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Home , Eido Tai Shimano, Jikijitsu, Kaisando, Kazuaki Tanahashi, Kwan Um School of Zen, Maurine Stuart

the studies society Dai Bosatsu Kongo-Ji 4O th Anniversary Table of Contents

Realizing the Dream: A Dai Bosatsu Zendo Chronicle 2

Poetry by Karen Dodds 40

Returning Home by Kyo-on Dokuro Jaeckel Osho 42

Haiku by Ryoju Jack Lynch 48

O-An by Donge John Haber 50

Full Circle by Carol Lindsay 56

Haiku by Jika Lauren Melnikow 58

Selling Nothing by the Pound by Muken Mark Barber 60

Poems by Lorraine Coulter and Evelyn Nenge-Ryushin Talbot 56

In Such A Place, In Such Company by Kevin Zach 68

Haiku by Shinge Roshi 74 and 82

Return To The Root by Eshin Brenda Shoshanna 76 Realizing the Dream: In 1897, D.T. Suzuki returns to the United Soen Shaku teaches at the Russell home A Dai Bosatsu Zendo Chronicle States to translate Chinese texts into in where Mrs. Russell has English and to work on begun leading a small Zen The Pioneering Years: the editorial staff of the group. He then tours the A Vision on Mt. Dai Bosatsu journal The Open Court, with D. T. published in La Salle, Suzuki as interpreter. Talks It’s 1893. Soen Shaku Roshi, abbot of Illinois, by Paul Carus. given during their travels Engaku-ji in , , is invited are later compiled as to address the World Parliament of In 1905, Soen Shaku Sermons of a Buddhist Religions in Chicago. and D. T. Abbot (since reissued as He is attended by his Suzuki are Zen for Americans). 23-year-old student invited to San Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, Francisco takes all who translates his talk for a long sorts of odd jobs in San into English. The visit by Ida Francisco, learning English effect of their coming to Russell and her husband, during the few hours he isn’t working. the United States will be Alexander. Soen Shaku asks Soen Shaku passes away in 1919. From the creation of the Zen another of his students, the 1922 on, Senzaki gives lectures on Studies Society in 1956 monk Nyogen Senzaki, to whenever he can afford to to support D. T. Suzuki’s accompany them, but due rent a hall, calling these meetings his scholarly work. to illness the latter has to “floating zendo.” postpone his trip until later that year. Among those who are deeply affected by He arrives in by freighter and In 1931, he moves into a small apartment Soen Shaku’s lecture is a woman named makes his way to San Francisco; after in , where he meets Kin Ida Russell, who becomes the first Zen a brief stay with the Russells, he is Sago Tanahashi and her husband, who student in America; she later travels to on his own. Photos this page: Soen Shaku and D.T. Suzuki; opposite Japan to study with him. page: , Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Mc- Candless—Ryutaku-ji 1955

2. run a laundry, and their son, Jimmy. She impressed that he sends a letter to Soen they offer at various places in becomes his Zen student and in 1932 Nakagawa; an intensive correspondence the United States. Tai-san continues his he gives her the Dharma Name Shubin, and profound friendship begins. training with Yasutani Roshi; the two “Autumn Sky.” They meet in 1949, when Monk travel around the world in 1963. Soen comes to California for a long In 1931 and 1932, a young poet-monk visit. Their deep spiritual connection Tai-san moves to , named Soen Nakagawa is doing solitary nurtures the Dharma activity that will arriving on January 1, 1965, and rents retreats deep in the forest eventually result in the a small apartment on West 85th Street, on Mt. Dai Bosatsu, establishment of Dai establishing a zendo where students, near Mt. Fuji, having Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji many of whom have already done been ordained on April in 1976. sesshins with Yasutani Roshi, can gather 8, 1931, at Kogaku-ji, for . Word spreads, and more which was founded by In 1951, Soen people come for public meetings on attendant. However, on May 7, 1958, the great Bassui Tokusho. Nakagawa receives Thursday evenings. On February 14, Nyogen Senzaki passes away. He ceaselessly 1965, the first all-day sitting is held. a of his own from Gempo Yamamoto As the group grows, Tai-san realizes it At Soen Roshi’s suggestion, in invention, “Namu Dai Roshi and becomes would be helpful to have the guidance 1960, Tai-san continues his academic Bosa” (uniting with abbot of Ryutaku-ji of an organization, and recalls that education at the University of . boundless - in Mishima, Japan. the had been He is invited to meet with D. T. nature). Monk Soen Nyogen Senzaki, established in 1956 to support the work Suzuki when the latter, now over 90, envisions “a training center for accompanied by his disciples Kangetsu of D. T. Suzuki. comes to lecture at the East-West producing great on that Dai Ruth Strout McCandless and Kokin Philosophers’ Conference. Bosatsu ridge.” Louise Peddeford, makes his first and He gets in touch with Bernard Phillips only visit back to Japan in 1956; he stays and George Yamaoka, original Board On a visit back to Japan, Tai-san is In November 1934, Soen Nakagawa’s with Soen Roshi at Ryutaku-ji. In 1957, members of the Zen Studies Society, introduced by Soen Roshi to Haku’un poems are published in a magazine Soen Roshi decides to send one of his which has been in a period of Yasutani Roshi, and in 1962 he read by Shubin Tanahashi. She shows students, (Tai-san), to organizational dormancy since the 1962 accompanies Yasutani Roshi on a trip them to Nyogen Senzaki, who is so the United States to be Nyogen Senzaki’s arranged by Soen Roshi, during which Opposite page: Soen Nakagawa in California; Haku’un Yasutani Roshi; this page: Eido Tai Shimano

4. passing of its principal donor, Cornelius Street is purchased and renovated newspaper The National Era, galvanized Crane. In 1965, new through the generosity of a the abolition movement. members are elected, donor who asks to remain including Yasutani anonymous. On September The is told that the first deed of Roshi, Soen Roshi, Tai- 15, 1968, with ceremonies the property was signed in 1776, the san, George Yamaoka, led by Yasutani Roshi, Soen very year of this nation’s Independence. and Bernard Phillips. Roshi, and Tai-san, New York Zendo Shobo-ji is formally In 1971, Soen Roshi comes to see Tai-san is able to opened as the new home the newly purchased property. He arrange a visa for of the Zen Studies Society. immediately falls in love with it, saying, Yasutani Roshi to Weekend sesshins are held “This is like the site of an ancient come to the United there and seven-day sesshins temple!” He and Tai-san name it States, and finds a take place at the Daughters International Dai Bosatsu Zendo. larger apartment at of Wisdom Retreat Center in West 81st Street and West End Avenue Litchfield, Connecticut. Left: Soen Roshi; below: unidentified monk from Japan, where they can live; it becomes the Soen Roshi, Tai-san home of the Zen Studies Society. In 1970, after an evening sitting at Professor Phillips, who is chairman of Shobo-ji, Tai-san announces that the the Department of Religion at Temple perfect property for the Zen Studies University, arranges for Yasutani Roshi Society’s own country retreat center to give a series of lectures there. Tai- has been found. It’s in the Catskill san’s wife, Yasuko Shimano, comes from Mountains, situated on 1,400 acres that Japan to join him in his Dharma work. surround a sparkling lake. There is also a house on the property that was With Yasutani Roshi’s profound formerly owned by Henry Ward teachings and Tai-san’s dedication, Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher visionary leadership, and charisma, Stowe, the famed abolitionist. Her 1852 the Sangha outgrows the apartment. A book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, first published former carriage house at 223 East 67th in installments in the antislavery weekly

