Gyomay Kubose born Masao Kubose was a Japanese-American Buddhist teacher who founded the Buddhist Temple of Chicago in 1944. Although born in the United States, he spent a large amount of his youth in Japan. After graduating from University of California at Berkeley, Kubose moved back to Japan where he began studying under his spiritual instructor Haya Akegarasu, who was in turn a student of Kiyozawa Manshi

Kiyozawa Manshi

was a Japanese Shin Buddhist reformer of samurai background who studied at Tokyo University in Western philosophy under the American philosopher Ernest Fenollosa....

, a Meiji

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

-era reformer of Shin Buddhism.

Kubose was a non-sectarian Buddhist and followed Kiyozawa's message that Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 should be implemented as a personal voyage, and not merely a communal tradition as it had become prior to the Meiji era. He also extended a great amount of influence in North America, and traveled much of the United States on his lecture tours. In addition to the Buddhist Temple of Chicago, he also established the American Buddhist Association, the Buddhist Education Centre in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, and other related works.

He extended the Buddhist ideal that duality was an illusion created by egotism, and that originally everything was one. Many of his lectures and teachings focus upon this, using a juxtaposition that oneness and individuality can coexist, provided one does not allow the ego to get in the way. Another focus of his was the extension of Kiyozawa's message, that Buddhism should be a personal experience and that it was not merely enough to go to the temple and recite sutras. The experience had to come from within, or there was no substance. To that end, Kubose placed the Buddha

Gautama Buddha

Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...

 in the same field as Socrates

Socrates

Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...

, in that Buddhism was a philosophy first, and a religion second. The intention was that philosophy is something a person contemplates anew, and while they may rely on the teachings of the religious tradition, the practise of realising oneness and thereby Enlightenment

Enlightenment in Buddhism

The English term enlightenment has commonly been used in the western world to translate several Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and Japanese terms and concepts, especially bodhi, prajna, kensho, satori and buddhahood.-Insight:...

 must be their own.

Today, Gyomay Kubose is succeeded by his son, Koyo Kubose, named his spiritual successor in 1998.