Kobori Nanrei Sōhaku (小堀 南嶺) (1918—1992) was a Japanese Rinzai roshi and former abbot of Ryōkōin, a subtemple of Daitoku-ji in Kyoto, Japan.

[1] A student of the late Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki,[2] Sōhaku was fluent in English[3] and known to hold regular sesshins until the 1980s which many Americans attended.

[4] Austin writes of his teacher, "This remarkable person, Kobori-roshi, inspired me to begin the long path of Zen and stick to it.

As a result, I have since continued to repair my ignorance about Zen and its psychophysiology during an ongoing process of adult reeducation.

The book was originally published by Tankosha, Kyoto, with a title The one world of Lao Tzu and modern physics : a dialogue with a Zen abbot ISBN 4-473-01373-1.