6. In his collection “Ten Haiku of My the that will soon be built. Carol Snyder, Daishin Steve Levine, Choice,” Soen Roshi writes, “It so Soen Roshi’s friend Father Maxima, and Richard D’Eletto. happened that the dream of building a Japanese artist who is also a Greek a training place on that Dai Bosatsu Orthodox priest, spends several months While sitting in Rohatsu at New ridge came to fruition through the painting a mural in the first-floor York Zendo Shobo-ji, the Sangha is told spontaneous activity of the Dharma, Dharma Hall of the Beecher but not in Japan. It happened on sacred House depicting the Buddha’s land deep in the Catskill Mountains transmission to Mahakashapa. of New York State, a place like Yamato On one weekend, a large bronze Prefecture in ancient Japan, where deer Buddha is precariously rowed to visit and play. There is a clear lake called “the other shore” and is seated Beecher Lake surrounded by thousands on a rocky ledge overlooking of acres of national forest. It is an almost Beecher Lake. infinite wilderness and is a place where true Dharma friends can gather from Tai-san formally asks Soen Roshi all over the world, a place not limited to become Abbot of Dai Bosatsu just to Buddhism or Zen.” (from Endless Zendo, and Nyogen Senzaki is Shunryu Suzuki Roshi Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa, named Honorary First Abbot. The page 62.) first five-day sesshin at DBZ, attended the news that Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, by 23 students, begins September 5, founding abbot of San Francisco Zen Starting with the July 4th weekend 1971, with alternating periods of zazen Center, has passed away in the early of 1971, many students spend work and work practice. Week-long sesshins morning of December 4. It’s a big loss weekends at DBZ, clearing the land of continue to be held in Litchfield. for all Zen practitioners in America, rocks for construction of a gatehouse at beyond his own students—countless the bottom of the road, and preparing On September 13, 1971, the third numbers have been inspired by his book the Beecher House for sesshin use, anniversary of Shobo-ji, the first Zen Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. where they make a rustic zendo on the Studies Society ordination takes place second floor. Bill Johnstone is named there for Daiko Chuck Carpenter. Daiko The first New Year’s Eve ceremony chairman of the Building Committee for becomes resident director of DBZ, at DBZ is held at the end of that joined by Maishin Mick Sopko, Myoko eventful year. 8. In February of 1972 Tai-san gives a On September 13, he conducts Kai San On March 28, 1973, at the age of two-day zazen workshop at Syracuse Shiki (“Opening Mountain Ceremony”). 88, Hakuun-shitsu Yasutani Ryoko University; the following year he returns Two days later, in an evening ceremony Zenji Dai Osho passes from this life; and dedicates the zendo there, giving it at New York Zendo on its fourth the DBZ sesshin of April 20-27 is the name HoEn (Dharma Salt). anniversary, Soen Roshi authorizes Eido dedicated to him. Tai Shimano as his first Dharma heir. He Sangha member Hoko Deborah Love gives him the name Mui Shitsu (“True Davis Hamerstrom is chosen as the Matthiessen, wife of Peter Matthiessen, Man without Rank”), and installs him architect for the new building. He passes away from cancer January 28, as Abbot of both New York Zendo and spends a month in Japan with Eido 1972. The first International Roshi, studying traditional Japanese seven-day sesshin Dai Bosatsu temple design; eventually Tofuku- at DBZ takes place Zendo. After ji is selected as a model for DBZ. March 1-8, 1972; an intermission, Construction begins, but it becomes on the last day, her that same clear that inflation caused by the fuel ashes are interred evening, Myoko crisis will make it necessary to raise next to a boulder Carol Snyder is funds in order to complete the project. overlooking the lake ordained. Three students—Myoku Margot Wilkie, in the newly-named Isshin Peter Matthiessen, and Roko Sangha Meadow. The first full —begin work on an eight-day Rohatsu informational fundraising brochure. That summer, Soen sesshin is held at John and Grace Key donate their large Roshi comes for a New York Zendo, Buddha, which Eido Roshi had found four-month stay, and with some 60 for them in some ten years before, the second seven-day sesshin at DBZ is people participating; each afternoon the to Dai Bosatsu Zendo; a daisho (large held in early September. At this sesshin Diamond is recited, which one hanging struck by a log) is cast as Soen Roshi sings “Atta Dipa,” the last student, Kanzan Bruce Rickenbacher, a gift to DBZ from Mr. Kiichiro Kitaura, words of Shakyamuni Buddha, which he is memorizing in Sino-Japanese. On president of Nomura Securities in Japan. had seen inscribed on the lid of a box of January 17, 1973, 20 Sangha members He also generously offers to provide the Buddha’s relics while in earlier gather at DBZ for the first Rohatsu funds for the bell tower. “Zen Art in the year. sesshin there. Objects from the Four Quarters” is hung 10. in a show at the Greer Gallery as one of prior interest in Zen had been purely nail the box shut. During Namu Dai the fundraising projects. intellectual expressed a strong desire to Bosa chanting, the plaque is raised and begin sitting. And generous donations hammered into its new home. Soen Roshi returns in the spring of 1974, for Dai Bosatsu Zendo began appearing and “A Dai Bosatsu Evening” is held at the mail from friends, relatives, and Later that spring, the first residency Japan House. Isshin Peter Matthiessen strangers alike. But as the roshis have program begins. A small group led is Master of Ceremonies, and gives said many times, more by Shoro Lou Nordstrom an introductory talk. Several students important than the and Roko Sherry Chayat perform a Noh play, Togan Koji; Eido financial support of Nordstrom lives in the Roshi speaks about the meaning of Dai Bosatsu Zendo Beecher House, to which Namu Dai Bosa and about Zen practice; is the extension and Eido Roshi gives the name a number of students sit in zazen on strengthening of Dai Joraku-an, “Eternally Joyous stage. Haiku scrolls hung between two Bosatsu spirit, and this Cottage” (Jo and Raku from poles are stretched across the stage, and occurred very tangibly Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo). Soen Roshi tells the audience about on April 3.” Communal life includes each one. Pointing to the clearing rocks for a large “Great Laughter,” he leads some 300 A special ceremony garden and planting a people in the auditorium in great is held at the variety of vegetables. laughter. The evening ends with the construction site that and Enmei Jukku Kannon Easter Sunday. In the Daily zazen is augmented Gyo, and then the audience joins in new zendo, a rope and ladder lead to by sesshin with Soen Roshi, who is now chanting Namu Dai Bosa. From the the rafters of the roof. Several hundred spending more time at DBZ. Shoro and Spring 1974 issue of Dharma Seasons: sheets of hand-written Enmei Jukku Roko work with him and Eido Roshi on Kannon Gyo, which students have been the book Namu Dai Bosa: A Transmission “The results of the Dai Bosatsu Evening writing during rest periods at sesshins, of Zen Buddhism to America. were quick and startling. Many who are placed in a wooden box mounted had been in the audience expressed on a plaque inscribed with that sutra At the end of the summer of 1974, their gratitude; some said the zazen and Namu Dai Bosa. To the chanting which closes with a seven-day sesshin, on stage was like a powerful current of Hannya Shin Gyo and Enmei Jukku it seems impossible to leave. Shoro, carrying everyone along. Friends whose Kannon Gyo, Soen Roshi and Eido Roshi Roko, and five other residents decide to 12. stay on, living in the mostly unheated summer, more Sangha members arrive to and quite drafty Joraku-an, as monastery be residents. On the fifth day of summer construction continues. sesshin, June 28-July 5, the inkin is struck for the first zazen in the still In a journal entry, Roko writes, “As unfinished zendo. Eido Roshi says, “This winter deepens, the water in the floor has finally been laid. Now we must Buddha’s bowl on the zendo altar sit with all our might. We must be the frequently freezes. Before morning nails and screws.” On July 4, he takes zazen two or three of us take turns going the high seat for his first teisho in the out in the old blue truck to plow and new zendo, and begins, “At last a baby sand the road so that the construction is born….” and becomes overwhelmed crews can get up the hill. Early in 1975 with tears. He asks Suigan Eddie Daniels we tap for maple syrup. Incredibly, to “play the teisho”; Eddie, a renowned spring does come again; the lake thaws, jazz musician, goes to the altar with his and zazen is filled with the sounds of flute and plays “A Child Is Born.” Soen Roshi arrives August 21, Dai rushing water and the songs of returning Bosatsu Day, for a visit of robins and wood thrushes, and the scent On August 3, residents sit in the old several months, and the first seven-day of daffodils.” Joraku-an zendo for the last time. sesshin entirely in the new zendo is Each goes up to the held from August 30 through September Three monastery, kneeling in 6. Eido Roshi says that although he students the traditional niwazume and Soen Roshi have Rinzai Zen are posture to request formal backgrounds, “Here in this new zendo ordained: acceptance as a student on this new continent we will establish Shoro Louis at International Dai neither Rinzai nor Soto Zen, but Dai Nordstrom; Bosatsu Zendo; everyone Bosatsu Zen.… While in essential areas Dogo Don continues sitting until all Scanlon; have entered. On August and 9, 1975, a Dedication Left: Joraku-an entryway; above: Eido Roshi and Shoro Kanzan Bruce Rickenbacher. In the Ceremony is held in the new monastery. Louis Nordstrom; opposite page: Roko Sherry Chayat

14. the centuries-old traditions of Japanese cut and split for firewood to heat the Rinzai Zen will be maintained, certain monastery; the sap house and woodshed aspects of living and practicing at Dai have been shingled; landscaping of the Bosatsu Zendo will become clear only area around the monastery has begun. as the monastic community develops.” After much rewriting, editing and In his first teisho of that sesshin, Soen polishing, Namu Dai Bosa has been Roshi offers this poem: put in the hands of Stinehour Press of Vermont, which is considered the I came to the door of Dai Bosatsu Zendo finest printer in America.” The book and it was already open. is to be published in 1976 by Jochi I opened the Book of Rinzai and found George Zournas’ Theatre Arts Press; in no word. her Foreword, Chigetsu Ruth Lilienthal Where is Master Rinzai? writes: “Beside the highest lake in the Where is the Master? Catskill Mountains, the International Dai Kwatz! Bosatsu Zendo lies in a green silence, place of true freedom to celebrate the waiting to be born. And United States of America’s Bicentennial. Daily practice as described in the Fall to bear.” It is an exciting and ebullient time 1975 Dharma Seasons: “Up at 4:30 for for this Sangha, and for many other morning service and zazen, we have With Eido Roshi’s visionary work and pioneering Zen centers that are being worked for the most part straight through indomitable Dharma spirit and the established during these years. until supper and evening zazen. Among efforts and contributions of Sangha the results are a woodshed eighty feet members and Dharma friends, “The Buddhist teachers from all over the long by thirty feet wide, a garden of over Impossible Dream” is being realized. world, including Joshu Sasaki Roshi, an acre containing nearly every kind of founding abbot of Mt. Baldy and Rinzai- vegetable (many of which have been Planning begins for the following ji in California; Roshi, stored and frozen for winter use), and summer’s formal opening and founding abbot of of Los over 100 and nearly 50 dedication ceremonies, in which Dai Angeles; Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche, and . Trees have been felled, Bosatsu Zendo will be offered as a founder of Institute in Boulder,

