attendees.

Zen Monk Dr. Shaku Bodhidhamma leads Sesshins each month from September to April at Indosan Sogenji Dhyan Bhumi in Adilibad. Additionally, every year, he travels across Southern India to lead Sesshins at these Zen Centers:

• Indosan Ittekiji Zen Monastery, Jayanagar, Vijayapura, Karnataka
• Bodhisatva Bodaiji Zen Center in Puthumala, Adoor, Kerala (the center is surrounded by rubber trees)
• Nankokusan Darumaji Zen Center in Vennivedu, Ranipeth, Tamil Nadu
• Bodhidharma Zen Center in Chennai, Madras, Tamil Nadu (zencentrechennai.com)

Ryukokusan Sogenji, Nagpur

In the early 2000s, Zen Monk Shaku Bodhidhamma, was also working on building a Zen Center in Kawatha, Nagpur, Maharashtra. He acquired the land and built the first building, a two floor zendo, for Ryukokusan Sogenji Zen Center, yet his focus on South India led to him building and opening the Adilibad center first.

In 2025, construction started on a new, much larger, three-story building for the center in Kawatha, Nagpur.

Major Annual Celebrations

“We celebrate all of the events relating to the Buddha, Bodhisattva Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, and to all those who have worked for the uplifting of untouchables and social reform all over India.”

(Calendar in progress and subject to change)

Social Service and Healthcare Work

From the beginning of Rinzai Zen in India, social service has accompanied the Rinzai Zen monastic practice, starting with the Zen Hostel for boys.

Starting in 2000, a team of up to seven Japanese acupuncturists would come to India for one week each year to offer medical care freely, open to anyone, beyond any caste or other distinction. This team would work 8 hour days to treat between 1000 and 1500 people each year that the program ran (Bijapur 2000 to 2011, Adilibad 2012 to 2018).

From 2014 to 2016, at Indosan Sogenji Dhyan Bhumi, there was a weekly medical care program offered freely, open to anyone, beyond any caste or other distinction. Every Sunday, Dr. Zanak Mankar would see patients, mostly local people, labourers and farmers.

For September 2026, we are inviting a group from the USA and around the world to run an Indosan Sogenji Medical Care Program. This is a future plan, still in the works.

Since the beginning of Rinzai Zen in India, there has been the dream of building a hospital, for the people, by the people: Indosan Sogenji Medical Care Hospital.

Jai Prabuddha Bharat, The Enlightened India Movement

Every year, Zen Monk Dr. Shaku Bodhidhamma travels all over India, focusing on South India, to offer social programs for the untouchables. He goes to the streets and runs programs on the streets, from villages to cities to viharas. He tells the people that they should choose for their dhamma the Buddha Dhamma, to choose this dhamma for their family, their children: this is the Enlightened India Movement.

He began this movement through his Three Day Program, spending three days in each village, in unknown places, where the untouchables would live. The first day, he would sit in a public place, having no food or water with him, only sitting. He would be wearing his orange Buddhist robes, standing out clearly, sitting all day. People in the area would avoid and ignore him though some would take an interest in him, watching him, getting curious, seeing and asking what he is doing, “who are you?” seeing if they can trust him. At some point on the first or second day, people may offer him water and tea. Through sitting, accepting offerings, talking to people, and speaking about Babasaheb, eventually the people would offer him food. He would propose that each house give one piece of food, some bread, chapati, bhakri, and they would all have a meal together. Once he could eat and talk with the people freely, he would talk about Babasaheb and the Buddha-Dhamma, inspiring and inviting the people to choose this dhamma and free themselves from mental slavery.

During the Three Day Program he met sick people who were seeking help. The acupuncture and medical care programs were started based on these requests.

In 1994, he founded IBYO, the International Buddhist Youth Organization. IBYO was formed to guide the young ones, to have dialogues with them, and have sesshins with them. In this same year, all of the office bearers of IBYO participated in a sesshin 40km from Nagpur. Throughout IBYO, zazen was the focus.

After meeting with the people in the villages through the Three Day Program and the IBYO, Zen Monk Shaku Bodhidhamma invited these people to sit for sesshin in Bijaragi Village which was the starting point of the Zen Practice Program and the living and lasting practice of Rinzai Zen in India.

For many years, he would take an Ambedkar bust all over Kerala, on dhamma yatra (procession, pilgrimage). The first statue was installed in Kumbazha, Mylapra, Pathanamthitta, Kerala. The first dhamma diksha (initiation, conversion) ceremony he held was at the YMCA in Trivandrum, Kerala. The second was in Kumbazha. He continued the program of dhamma yatra in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala.

Jai Prabuddha World, Towards an Enlightened World

The main mission of Zen Monk Dr. Shaku Bodhidhamma is to spread Rinzai Zen Buddhism and Dr. Ambedkar’s mission and vision all over the world: to create an enlightened world.

This mission is coming to life in America through collaborating with Venerable Soryu Forall, the founder of MAPLE (Monastic Academy for the Preservation of Life on Earth). Dr. Ambedkar’s Vision in American (Video with Zen Monk Dr. Shaku Bodhidhamma and Soryu Forall, Hindi and English)

On Vesak of May 2026, the First American Bodhisatva Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Buddha Mahavihar was opened at the Monastic Academy in Lowell, Vermont (BABA for short, Bodhisatva-dr.-babasaheb Ambedkar Buddha-mahavihara American).

Media related to this event:

• A Short Tour of the Mahavihar (Hindi)
• WLBS News Report on the Mahavihar with Live USA Community Members (Hindi & English)
• Ambedkar Association of North America Interview with Soryu Forall
• Monastic Academy Newsletter Based on Zen Monk Dr. Shaku Bodhidhamma’s Visit

Also in collaboration with the Monastic Academy, the Global Dr. Ambedkar Buddhist Mission was founded to create an enlightened world. The president is Soryu Forall, and the secretary is Zen Monk Dr. Shaku Bodhidhamma.

Through this Mission, a dhamma yatra (Walk for an Enlightened World) program and global Ambedkar conference are being planned for Vermont.

This article was written based on the words of Zen Monk Dr. Shaku Bodhidhamma through interview and transcription by Bodhicitta starting in July 2026.