Roshi
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 honorific title used in Zen Buddhism that literally means "old teacher" or "elder master" and sometimes denotes a person who gives spiritual guidance to a Zen sangha
Sangha
Sangha is a word in Pali or Sanskrit that can be translated roughly as "association" or "assembly," "company" or "community" with common goal, vision or purpose...

or congregation. Traditionally, it was applied as a respectful honorific to an older (usually over 60) Zen teacher who was perceived by a sangha to have realized a superior understanding of the Dharma
Dharma
Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...

. Despite this, it has come in some modern Zen schools to be applied as an official title that doesn't have to do with the age of the individual who receives it. This is especially true in some Japanese Rinzai Zen schools in Japan and United States, and among other schools in the US and Europe. There is sometimes dispute about use of the term rōshi, and there is wide variance in its application.

Most teachers called rōshi have undergone many years of arduous training. In some Rinzai organizations, a monastic is sometimes called rōshi after they have received inka
Inka
, is a term used in Zen Buddhism to denote a high-level of certification, and literally means "the legitimate seal of clearly furnished proof." In ancient times inka usually came in the form of an actual document, but this practice is no longer commonplace...

 shōmei
, meaning they have completed kōan study and received Dharma transmission
Dharma transmission
Dharma transmission refers to "the manner in which the teaching, or Dharma, is passed from a Zen master to their disciple and heir...

 from their master (full authorization to teach and pass on the lineage). In the Harada-Yasutani school, a lay organization that combines Soto and Rinzai elements, a person is called rōshi when they have received inka, indicating they have passed the kōan curriculum and received Dharma transmission.

In the Sōtō
Soto
Sōtō Zen , or is, with Rinzai and Ōbaku, one of the three most populous sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.The Sōtō sect was first established as the Caodong sect during the Tang Dynasty in China by Dongshan Liangjie in the 9th century, which Dōgen Zenji then brought to Japan in the 13th century...

 organization, a person is sometimes called rōshi after they have received the title of shike, but this is by no means standard practice.

Many Zen communities in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 confer the title of rōshi to their teachers in deference to perceived Japanese Zen tradition, and in most instances it is used synonymously with the term Zen master
Zen master
Zen master is an umbrella title sometimes used to refer to an individual who has been recognized by an authorized Zen lineage holder and teacher as having met his or her own teacher's standards of realization or insight. These standards vary widely in different traditions, and may vary among...

. However, only in a minority of Japanese traditions has the term's usage been standardized in this way, this being is a fairly modern development. Its use in the U.S. and Europe has at times led to confusion and controversy.

Chinese Chán Buddhism uses the semantically related title sifu
Sifu
Shifu is the identical pronunciation of two Chinese terms for a master. The character 師 means “teacher”. The meaning of 傅 is “tutor”, and of 父, “father”. Both characters are read fu with the same tones in Cantonese and Mandarin, creating some ambiguity...

(師父, literally "master father" or "father of masters", or 師傅, literally "master teacher" or "teacher of masters"; both pronounced "shīfu") as an honorific title for the highest masters, but it also may be used in respectful address of monks and nuns generally. In Chinese, 老師 (Chinese ) is a common word for teacher or professor without the religious/spiritual connotation of rōshi.

Stuart Lachs has argued that Zen institutions in the West have often attributed a mythic status to the title rōshi with harmful consequences.
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