16. Colorado; Seung Sahn Sunim, founder DBZ; he is attended by Kogetsu Tani, Eido Roshi participates in “The First of the in his future Dharma heir and Shogen-ji Gathering of Zen Teachers in the United Providence, Rhode Island; and many abbot. A week later, on October 13, States” May 2-4 at Green Gulch Farm, prominent Zen roshis from Japan attend sixty Rinzai monks led by Mumon moderated by Huston Smith, who gives the grand opening on July 4, 1976. Yamada Roshi, abbot of Shofuku-ji in a talk titled “Zen in the West: This Everyone receives slip-cased copies of Kobe, arrive for Sai Dai Sesshin, American Moment.” The gathering is the limited edition of “International organized by , author of the Namu Dai Bosa. Many Great Sesshin.” soon-to-be-published A Zen Life: D. T. people stay on for the They walk from Suzuki Remembered. International Sesshin that the gatehouse to follows. the monastery Eido Roshi is writer, editor, and carrying Japanese translator of many books from 1978 Soen Roshi is not and American through 2005. The first edition of present at that formal flags side-by- Like a Dream, Like a Fantasy, a opening. Quite a few side. The total compilation of poems and teachings Sangha members do not number of sesshin by Nyogen Senzaki, is brought out in attend, either; there have participants is 100 1978. Eido Roshi’s Golden Wind: Zen been waves of deeply (60 Japanese, 40 Talks is published in 1979 by Japan saddened departures and American). Publications, and is followed by Points Board resignations due of Departure: Zen Buddhism with a to reports of Eido Roshi’s Miura Isshu Roshi, Rinzai View in 1991. Zen Word, Zen multiple inappropriate the co-author Calligraphy, with text by Eido Roshi relationships with with Ruth Sasaki and brushwork by Kogetsu Tani Roshi, students. of Zen Dust: The is published the following year by History of the and Koan Study in Shambhala. Fascicles from ’s International Exchanges Rinzai Zen, who has lived a reclusive yet Shobogenzo, “Being-Time,” “Only inspiring life in New York City for many Buddha Knows Buddha” and “Life- On October 5, 1976, the Ven. Itsugai years, passes away December 10, 1978, Death,” are published in 1997 and Kajiura Roshi, abbot of Myoshin-ji, visits and a memorial service is held at New 1999 by Encre Marine, with the original York Zendo Shobo-Ji in January. 18. Japanese and translations into English by DBZ on July 29, 1981, and gives a talk Soen Roshi comes to DBZ for what Eido Roshi and into French by Charles in which he says, “In order to lead [the will be his last visit, giving teisho Vacher. Their bilingual translation of proper way of life], the proper way of on the Rinzai Roku at the summer Dogen’s “Buddha Nature” appears in thinking is important. The root of proper sesshin of 1982; he meets privately at 2002. A second edition of Like a Dream, thinking is kindness and Joraku-an with a few of his long-time Like a Fantasy: The Zen Teachings and and love. If you have good motivation, students, including Lou Nordstrom and Translations of Nyogen Senzaki is then the whole way of life becomes , who has become the brought out by Wisdom Publications proper and you will accumulate .” resident teacher at Cambridge Buddhist in 2005. Eido Roshi’s translation of The leads “a lively, experiential Association in Massachusetts. Book of Rinzai, a four-year project, is evening” at Joraku-an during that visit. also published in 2005. Soen Roshi passes away at Ryutaku-ji on Wataru Ohashi makes March 11, 1984. His death poem reads: His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Joraku-an his headquarters August speaks at New York Zendo and 1-10, 1981, for the first of many Nanohana ya Ohashiatsu workshops Sarani nageutsu there. Numerous shiatsu Mono mo nashi practitioners become Zen students over the Mustard blossoms! ensuing years. There is nothing left To hurl away The summer of 1982 features a number of special events: Soen Roshi’s teisho given at the 1982 a weekend called “On Being summer sesshin, his haiku, and a Fully Alive,” with Dainin selection of commemorative writings by Katagiri Roshi, psychiatrist his students are assembled in the book Tadao Ogura, and Eido The Soen Roku: The Sayings and Doings at in 1979, on his Roshi, is held; Paul Reps is in residence of Master Soen, published in honor of first trip to the United States. He visits and offers “A Weekend at Play”; another DBZ’s tenth anniversary. weekend workshop, “Poetics and This page: Eido Roshi and His Holiness the ; ,” is given by Allen Ginsberg. opposite page: Eido Roshi, His Holiness, and Aiho Yasuko 20. Shimano with two students At that Anniversary Sesshin July 1-7, Before leaving for a year’s sabbatical name, which is derived from that of the 1986, Bishop Koin Takada, abbot and in Japan in 1989, Eido Roshi appoints Chinese Ancestral Teacher O-An Donge leader of the restoration of Yakushi- Junpo Denis Kelly head monk. In Zenji. Eido Roshi writes the name for ji, one of the oldest Buddhist temples August, Kogetsu Tani Roshi, abbot of the hut with an enso in place of the O. in Japan, gives a talk, and together Shogen-ji in Gifu prefecture, travels to In a piece for the newsletter, Donge with his monks and nuns, performs a DBZ with his monks to lead summer writes, “There is a deeper meaning to purification ceremony. The sesshin is sesshin, and then returns for sesshin circle. It is the circle of life: a circle of jointly conducted by Eido Roshi; Joshu here that October. embrace and of coming together. So Sasaki Roshi, Abbot of Mt. Baldy Zen now there is a cabin Center in California; and Rev. Genki in which I will live Takabayashi from Seattle Zen Center. and perhaps die, Chogyam Trungpa from and which visitors, Naropa Institute in Boulder presents guests, and other a talk on the final day. There are 90 members of the participants, including many students community can from guest teachers’ . use when I am not here.” A new brochure is published in 1986 that states: “Dai Bosatsu Zendo was MyoOn Maurine created as a lay monastery, receptive Stuart dies of cancer to the spiritual needs of those who find Donge John Haber takes charge of Open on February 26, 1990. She teaches and in Zen a congenial practice. To fulfill Space wellness programming and, in leads sesshin at Cambridge Buddhist this function, Dai Bosatsu Zendo must September 1989, holds the first retreat Association right up to the end. continue its tradition of a strong practice for fellow HIV-positive people at DBZ, even as it seeks to participate in the sponsored by the Community Health Donge never has a chance to live in culture of America. Generous and often Project. He lays out plans for a cottage O-An. In December 1991, shortly after anonymous friends built Dai Bosatsu in the woods, O-An, “Hut of Accord,” Eido Roshi and a group of Sangha Zendo; that we continue to practice planning to live out his final days members leave on a trip to India, and make it available to others gives there. O-An refers to Donge’s Dharma he is hospitalized with AIDS-related meaning to their generosity.” 22. pneumonia. Roko Sherry Chayat is with Eido Roshi, Daido Loori Roshi, Dai-En The dedication of DBZ’s Kaisando him in the Intensive Care Unit as he Bennage Roshi, Lou Nordstrom, John (Founders’ Hall) takes place July passes away January 29, 1992. McRae, Lex Hixon, Wataru Ohashi 4, 1994, the last day of Anniversary Sensei, and Paula Arai; Shakuhachi Sesshin. Eido Roshi says, “I feel it On October 11, 1992, Junpo Denis Grand Master Nyogetsu Ronnie Seldin is inappropriate for me to consider Kelly receives inka shomei, Dharma performs. A month-long exhibition at myself the founder of Dai Bosatsu Transmission, from Eido Roshi, and the Everson Museum features the work Zendo—not because I am still alive, is named Vice Abbot. At the end of of Daido Roshi, , and but because I know what a karmic net Rohatsu sesshin that year, Mayumi Oda, as well as is. Therefore, it is most appropriate at Eido Roshi conducts calligraphy by Yasutani least for now to name the following a Dharma Teacher Roshi, Soen Roshi, and people as the founders of Dai Bosatsu authorization ceremony for Eido Roshi. Zendo Kongo-ji: Soen Nakagawa Roshi, Taizan Hakuyu Maezumi Roshi passes three women: Agetsu Agatha Respectfully Invited Founder; Nyogen away on May 15, 1994. He had come Wydler-Haduch, New York Shubin Kin Tanahashi, Senzaki, Karmic Founder; Chester to Los Angeles from Japan in 1956, and Zendo Director Aiho-san Nyogen Senzaki’s Carlson, Financial Benefactor; Jimmy founded Zen Center of Los Angeles in Shimano, and Roko Sherry disciple who brought Tanahashi, Karmic Benefactor; Hakuun 1967. Maezumi Roshi and Eido Roshi Chayat. The following year Soen Roshi’s poetry to his Yasutani Roshi, Spiritual Benefactor; both did koan study with Yasutani Junpo Roshi leaves Dai attention, thus sparking Dr. D. T. Suzuki, Scholarly Benefactor, Roshi; Maezumi Roshi received Dharma Bosatsu Zendo. their long spiritual and William Johnstone, Managerial Transmission from Yasutani Roshi, as friendship and the Dai Benefactor.” well as from the lay Rinzai Master Osaka In April 1993, the Zen Bosatsu Mandala, passes Koryu and from his teacher and father, Center of Syracuse Hoen- away on August 31, Jiro Andy Afable becomes general Baian Kuroda Roshi, a leading master ji organizes “100 Years 1993, at the age of 96. manager and treasurer at DBZ. He had in the Japanese Soto School. Maezumi of Zen in America,” All three shared a love of been leading the practice at Kashin Roshi and Eido Roshi both had a karmic at venues including poetry and a devotion to Zendo in Washington, DC, where connection with Nyogen Senzaki. Syracuse University, SUNY College of the Dharma. Her son, Jimmy, who was he was acknowledged as a Dharma Environmental Science and Forestry, wheelchair-bound with severe Down Teacher in 1988. the Everson Museum of Art, and area Syndrome, had been cared for every day Calligraphy by Kazuaki Tanahashi; above: Shubin and galleries. Among the speakers are by Nyogen Senzaki after his move from Jimmy Tanahashi with Nyogen Senzaki Kogetsu Tani Roshi, Abbot of Shogen-ji, San Francisco to Los Angeles. passes away November 21, 1994. He 24. and Eido Roshi had known each other at Shogen-ji, and Yamakawa Roshi years I predict that Dai Bosatsu Zendo for more than 40 years. Before his regularly brings his Shogen-ji will come down from the mountain, death, Tani Roshi acknowledges his to sesshins at DBZ. that ordained Zen monks and nuns long-time student, Sogen Yamakawa, will be funded to start community abbot of Kokoku-ji, as his Dharma heir. In 1996, the 20th anniversary of Dai Zen centers, and that new practices Tani Roshi’s death poem, discovered Bosatsu Zendo is attended by 56 will help ordinary Americans discover after his departure: sesshin participants; a new granite the extraordinary way of Zen, so that is dedicated at Sangha Meadow. all citizens of the United States may become truly liberated from suffering.”

