Kakichi Kadowaki was born in Japan and grew up in a Zen-Buddhist environment, but over time he became increasingly interested in Christianity. He especially admired Fr. Heinrich Doumolin (1905-1995), the greatest scholar of Buddhism in the Christian circle of the time.

Upon entering the Society of Jesus in 1950 he worked under the supervision of Fr. Pedro Arrupe (1907-1991), the future provincial of Japan, and then of the whole Society, who had ordained him in 1960. The result of deepening Kadowaki’s understanding of both Zen and Christian contemplative tradition during the ten-year study of the sources and practices of Zen and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, was the realization of their remarkable similarity, as he described in the famous book Zen and the Bible published in 1980. He completed his scientific work by receiving the PhD at the Pontifical Gregorian University at the same time. Soon, he became respected in ecumenical circles in Japan, which was the basis for accepting a professorship at Sophia University in Tokyo. Years of work in Zen meditation resulted in the confirmation of spiritual experience (satori) received from his teacher Master Omori Sogen (president of the Hanazano University of Kyoto, Rinzai sect). Since the early 1980s he has also worked as a teacher of Zen and as the leader of international Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius for Jesuit candidates and priests in Japan (since the mid-2000s open to laypeople).

Thirty years of priestly ministry I devoted to combining Zen and Ignatian Spirituality. I believe that I was successful to a certain extent, so I decided to offer this program to a wider circle of people.

During 2001, I conducted the first degree of the course for three priests and one nun who had the opportunity to see and experience the fact that Zen meditation and training can greatly contribute to deepening their Christian prayer. In the following year, we continued working together on the second degree, and in 2003 we finished with the third and final degree. When the Carmelite Fr. Dionisio Ramos completed the entire program, he was proclaimed a Zen teacher. [2][2]

In 2004, I launched a new programme based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. During many years of studying Zen, I had always felt the need to create the synthesis of these two spiritual paths. It is, therefore, a kind of fulfilment of my vocation inspired by the life of Christ.

Based on this, during 2006 and 2007, I was running a two-year international course for two Jesuit priests and two nuns with great success, as you can read at the end of this presentation.

With the invitation to attend the first degree of this programme, which will take place in Kita Karuizawa (the Gumna Prefecture in central Japan), I would like to point to the possibility of 'initiation' into the depth of Christian prayer with the help of Zen breathing technique. This view is based on Scripture, Gen 2:7, which describes the creation of man by the breath (Hebr. ruach) of God's Life (the Holy Spirit). By mastering the abdominal breathingtanden-koku), we will experience the close connection of our breathing with the Holy Spirit, in order to gain insight into the realization of the "Principle of Creation" (Ex 23; a kind of Christian enlightenment, Jap. satori).

After that, we will strengthen this "Principle of Creation" in Ignatius’ spiritual ”Existence” by using it as a Christian koan (koan is a Zen concept and it refers to a paradoxical or non-logical question that the teacher gives his pupil to lead him to enlightenment) through each segment of Spiritual Exercises, especially five fundamental - The Call of Christ, Our King; The Two Standards; The Three Types of People; The Three Types of Humility and The Contemplation on the Love of GodDuring the entire Spiritual Exercise Programme we pay attention to distinguishing spirits by referring to Ignatius’ Autobiography and other relevant materials.