Kosho Uchiyama Roshi was born in Tokyo in 1912. He received a master's degree in Western philosophy at Waseda University in 1937 and became a Zen priest three years later under Kodo Sawaki Roshi. Upon Sawaki’s death in 1965, he became abbot of Antaiji, a monastery then located on the outskirts of Kyoto. In addition to developing the practice at Antaiji and leading monthly sesshins, Uchiyama Roshi wrote several books on Zen meditation and practice as well as over twenty books with modern-day translations of various fascicles of Dogen’s Shobogenzo, along with commentaries.