Guests receive copies of the newly published Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa, compiled and translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Roko Sherry Chayat, with an Introduction by Eido Roshi; The Book of the Zen Grove, translated by Zenrin Robert Lewis; an original shikishi calligraphy by Eido Roshi, and a tea cup by George Peterson. A feast is prepared by Seppo Ed Farrey, followed by a poetry Cultivating the clouds, More than 100 people arrive for a reading by Saigyo Terrance Keenan, Fishing the moon, festive celebration on the morning of an ordained monk from Hoen-ji in Sixty-three years have passed July 4. Dai-En George Burch, chairman Syracuse; and a performance by the Now I know clearly of the Zendo Roof Replacement Ives String Quartet of the Juilliard There is no life, no death. Fundraising Drive, gives a speech asking School of Music. the Sangha to think “about how to From 1995 on, a number of DBZ build a new American Dai Bosatsu Zen. Subtle Sound: The Zen Teachings of monks and nuns spend training periods With your help over the next twenty Maurine Stuart, compiled, edited, and

26. with an Introduction by Roko Sherry Mifflin in 2000, and becomes an instant In 2003, Jiro Osho resigns. Seigan Ed and Fudo Myoo (carved by Soshin Chayat, with a Foreword by Edward bestseller in the Buddhist MahaSangha. Glassing is appointed shikaryo (head Nakai), are dedicated at the celebration, Espe Brown, is also published by monk). On April 12, at the close of Holy with o-fuda (papers with inscriptions Shambhala in 1996. DBZ’s 25th anniversary is celebrated Days Sesshin, Denko John Mortensen, that carry blessings) from Kotaro Hiruta July 4, 2001. Present are Japanese who received Dharma Transmission Sensei, who is head of Ichikukai On October 18 of that year, Eido Roshi Ambassador and Consul General to from Eido Roshi in November 2002, Misogi Dojo in and a professor conducts the dedication ceremony for New York Mr. Kawamura and Mrs. is appointed Vice Abbot, but he leaves of nuclear physics. A misogi ceremony the Hoen-ji’s Kawamura, Yamada Sensei of Urasenke DBZ in 2006. Fujin Attale Formals, is performed by members of Ichikukai new home on six acres along Onondaga Tea School, many ordained and lay a dedicated long-time resident who Dojo, Robert Savoca, Yuho Carl Baldini, Creek, and installs Roko Sherry Chayat students, and guests, for a total of was ordained in 1993, comes into and members of Brooklyn Aikikai. as abbot. He changes the second 250 participants. A stone monument ascendancy in the leadership of DBZ. Yuho writes that misogi “as a method of character of “Hoen” (formerly “Dharma inscribed with a line by the 92-year- purification and spiritual awakening has Salt”) to become “Dharma Connection.” old poet Shinmin Sakamura, Nen Some 60 Sangha members participate a long and honorable history and is still He returns to Hoen-ji in October 1998 Zureba Hana Hiraku, (“Nen! Blooming in the 30th Anniversary Sesshin, with rigorously practiced in modern Japan… to conduct the ceremony in which Flowers”), a new Jizo statue carved by Yamakawa Roshi of Shogen-ji joining this training is perhaps more valuable Roko receives inka shomei, Dharma Mr. Nomoto, and a seven- granite for the last four days. On July 15, and relevant to humankind than ever.” Transmission, with some 140 2006, more than 200 Sangha members people attending. gather for the anniversary celebration. Also in 2006, Yamakawa Sogen Roshi’s A ceremonial tea by Yamada Selected Teishos on the Gateless Gate, Jiro Fernando Afable receives Dharma Sensei of Urasenke Tea School is translated by Saiun Atsumi Hara, Transmission in 1998 and is appointed followed by a service, and speakers is published in time for the 650th Vice Abbot of DBZ. Zenrin Robert include Yamakawa Roshi; Ambassador commemoration of Kanzan Egen Zenji, Lewis and Denko John Mortensen are Sakurai; Melvin McLeod, Editor of spiritual founder of Shogen-ji in Gifu acknowledged as Dharma Teachers on BuddhaDharma and Shambhala Sun; Prefecture. The book contains teishos December 8, 1998. Soshin Nakai, and Eido Roshi. A delivered at DBZ. new stupa honoring Gempo Roshi is Three Bowls: Vegetarian Recipes from slab carved by Mr. Nomoto with the dedicated in Sangha Meadow. That October, Eido Roshi leads six an American Zen Buddhist Monastery, image of the Jizo Bodhisattva painting students on a pilgrimage to Japan for the by Seppo Ed Farrey and Myochi Nancy in the zendo foyer, are installed A shrine and two new statues, 650th commemoration. They first visit O’Hara, is published by Houghton and dedicated. (carved by Myoyo Tanaka) Engaku-ji, Soen Shaku Roshi’s monastery 28. where Nyogen Senzaki and D. T. Suzuki and a monastery by Beecher Lake, in the newsletter Seigan writes, “There is practiced; then they go to Gifu to attend Catskills. The Dai Bosatsu Mandala.” a love at the heart of Hoen-ji that the commemorative sesshin at Shogen-ji, shines through in so many ways. The with nine roshis giving dokusan for the Early in 2008, Roko Sherry Chayat Hoen-ji Sangha’s devotion to their more than 120 participants. After sesshin finishes the manuscript of Eloquent teacher and to the Dharma is reflected Silence: Nyogen Senzaki’s Gateless in their many kindnesses. The warmth Gate and Other Previously Unpublished is perfectly condensed in Shingeshitsu Teachings and Letters, with her Roshi’s new name.” Introduction and Eido Roshi’s Foreword. Nyogen Senzaki Sesshin is held at DBZ On April 18, 2009, Yamada May 3-11, supplanting Memorial Day Sensei, retired director of the Urasenke Sesshin. Soon afterward, Eido Roshi, Tea School of New York who has Aiho-san, Fujin, Yayoi, and Roko fly offered ceremonial tea at many special to Los Angeles and present the bound occasions at DBZ, passes away. pages, with chanting and offerings of ends they visit Enzan, and are taken to incense, matcha, flowers, sweets, and In 2009, 78-year-old Kiyuu-san the huge rock on which Bassui Zenji sat pure water at Nyogen Senzaki’s grave in Yokohama becomes a part-time resident in zazen; the following day they visit Evergreen Cemetery, fifty years after his and full-time gardener at DBZ. His first Bassui’s temple, Kogaku-ji, where Soen passing. On the eighth day of the eighth visit was in July 2008 for the funeral Nakagawa Roshi was ordained. They month of 2008, the books arrive from and burial of his wife, Sumiko; now he climb Mt. Dai Bosatsu, and suddenly Wisdom Publications. reactivates the vegetable garden, makes Mr. Fuji appears through the mists. many kilos of miso, and plants flowers, A 10-year period of advanced training bushes, and trees all over the grounds. Seigan writes, “The circle is now culminates in a ceremony on October complete; from Soen Shaku, Ven. 12, 2008, called shitsugo, literally, A fundraising project is begun by the Nyogen Senzaki, and D. T. Suzuki, to “room-name,” in which Roko Sherry Board of the Zen Studies Society: Soen Roshi, to Eido Roshi. From this Chayat receives the title of Roshi and the “To commemorate Eido Roshi’s 50th great peak in Japan to Los Angeles, and name Shinge (“Heart/Mind Flowering”) Anniversary in the United States, and still farther to a temple in New York City from Eido Roshi at Hoen-ji, with more to express his gratitude to the Three than 150 people attending. In the ZSS Treasures, a (gate complex) will 30. temples. An article about this appears usually know about the affairs, keep the in The New York Times. Meanwhile, secret, and thus the hypocrisy spreads. an Internet archive has been posted Certainly the teacher’s participation in documenting Eido Roshi’s abuses of secret affairs affects his ability to give power and the many unsuccessful ZSS guidance to his students, especially in Board attempts to call a halt to such the area of relationships. behavior. The current Board asks Eido Tai Shimano and Aiho Yasuko Shimano “Often the sexual liaisons are only part to step down from their positions on of a larger picture in which a hierarchical

be built at the entrance of Dai Bosatsu the Board, and engages the Faith Trust structure results in some students feeling Zendo.” The Sanmon is dedicated Institute to help guide the Society taken advantage of, as their unpaid labor August 12, 2012. through this traumatic time of broken built the Zen center and their loyalty trust. Following their recommendations, allowed their to enlarge his

Heartache and Transformation on December 8, 2010, Eido Roshi retires domain of influence and function in a as Abbot; on December 10, Aiho-san dictatorial manner.”

At a meeting that had been held in 1993 retires from her role as Director of New in Dharamsala, India, between His York Zendo Shobo-ji. On January 1, 2011, Shinge Roshi is Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and installed as Second Abbot of the Zen a group of twenty-two Western Dharma In her book Turning The Wheel: Studies Society. She and members of the teachers from the major Buddhist American Women Creating The New Board are faced with splintering factions traditions in Europe and America, Buddhism, Sandy Boucher notes, “In in the Sangha and a darkly tarnished sexual exploitation of students on the most situations in which the teacher is reputation. They work at revitalizing an part of Asian teachers in the West was a having sexual relations with students, it organization in disarray and attempt principle topic of discussion. is not the actions themselves that prove to cultivate a positive atmosphere destructive, but the secrecy in which based upon the Buddhist precepts and

On June 21, 2010, an endemic culture they are pursued. Students believe in democratic principles while upholding of secrecy surrounding decades of their teacher and model themselves after strong Rinzai Zen practice. sexual misconduct is broken when a him. A deep trust is established. When student discloses an affair with Eido that is broken, much psychological A limited access policy for Eido Roshi harm is done. Also, the senior students is put into effect, based on ethical, 32. Roshi. Many practitioners leave both legal, and insurance requirements. It by-laws are adopted. Atonement a superficial regard for form that then precludes his teaching on ZSS premises. ceremonies are held at the conclusion becomes rigid and cold. We are here An unfunded retirement policy that had of each Anniversary Sesshin, along with to nurture bodhisattva mind. We are been drawn up years earlier becomes Council gatherings to foster openness making a commitment to wake up to our a major issue, and the Zen Studies in the process of healing. Shinge Roshi true nature. That is the essence of our Society is sued by the Shimanos for non- and her students vow to let the air in, practice. It cannot be forced or rushed; payment. With the help of non-binding to “take off the wrappers,” as Nyogen we have to allow it to unfold.” arbitration, eventually the lawsuit is Senzaki put it. dropped and a mutually agreed-upon In her first “From the Abbot” article, financial settlement is put into place. In a vision statement, Shinge published in the Spring 2011 newsletter, Roshi stresses the importance of she writes, “There are changes that During the I envision. I want to cultivate an next few years, atmosphere that is harmonious, warm, consultants from open, and respectful of everyone. Since the professional my way as a teacher is more relational organization than hierarchical, I look forward to An Olive sharing creative ideas with residents Branch conduct and visitors alike. I welcome past and workshops on current students with deep concern board “best for continuing our heritage and love practices” of the Dharma to take part in shaping and mission, the future of Dai Bosatsu Zendo. From values, and time to time I would like to bring poets, vision, as well artists, environmentalists, and other as a facilitated Sangha weekend retreat “understanding the compassionate stimulating people to share what they during which more than 50 people nature of formal practice, seeing it do, and I would like to reach out to the speak honestly about their deep pain, as holding, rather than repressing. wider Catskills community.” anger, and disillusionment, and make True freedom is found through gladly recommendations for the future. New embracing discipline. At the same time, “These changes will evolve organically; we must beware of getting caught up in they are not to be hurried, but they have 34. begun. Supporting and encouraging completing the Hakuin koan training The first Family Weekend is held in July each person’s practice in appropriate process and becoming familiar with the 2013, in the spirit of Nyogen Senzaki’s ways, taking note of individual needs responsibilities and duties that a ZSS Mentorgarten. Including residents, there and talents: this is Rinzai Zen in an holder assumes. A date will be are around 65 participants, ranging American setting. Snow and ice have announced soon for his inka shomei. in age from a few months to over 70. melted; spring rains soak the earth, and It includes nature walks, swimming the sun coaxes new buds to open. With Dokuro Osho is a native of Austria, and boating, short periods of sitting the readiness of time, fruits form and where he began his formal Zen and yoga, picnics, and creating and ripen. Saturated with the incomparable training in 1982 under Genro Seiun flying dragon kites in honor of the practice of Buddha-Dharma, let us work Osho, a student of Joshu Roshi; he Year of the Dragon. together to realize the Great Way here at then continued his studies with Joshu Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji.” Roshi and was ordained a monk at Mt. A big loss to the DBZ community is the Baldy Zen Center (California) in 1989. passing of the inconspicuous Bodhisattva In 2012, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi In 2004, he received Temple Dharma Kiyuu-san Shinko (Heart Cultivating) retires at the age of 105. One of his Transmission in the Rinzai-ji lineage Yokohama on August 7, 2013. senior disciples, Dokuro Jaeckel of Inzan. Dokuro Osho is married to Osho, abbot of Cambridge Buddhist Shuko Marlene Rubin, whom he met In September 2013, the book The Association, formally requests to at Mt. Baldy Zen Center while both Hidden Lamp is published, “a collection continue his training in Rinzai Zen at were training there, and who was also of one hundred and stories of Dai Bosatsu Zendo, having met Shinge ordained by Joshu Roshi. Buddhist women from the time of the Roshi at CBA in 2010. In 2014, Joshu Buddha to the present day.” Shinge Roshi passes away. Dokuro becomes Roshi is among the contributors, an official disciple of Shinge Roshi, commenting on the story of Hakuin and attending sesshins at DBZ and giving “The Old Woman’s Enlightenment.” Dharma talks. In 2015, she announces She participates in a book signing with her intention to transmit the Dharma editors Florence Caplow and Susan to him, and acknowledges him as a Moon and several other contributors at Dharma Teacher at Rohatsu Sesshin. on May 10, 2014. The His advanced training includes book, notes Juyo Dennis Giacomo,

36. general manager of DBZ, “shatters A second Family Weekend is held in the to extend our care and concern to all forever the exclusively masculine summer of 2015, and it is a resounding beings on our planet; and to actualize history and perception of success. To celebrate the Year of the our , moment after the koan.” Sheep (both Soen Roshi and Shinge moment.” Roshi were born in the Sheep Year), An internship program for college it features artist Mandy Greer and her Juyo Dennis Giacomo says, “The Dai students and recent graduates begins family in residence. They and weekend Bosatsu Mandala continues to enfold in the summer of 2014, and is so participants of all ages create magical us as we celebrate not only the past successful that it continues in the installations of sheeps’ wool on the path which formed us, but the future which winters and summers that follow. Interns along the lake. Also presenting programs we embody and cultivate in this very join in all the sittings and ceremonies, that weekend are local beekeepers, moment and in all the moments we and help support Open Space programs beaver experts, and Keigetsu Yao Xu, continue into. We move forward not and resident work projects. They have who shows a first cut of her filmJourney , to escape the past but to fulfill its long- afternoons off for their individual about an alternative elementary school. awaited promise.” projects, which range from art to environmental studies, from temple “Now, as we commemorate the Shinge Roshi adds, “With compassion cooking to writing. 40th anniversary of DBZ and the for our own and others’ struggles and 60th of the Zen Studies Society, we mistakes, let us grow together, forging By the winter of 2014, DBZ’s 40-year- rededicate ourselves to the flowering deep bonds of spiritual friendship and old wood boilers are barely functioning, of the Dharma at our temples,” Shinge encouraging each other to realize and so after thorough research on Roshi says. “Wiith gratitude for all that actualize our true nature. Breathing in, sustainable heating systems, a decision we have received from our founding nothing is excluded. The whole universe is made to purchase a new bio-mass teachers—the profundity, the beauty, is right here. Breathing out, nothing is energy-efficient boiler. Thanks to the the challenges, the hardship, the joy— held back. Namu Dai Bosa!” n generosity of many, many bodhisattvas, we go forward with great resolve. We the new system is installed in time for pledge to uphold the highest standards the following winter. of personal and organizational integrity;

38. Lone spider descends on silk thread poetry we sit still

Swimming to Buddha Snaking line of lights salamanders, dragonflies spirits float free on water beaver tail warning: SPLASH! fire leaps to heaven

Karen Dodds

40. eturning Home Austria. My wife, Shuko, and I traveled first occasion in which we encountered R to Rinzai-ji to join the European Sangha each other both as Oshos, holders of the by Kyo-on Dokuro Jaeckel Osho in sesshin, knowing that Genro was Rinzai-ji temple lineage. It was a cordial This is the story of the travels of a green suffering from terminal cancer and that reunion. Many common memories kesa. The Japanese term kesa originates it would probably be our last chance to came alive, and Genro expressed his from the word : a set see him. I had not seen or practiced with deep regret that I had moved from of robes worn by the disciples of Genro Osho for more than a decade, Austria. The sesshin flew by. It was a Shakyamuni Buddha. In the Buddha’s because I had relocated to the United remarkable week, sitting with a former time the kasaya were stitched together States in 1994. The retreat was also the teacher—now a fellow Osho—as well as by discarded fabric scraps. Over the a Sangha that included a few long-time many years and through cultural practitioners who remembered the monk influences, the kesa changed to its Dokuro from his time in Europe. current form, which is worn draped over the left shoulder, leaving the right Before the Europeans had to depart, shoulder exposed. Zen clergy wear the Genro Osho asked to see me in kesa at formal occasions. private. In his room, and after some conversation, he showed me a stack of So what is the big deal about this green robes and Japanese finery, including a kesa? Here is the remarkable story of this few fancy gold brocade rakusu, a few piece of clothing. In October 2009 some kesa, and nezumi-iro , which is thirty European Zen students traveled the grey colored under-robe of monks to Rinzai-ji in Los Angeles under the (nezumi-iro literally means “mouse leadership of Genro Seiun Osho to colored”). I happily accepted the participate in a Dai-Sesshin with Kyozan kimono (which I’ve been wearing ever Joshu Sasaki Roshi. Genro Osho is the since), thanking him. I also thanked him teacher under whom I started my formal for the offer of the other fancy items. Zen training in 1982, when I lived in “Joshu Roshi really doesn’t like us to

42. wear fancy robes,” I said, respectfully In 2010, I was the Abbot of the would be possible to stay a few days at declining to pick from the fancy pile. Cambridge Buddhist Association. As the CBA. A donation and a talk were Genro pulled out a green kesa, made you may know, the CBA was founded offered in exchange. I gladly extended from heavy winter cloth, and handed in 1957 by D.T. Suzuki and Shinichi an invitation and accepted the offer for it to me. “Please take this. I really want Hisamatsu, two eminent Japanese the talk. The person inquiring was the you to have it. The other things I don’t Buddhist scholars who taught for Abbot of Hoen-ji in Syracuse, Shinge- mind anyone else taking, but this one, some time at Harvard University. In shitsu Roko Sherry Chayat Roshi. This the green one, you should have.” I early January of that year I received an was the first time I encountered Shinge tried again to politely decline, Roshi; she stayed at the CBA but Genro insisted: “Joshu Roshi for a few nights, gave a teisho gave this to me as a present, to the CBA Sangha, and and since it came from him, you presented to me a copy of the should feel free to take it as a then recently published book hand-me-down. It would mean Eloquent Silence, inscribed a lot to me that you accept it.” I with a personal note. A new accepted the gift and let Genro Dharma connection was know that I would probably actualized and a Dharma not be able to wear it, but that friendship had begun. receiving it from him as a hand- me-down of one of Sasaki Roshi’s A few months after Shinge own robes was a great honor. We said inquiry from a former student of one Roshi’s visit to the CBA I received a our goodbyes, a few pictures were of my predecessor abbots at the CBA, letter from Genro Osho, telling me of taken, and after that day I never met MyoOn Chiko Maurine Stuart Roshi. his worsening condition and of the Genro in person again—he passed away The person inquiring was coming to expectation that he would not be long peacefully in November 2010. visit her son in Boston, and asked if it on this planet. There was something

44. else he wrote, which he had forgotten On January 1, 2011, Shinge Roshi ceremony of the monastery. On the to tell me when he had given me the became the Abbot of the Zen Studies occasion of my first at DBZ green kesa as a gift. He wrote, “I should Society and Dai Bosatsu Zendo. In I put on the green kesa, tying a karmic let you know why Joshu Roshi gave me early 2012 Joshu Roshi, then in his knot with DBZ and the Zen Studies the green kesa. He gave it to me when 105th year, retired from teaching. Society, being yet another Austrian-born I was accompanying him to participate The CBA Board had sold the house in Zen monk wearing it at one of the most in a ceremony that he had been invited Cambridge, and it was our group’s work extraordinary places on earth. to as a guest, and we attended the to clean it out. There were some old ceremony together. It was on July 4, photographs of Soen Roshi and Yasutani As you all know, after Joshu Roshi’s 1976, the opening ceremony of Dai Roshi, which I saved and decided to passing in July 2014, I became an Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji in the Catskill return to someone I knew would care official disciple of Shinge Roshi and Mountains.” Genro continued to write to have them—Shinge Roshi. I had also have been studying with her to complete about the ceremony, noting the many realized that with the impending official the requirements to become a Dharma prominent participants (you can see retirement of Joshu Roshi, I needed to heir in the ZSS lineage. Through this them all in the photograph hanging find a way to continue my training in story about the green kesa, the meaning in the Meeting Room at DBZ), and Rinzai Zen. Because we were already in of in-nen, karmic affinity, has come alive about how the entire party, in their full communication, I asked Shinge Roshi if for me. It was not only the green kesa robes, was rained upon by a surprise it would be possible for me to continue that returned to DBZ; I also returned to downpour. Many thousands of dollars’ my formal training with her. Shinge a home that I had not known, except worth of fancy Japanese finery was Roshi graciously accepted, and thus I intuitively. For this I wish to express my completely soaked and thoroughly came to participate in my first sesshin deep gratitude to Joshu Roshi, Genro ruined. The green kesa, however, since at Dai Bosatsu Zendo—and with me I Osho, Shinge Roshi, Shuko-san, and all it was a heavy winter fabric, did not brought the green kesa—which after 38 the Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas who suffer lasting damage. years returned to the place where it was are with me in the investigation of this worn by my first teacher, at the opening most remarkable Great Matter. n

46. Through the falling leaves So much Buddhist Bling! haiku bright sun dancing on the blade No one sees the incense smoke of the pruning hook dancing in the Sun

Late into the night Ryoju Jack Lynch chipmunks doing fast kinhin around the Zendo Instrument of peace

playing continuously— This heart opening

48. was heightened by an unexplained, and the Dharma. “I’ll do this, you save me,” O-An as it turned out, completely harmless and also in the belief that the practice by Donge John Haber spot my dentist had found on the roof itself would heal, if not save me: Spring 1992 of my mouth. I recall that even though helping me to live and die with grace. I had never been to the monastery, I And for the better part of three years, On November 15, 1990, my mother thought that if this was it, I’d move to it seemed to work. died. On November 15, 1991, while I Dai Bosatsu Zendo. How this would was in Syracuse conducting a healing be accomplished, I could not say. But I The fear that resulted in my being asked service for People with AIDS, a roof knew it to be the right path. not to cook vanished. The community was going on a small log cabin on a embraced the idea and realization knoll just beyond the woodshed at Dai It turned out not to be it, and it took me of retreats for HIV positive men and Bosatsu Zendo. These three apparently a few years to get here. I was ordained, women, and we discussed the best separate events are in fact intimately partly it seems now, as a bargain with ways to take care of me if I should related. The year’s karmic journey has become ill. I seemed protected and drawn many threads together, and with in perfect health. the readiness of time and the support of

Eido Roshi and the Sangha, I would like Then, this spring, that seemed to be to share some thoughts. changing. It turned out to be related to medication and not to my dropping I was propelled into Zen practice blood numbers, but I began to feel by death—my father’s in 1983 low on energy and was experiencing and, beginning in 1984, a long a number of odd, small and upsetting and continuing line of friends and symptoms of decline. This depression acquaintances who succumbed to HIV of my energy was joined by the related diseases. Though I did not take sickness and death of one of my the antibody test until 1987, I knew dearest friends and the now evident what the results would be. My first mourning process for my mother. And weekend sesshin at New York Zendo it threw me into a crisis of faith.

50. Who was I kidding? All of my so called trying to find my bearings. I didn’t lose doubts, it seemed I was welcoming the insight paled in the light of the simple the practice, but I felt I was just going participants speaking lies. fact that I might actually be spiraling through the motions. Shots of a magic into “sickness”—helplessness— potion corrected the anemia, but not the And then, sitting in the Guest House and my mother, the only one spirit. living room, sharing the evening who had permission to take care of me, meal, something happened. Suddenly was dead. What was I doing here? In The 1991 HIV retreat was scheduled all the distinctions of “healthy” and sitting, in walking, in every activity of for September. I had spent the past year “sick,” “healing” and “declining” truly life here, I came face to face with this working on the program in the fervent vanished. Living or dying with HIV terror. I said to Muin Bernard Spitz, and deep belief that Zen practice, yoga or cancer, or just humanness, was all “I should have seen one thing. Just living. As it is. And this coming.” With a miraculously OK. wonderful gentle smile, he said, “You don’t hit the Each of you suffers from Acquired wall if you see it coming.” Immune Deficiency Syndrome in that you are human. Eventually, if you are The community was not hit by a bus, the immune system wonderfully tolerant will break down. And this shared and supportive. I asked truth, and the questions it raises, is the to be relieved of many beginning of Zen. It is this realization responsibilities and in which my practice has become was given complete real—it is not AIDS, not health, not understanding. sickness, but just life, just being. And Nonetheless, I felt I needed to go off and this magic mountain could be the Dharma is at work in it all. alone. Junpo was away, so I did a private healing in a real sense. I had drafted retreat at Sun-Moon Cottage, feeding reams of rhetoric about the benefits of My mother left me a far-from mendicant the deer, picking meals from the garden, this practice with myself as proof that it monk, and over the last year Roshi, sitting a bit, chanting, crying a lot and worked. And at the start of the weekend, and Junpo and I have discussed shaken as I was by my questions and 52. several possible projects by which to My mother is still taking care of me, memorialize my parents and to benefit building me a house. When she first the monastery. One of them was a became ill, we spoke of the oddness of retreat cabin. And we had also discussed sharing health fears, I at 44 and she at by Jean Valentine what would be the best way to take care 76. We made a pact that I would worry of me, should I become ill. about her and she about me, but not When I woke up, my friend about ourselves. Neither of us had a was with me. We were And so 0-An was born. I asked Roshi to thing to worry about. on the island name the cabin and, after a few days, of no going beyond. he said “How about 0-An?” My Dharma Wa Hotoke No On Inochi Nari Unseparate. You, name comes from the Chinese patriarch never-returned, 0-An Donge Zenji. 0-An means “The Birth and Death are you had come back for us. Hut of Accord.” Roshi did a wonderful the very life of the Buddha. calligraphy on a plaque to be placed at Dogen Zenji n the door. He wrote a circle instead of (written at the character for “0,” and humorously O-an Cottage, said that if other cabins were to be built, Dai Bosatsu Zendo the names should be “A-An,” “B-An,” July 27, 2013) and so on ...

But there is a deeper meaning to the circle. It is the circle of life: a circle of embrace and of coming together. So now there is a cabin in which I will live and perhaps die, and which visitors, guests and other members of the community can use when I am not here. For Donge John Haber

54. F ull Circle by Carol Lindsay, Holistic Practitioner After dragging in 2 extra futons so Who was healing and who was being that I could at least sleep (they gave healed? All of us. It was so deep A year before the first Healing and firm a whole new meaning!), I settled that I am still in touch with some of Wellness Retreat at Dai Bosatsu Zendo, into the life there: working, chanting, the practitioners and participants. I and through the recommendation of a sitting zazen, eating macrobiotic food, participated for many years doing friend, but without directions, I found enjoying all the natural beauty and energy healing work and leading the my way to DBZ for a personal retreat. animals and meeting amazing folks. Saturday night healing circle, which Finding the Zendo all the way out there The most amazing was Donge, who was such a gift to me. Then I became was a miracle in itself and told me that I slipped into my heart in a very deep sick with leukemia and couldn’t go was meant to connect with this place. way. Before I left, I signed up for the for a couple of years. I returned as a newsletter. When I participant for a year or two and knew received it and saw that that I had come full circle. Although I they were offering a retreat haven’t been back for several years–I for those living with HIV perform weddings and August is always and AIDS, I called Donge a busy month for weddings–the tapestry and offered my services, of my life is filled with colorful threads which he gladly and from my experiences at DBZ, and I am gratefully accepted. What eternally grateful. n an experience, so intense and profound.

56. October 2005

Meal is begun haiku Miracles of each small bowl Are you tasting them?

September 2003 2011 (fall sesshin) (after my first ever morning service at DBZ–Intro to Zen with Shinge Roshi– November 2005 let everything go staying in Joraku-an) each fall leaf dropping away sesshin aftermath ‘til there’s no more tree actions are acting themselves- Saturday Morning the planner is gone.

Morning Service song Nov 2015 (Harvest Sesshin) giving birth to the ancient wrapped in fall darkness 2012 (summer sesshin–immediately after Clear-eyed encounters Roshi’s recovery–her heart stopped) Morning fog lifts on its own Revealing clear lake After Dinner For Roshi: Night Zendo

Silent shimmer lake. From state of no breath Translucent message profound. you rise and shine more brightly Jika Lauren Melnikow Fall in true nature. igniting deep vows.

58. dance of life in dynamic totality. At desperation, we are driven to drastic

elling Nothing by the Pound Dai Bosatsu Zendo we are capable of measures to make sense of that great S springing from our mental cage to taste Something, even if it drags us fully off by Muken Mark Barber the freedom we enjoy as naturally as the deep end...and if it drives us crazy In 1868, when naturalist John Burroughs birds in flight. We are free to open to enough, we might even start to sit zazen. first stood beside the water of Beecher joy, fear, frustration and exaltation as Lake, he must surely have sensed the they converge into one unshakeable Though it was with that mind of Dharma shimmering across its surface. finger to point the way. Like the doors curiosity that I arrived at Dai Bosatsu “As beautiful as a dream,” he wrote of of this zendo, this Mind is open to Zendo in July 2013, it was in the the lake, “the mind is delighted as an everyone to discover and cultivate for midst of decades of flailing within the escaped bird, and darts gleefully from ourselves. We only have to be receptive Great Doubt that I first discovered Zen point to point.” More than a century to its call. practice in Syracuse. Of course, having later, the Sangha of Dai Bosatsu Zendo never given a thought to Buddhism or thrives in its vow to master this Mind— Listen! At this very instant, stirring in the real spirituality of any kind, at the time not merely the perceptual mind dazzled breeze—do you hear it? I had no idea what I was doing or why. But what I understood deep in my bones Many of us come to Zen practice, was the personal loss that had brought and to Dai Bosatsu Zendo me there, the inescapable reality of the specifically, having been fortunate karma I had created and the demons I enough to taste great suffering. had brought to life for myself, the years Whether like a sudden growl of of grasping for a stability of ego and thunder or the gradual wearing- purpose that would vanish at a stroke down of the ego’s cushioning, whenever it seemed close at hand. we begin to sense in our lives When all of these finally converged something missing and something one auspicious morning, a great radiant possible, something deeply light sliced through the despair and mysterious but ineffably, utterly and radiated outward through me. All of a by the rolling hills and streams of the essentially human. With the right kind sudden there was a way out, a glimpse Catskills, but true Mind, the vibrant of curiosity, and maybe an overdose of of Something More glinting down a

60. vast path, but too blurry to make out. or achieving something at the end of the afternoon, a black bear stumbled out This sudden experience was enough, the road, my experiences at DBZ have into the main road, perhaps thirty feet and the promise of this path pulled me shown me time and again that in fact, from the front entrance where I decided toward the pinpricks of light just ahead. there is nothing to gain and no road to right then to deposit my expectations. A couple of days later I woke up and take you there. The seeking is the way immediately the thought came: Maybe I and the path is the goal. As long as we Though it’s tempting to dwell on the should try meditating. walk, we are joy and gratitude that there, whether radiates from the walls at I still remember how Shinge Roshi’s we realize it or Dai Bosatsu Zendo, the voice crackled like gentle fire the not. And so it real work begins when first time I heard her give teisho at was that a few we open to the challenges the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji. months later I that are the core of our If I thought I had gleaned something found myself practice. In fact, joy and of this Zen thing by then, she volunteering difficulty are not separate; incinerated that with one strike: “Zen for O-Bon prep to get to the marrow we is not self-improvement. Zen is a week with must cut through flesh spiritual practice!” My immediate hardly a clue and bone, and even in thought—well, crap—dissolved in about what the cutting we can realize the knowing that something still lay I was doing. overwhelming gratitude. ahead that completely sidestepped all I had never In my three years as a rational conceptions. My practice was sat sesshin, frequent resident at DBZ I being primed for descent beneath the never worn have found that the great surface. What did it mean, this spiritual a robe or so gift of this monastery is practice? How would it unfold and much as heard the word jihatsu. For the privilege to be enfolded moment where would it lead? And did I have travel directions I received such cryptic after moment in restriction, to enter any choice but to follow? instructions as “ignore signs like ‘Dead a container that throws us into naked End’,” which actually became a nice confrontation with who we really are. I Though we may set out on the path distillation of Rinzai Zen. Two minutes remember how, during my first formal with such ideas, with notions of finding after we arrived at the monastery early in breakfast at DBZ, I nearly passed out

62. from the pain of kneeling on the hard we wake up to this urgent reality, we void in which to dance—casting aside tenzo floor. I remember thinking of can know intimately what we really are everything unnecessary, giving thanks to the place as a work camp for stubborn beyond the flickering of transient things, the wisdom of great difficulty, learning neat-freaks as I grappled with what felt bowing to the perfect imperfection born through repetition how that fraying like mystifying dictates of a capricious in This moment. patchwork wall can be demolished with cultural tradition: “Why is it such a a good sledgehammer or a sip of tea. big deal if I walk ahead of the ? The truth is that within the restriction What could be more wonderful? We’re all going to the same place, man.” and between the statues and bells, Dai I’ve navigated the arcane complexity Bosatsu Zendo has nothing to offer. When Dai Bosatsu Zendo was being of the board during middle day It promises nothing, it sells nothing; established in 1975, Shinge Roshi wrote lunch (all those condiments!). I’ve there is nothing we can take home in her journal, quoting her teacher Eido been fiercely corrected on the forms of with us. But this nothing is the most Shimano, that here “we will establish practice more times than I can count, precious commodity of all, the one neither Rinzai nor Soto Zen, but Dai and I’ve choked on the feelings of shame we’ve sought all along. In Zen and Bosatsu Zen.” After forty years the and inadequacy the mind throws out Japanese Culture, D. T. Suzuki writes question still arises: what is Dai Bosatsu to protect itself when vigorous practice that “the Zen-man is an artist to the Zen? Forget it—it doesn’t exist. It has no seems poised to pierce through. extent that, as the sculptor chisels out definition, no framework, nothing to pin a great figure deeply buried in a mass it down. Dai Bosatsu Zen is alive in the But sesshin after sesshin, one of inert matter, the Zen-man transforms Sangha and in the energy we generate period after the next, each opportunity his own life into a work of creation, together in deep concentration, our nen to serve as jisha or inji or tenzo becomes which exists, as Christians might say, in holding fast the joists and boards of our an invitation to toss away the artificial the mind of God.” At DBZ we discover zendo. Relentlessly unrepeatable, Dai self which needs so badly to look that because our mind, our lives, are an Bosatsu Zen lives as we walk the razor’s impressive to others. To settle into the unblemished stone block, anything is edge of not-knowing. And now as we rhythm of daily life is to accept with possible. With each breath we unveil the celebrate our 40th anniversary together, humility and good humor our shared limitless freedom and creativity before we can cry ! with jubilation as we grace and gracelessness, knowledge and us, and the inventive performance that fall off the edge of the map. Happy lack of it. There really is nothing to do; is true Mind emerges from the nothing. independence day! n should and ought are distractions. When Past the wall of self a yawning ageless

64. Let Loose of it and it Song of the Sesshin Bird Fills Your Hands — Dogen S t i l l W a t e r s Illuminating What arose were moths T h i s ! poems from the bodhisattva’s fingers in the great hall, ablaze with eyes, color of flutter, color of smoke. Misty waters, a beam of light,

In the deep shade of the body, every which way. a stirring, a stillness older than stone.

The spokes of mind in their scattering, loosed from god and circumference. Evelyn Nenge-Ryushin Talbot

The ancestors, their names coming toward us like snow.

Lorraine Coulter

66.

I n Such A Place, In Such Company By Kevin Zych her arms, I returned to perfect health. As for me I enjoy both stories equally My sister tells a slightly different version well, and can easily imagine elements Just before my twin sister and I were of events, one that we might call more of the two fusing together like opposite born, my mother spoke to an apparition scientific. According to her, I was born sides of the same coin. After all, from of the Virgin Mary. “She was as real as blue—something of a cause for alarm. the point of view of an infant with no the infirmary doctors,” my mom said The doctors took me to the pediatric conceptual understanding of what life with a smile, “who, by the way, gave intensive care unit, and it was through could be, what is the difference between me a really confused a divine intervention and a first breath? look.” A devout Catholic, my mother has always Twenty-four years later, I feel grateful allowed faith to inform that I got around to breathing, however pivotal moments in her it happened, for those first few breaths life. Evidentially that are what allowed my entire life to includes birthdays; my unfold. The Earth, the sky, Mom and sister and I happened Dad, the patterns on a blanket, my to arrive on December favorite LEGOs, Melody Lake, a friend’s 25, 1991. It was this embrace, the tweet of a black-capped conversation with the chickadee, the sound of laughter, the Blessed Mother that taste of watermelon, the feeling of provided strength and surprise, the smell of spring—it’s all assurance when she here! Just one breath, wedged into an needed it most. It’s also, she says, what their help that I was able to do what is infinitesimal moment, unfurled outwards saved my life. Shortly after I was born, so often taken for granted: pull air from like a firework, ignited, a flame of all the doctors were concerned that I wasn’t the outside world down into the lungs, colors, a light enveloped in all shapes. receiving enough oxygen, and they allow it to nourish the body and mind, were about to take me away. But my and release carbon dioxide to make way As Shinge Roshi put it in a recent teisho, mother called out to them, and once in for another live-giving breath. “Every second, WOW!” Indeed, to

68. remember one is alive, to find oneself living in New York City, I became practice. Within months I attended my immersed in this stream that flows accustomed to chasing things—GPAs, first sesshin, and sought a residency from one happening to another, is to internships, jobs, points on a resume, opening at Hoen-Ji. Like many students, experience something beyond our accomplishments, the subway. And I arrived encumbered with life-long normal religious-scientific conceptions. slowly this mentality pervaded even the insecurities, and though I wouldn’t Not that life isn’t religious, or scientific, most precious things in life. Friendships, have said as much, I hoped that Zen but that it first appears to us raw, humor, and artistic expression all would offer clever alternatives, secret unmolded to our intellectual frames. became tainted with competition against techniques that would evaporate either my peers or my own egoistic my suffering. While it is true that More unfathomable is how this radiance projections of who I should be. I was this practice yielded a new lens shines through all beings; the infinite hardly alone. Everywhere I looked, it to understand life, and a sharper array of emotion and sense within any seemed, people were working hard to discernment to address difficulties, life is equally experienced by billions of make something of their lives while life I sensed that a deeper truth existed other lives. Since entering this practice, I was making them exhausted. Witnessing beneath such problems. I began to have found meditation naturally extends this firsthand led me to question the wonder if solving my issues wasn’t this awareness. As my mind becomes futility of pre-defined success, of the issue. more subtly attuned to a single breath, creating images in my head and chasing a cup of tea, or a grain of rice left over them with my eyes closed. If it weren’t It was in the rigor of sesshin at Dai in my Jihatsu bowl, I come to realize for the kindness of a few close friends, I Bosatsu Zendo when these thoughts the person next to me also shares this might never have allowed myself to step bloomed into full realization. Sit immensity of perception. Infinities back, reconsider my ambitious plans to after sit, the slew of white noise that within infinities sitting next to infinities. tackle life, or ask myself, what is it that I normally runs through the mind As my friend once put it, “Entire worlds wanted from this whole thing anyway? subsided, and in its wake arose swirl in bowls of soup.” something familiar: the breath—that Moving back to my hometown, simple, yet ineffable communion And yet, the conditions of our culture, Syracuse, and attending Shinge Roshi’s between oneself and the universe. my reactions to them, and a myriad of Deep Presence course, felt like an Returning to the present again and other factors did much to dismantle this enormous step forward, one that again, I discovered there was nothing to appreciation for ordinary life. While propelled me instinctively into deeper return to. Each breath was my first;

70. members against the rising sun, I felt As a new member to the Hoen-Ji and a mutual dissolution of our normal Dai Bosatsu communities, I feel a selves. In its place emerged an open subtle confidence that a fresh, exciting and completely honest presence, chapter has begun. What we will write as unassuming as the morning light. together is unknown, but what I have Though not everyone knew each other’s seen in other students, working under names, and most hadn’t spoken in the guidance of our truly compassionate nearly a week, the tears and smiles teachers, shows great promise. Whether across the room spoke volumes of the in deep zazen or resting on the deck, transformative power of this practice, I can hear a nameless quality in of our shared trust, of gratitude just their silence and in their laughter. It to be alive. In such a place, in such welcomes and inspires me to partake company, the breath can be a way in a growth process that exceeds to express everything. our individual potentials. It gives an inexpressible meaning to our chant, It is both humbling and inspiring to Shu jo mu hen sei gan do. return to Beecher Lake and know each breath was my last. First, last, generations of students have come here, I owe a tremendous thanks to our both, and neither. After so much effort shattered their perceived limitations, beloved Shinge Roshi, who challenged to breathe, to just breathe, that same and forged new relationships with their me to look beyond my self-imposed effort became superfluous. Then for a lives. Over the past 40 years, how many limits and commit to a true calling. moment here, a moment there, there students have shouted Mu from Sangha I also extend my gratitude to all my was nothing to exert, nothing to grasp, Meadow to hear the echo of their vow friends in this wonderful Sangha, nothing to attain. Life could not be return from the mountain? How many for their immeasurable love and extracted from life. have walked past mossy waterfalls, encouragement. Thank you all, and let awakening to the words of the Diamond true Dharma continue! n Looking around the zendo, and seeing Sutra, “like a dream, like a fantasy”? the silhouettes of fellow Sangha How many yet to come?

72. haiku filaments of rain moment by moment on this late summer morning in today’s soft steady rain slow saturation a green unfurling

walking before dawn crescent moon among the stars late autumn windstorm birds insects humans nothing more than this everything has blown away taking in the green

dawn comes undeterred rain day after day

wind roars through the trees wherever each leaf alights after last night’s storm breeze moves through the trees a golden temple snow blossoms on bare branches branches nod in agreement welcome cries of geese then utter stillness

Shinge Roshi

long-fingered shadows sweep down the frost-tinged hillside crow rends the silence

74. as we helped DBZ grow over the years roof and beside a beautiful lake. The can never be erased. sun and moon shone in upon us. Barely eturn To The Root R knowing what we were doing, we simply By Eshin Brenda Shoshanna entered this wonderful adventure, day after day, year after year, sesshin after sesshin. Some actually lived up at DBZ, taking “When you return to the root care of the premises. Along with intense You gain the meaning.” zazen practice, the boiler was loaded with

wood, vegetables were planted, delicious —Sosan Zenji meals cooked. The place was kept clean

and in good order, always prepared for the The fortieth anniversary of DBZ is a upcoming sesshin. wonderful time to look back at the many seeds that were planted to enable Dai Others went back and forth between Bosatsu Zendo to bloom. Each of those DBZ and their daily lives, to join in seeds has sprouted different roots, given whatever way they could. As I look birth to many branches, which have back upon those days, it seems to me spread over the world. As Soen Roshi the great power of our practice came taught us, wherever we go, we carry We gathered both in at from jumping in wholeheartedly, DBZ with us. The power of its practice NewYork Zendo Shobo-ji, and at the without preconceived notions, not and teachings cannot be contained. wonderful Beecher House, Joraku-an, following a path we knew anything

on the newly acquired land. The Sangha about. Just giving ourselves fully, again In the very early days, before the actual that gathered was magical; each of us and again, we allowed the Dharma to monastery was constructed, the original was deeply thrilled to be embarking affect us and take us wherever it did. Sangha arrived. Like a group of swallows upon a path that was both completely At that time, back in the city, the doors suddenly finding home, we gathered to familiar and totally new. of Shobo-ji were open to everyone. It build a nest not only for ourselves, but was everyday life practice, sitting and for future generations. The memory of When up on the mountain, we sat close returning to our families and work until the beauty and wisdom we experienced together, in cozy zazen, under a wooden all was indistinguishable and everything became zazen. 76.

Naturally, as time went on, we learned wherever they are now, they are carrying greatly thank Shinge Roshi, so devoted a great deal both through our growth the wonderful DBZ spirit with them. and committed to practice, a dear and our disappointments. Like life itself, Dharma sister at the time. there were plenty of shocks along with In the beginning Soen Roshi was there, moments of great beauty and joy. The and Eido Roshi, and the monks who We cannot forget Dogo Don Scanlon fleeting nature of life became more and came from Japan to help. Along with (the ex-welter- weight prize fighter), more apparent as wonderful Sangha honoring the great vision and beauty whose wonderful talks on beginners’ friends left and others arrived. Slowly, of Soen Roshi, I deeply thank and nights at Shobo-ji kept so many of us this simple, profound and unknowable acknowledge the tireless efforts of Eido going. Tough and real, Dogo spoke our practice taught us to hold it all in the Roshi, who was always there, sitting language, made the practice accessible palms of our hands. As the years go by alongside us, inspiring and challenging to our everyday lives. I thank Wado Vicki it still teaches us that, if we remember us constantly. Without his efforts DBZ Gerdy who brought me to the zendo, that after we fall off our cushions, we and dear must just get back up, honor everything Jonen Sheila that has come to us, and sit down and Curtis, who breathe once again. greeted all with warmth, As the fortieth anniversary approaches I gentleness, remember the members of the original and love. Sangha, each of whom was and always I thank will be a root in my life. The support Shoro Lou we gave one another, the inspiration, Nordstrom, friendship, and courage, cannot be and Kanzeon underestimated. Each of those people, Bruce whether alive now or not, whether would never have come to be. Rickenbacker, who along with Dogo actually able to be at the anniversary I also thank Sogen Yamakawa Roshi, were the first monks ordained at DBZ. celebration or not, cannot be forgotten. who touched many deeply and came to They themselves were the foundation DBZ regularly, along with his monks, to I remember with love Kushu Min Pai, upon which DBZ was built, and support the growth of Zen in the West. I who taught me to remain stalwart, no

78. matter what obstacles arose. Daishin twinkled as he replied, “They’re all right Peter Gamby, one of the first residents here, Eshin! We are all always together. at Shobo-ji, was a special Dharma How come you don’t see that yet?” friend. I remember how, during kinhin, at particularly difficult moments when I With one mind, one vision, and one wanted to run away, he would lean over dream for Dai Bosatsu’s healing effect and whisper, “Keep going, whatever you upon the entire world, we gave of do. Once you’re through the pain, you’ll ourselves wholeheartedly. May that really be into something!” What would I intent grow and come to fruition so be into, I wondered? “Just take one more that a taste of true Zen practice may be step,” Daishin insisted, ”and you’ll find available for all. n out.” What he didn’t say at the time was that one more step goes on forever: it must be taken day after day. “Wherever I go Is my home Other dear Dharma brothers and sisters I think of the struggles, hopes, and In eternity.” gave to all of us deeply. Daijo Vinny victories of my dear Dharma sister Kuju Piazza and I came to the zendo for the Sara Birnbaum. She sat beside me on —Soen Roshi first time on the same night. Years later, the cushion year after year, and was just he arrived at my garage zendo to keep about to go on pilgrimage when she our zazen going, week after week. Isshu passed on suddenly, way too soon. Randy Place was there, where he met and married Ellie, his wonderful wife. Where are all these great friends and Now, over forty years later, both have teachers now? I cannot help but think of suddenly re-appeared in my life, dear Soen Roshi’s answer when I asked him Dharma friends. that very question years ago. His eyes

80. Three from Harvest Sesshin 2015 Three from Nyogen Senzaki Sesshin 2016

breaking through thick clouds haiku eye of god stares intently beneath still-bare trees bare branches reach up swaths of brilliant green appear saturating rain

Two from Nyogen Senzaki larches’ copper haze Sesshin 2014 last apple on the old tree after days of rain wind bites into me mountain mist begins to lift

sudden drift of green framed by still-bare trees

ripples on the lake glisten trees insubstantial wind writes a grace note dense layers of drifting fog dog chews on new grass

everything is gone thick fog conceals the mountain a lone goose glides by bare trees transparent mountain disappears in mist autumn rain begins Holy Days Sesshin 2016

Shinge Roshi

glittering spring snow

on almost budding branches in the sharp bright cold

82. Photo Attributions

Renji Ellen Darby: front cover

M. Dougan: front inside cover

Michael Reed pages: 6, 26, 27, 28, 58, 61, 65, 67, 68, 69, 76, 79, 84

Dr. Victor Zelek pages: 10, 22, 25, 32, 4, 45, 60, 63, 72, 73

Daishin Pawel Wojtasik page: 11

Sarah Nakano Purget page: 48

Brando Lee Lundberg pages: 53, 30

Karen Dodds pages: 31, 36, 37, 52, 55, 62

Myoho Brenda Miller page: 33

Myorin Catherine Landis page: 38

82. Noemi Nin Pfluger pages: 43, 44,

Denshin Bruce Ackland pages: 51, 57

Tenrai Fred Forsythe page: 56

Keigetsu Yao Xu page: 83

Conor Keenan page: 74

85.