▶ To Cherish All Life With Oops! What the Fidgets, halter tops, and the emphasis on “all,” can we exist and Roshi Kjolhede have to say snark: how a superiority on earth without killing? about mistakes complex develops

AUTUMN 2018 | VOLUME XL, NUMBER THREE editor BOWChris Pulleyn | [email protected] editorial consultant The mind of the Zen adept is taut—ready, like a drawn bow Roshi | [email protected] COPY EDITOR Autumn 2018 | Volume XL, Number THREE Cecily Fuhr | [email protected] Art Director To theme or not to theme? For more 3 M SOUNDINGS Daryl Wakeley | [email protected] than a decade, each issue of Zen Bow has proofreader had a specific theme, and submissions have “Just bury me in Tupperware”: John Pulleyn accordingly been solicited for specific topics. remembering Cynthia Seefeld | The Call for submissions The first two issues of the redesignedZen science of kisses and stones | Q&A: My legs fall asleep! | Tangen Roshi’s tea All readers are encouraged to submit essays and Bow were also themed: “Starting Over” and images at any time and on any topic related to Zen “Memorializing Tangen Harada Roshi.” room teachings | What is ? practice. Articles may be of any length. Suggestions for articles and artwork are also welcome, as are Meanwhile, creativity in the con- “found objects” such as quotations, haiku, and/ tinues to bubble up and ideas keep coming or excerpts from articles in other publications. amaury cruz Submission guidelines may be found on the Zen Bow our way. The über-theme ofZen Bow is to page of the Center’s website: www.rzc.org/library/ inspire Zen practice, on and off the mat—but I resolve not to kill: zen-bow. For any and all questions and suggestions, please email Chris Pulleyn at [email protected]. that is wide-open territory! So this issue of A call to arms Zen Bow reflects an array of ideas and experi- The First Precept—to resolve not to subscribing to Zen Bow ences. A potpourri? A smörgåsbord? Perhaps kill—sounds deceptively simple, and The subscription rate below reflects current postage a cornucopia, given the season. yet it can be a lifelong . ▶ 8 fees : The upshot is this: keep the ideas coming. 4 issues 8 issues U.S. : $20.00 $40.00 Your letters, articles, recommendations, even Zen and the Foreign : $40.00 $80.00 random thoughts are most welcome here. art of snobbery Please send checks and your current address to : Think of these themeless issues not as lacking A few rounds with a new sitting Zen Bow Subscriptions Desk something, but rather as providing more: group trigger a maddening case of 7 Arnold Park more opportunity for diverse perspectives, Zen stink. ▶ 14 Rochester, NY 14607 offbeat ideas, and increased engagement please note : If you are moving, the Postal Service with the Zen Center. roshi bodhin kjolhede charges us for each piece of mail sent to your With gratitude, old address, whether you have left a forwarding address or not. If you change your address, please Chris Pulleyn, Editor Turning over the teakettle let us know as soon as possible. Send your address To err is human, we are told. But corrections to the Zen Bow Subscriptions Desk at the above address or email [email protected]. what happens next is a good measure of practice. ▶ 18 Countless Good Deeds If you’re thinking about financial planning, estate planning, or both, please remember that there are 22 M SIGHTINGS myriad ways you can help the Rochester Zen Center through planned giving. The right kind of plan Letters to the Editor | Reader reviews | can help you reduce your taxes significantly while providing for a larger, longer-lasting gift to the Zen Glasgow’s grand opening | Chapin Center. Because there is a wide array of bequests, Mill sleepover annuities, trusts, and other financial vehicles to consider, you’ll want to work with your financial advisor to decide what’s best for you. Long-time Zen Center member David Kernan, an attorney who concentrates his practice in tax law, has generously offered to help point you in the right direction at no charge. For more information about planned giving and David’s offer, please contact the Center’s receptionist.

ON THE COVER COPYRIGHT ©2018 ROCHESTER ZEN CENTER. FOR REPRINTS PHOTO by Daryl Wakeley | October 5, 2015: Commonwealth Avenue AND OTHER PERMISSIONS, PLEASE CONTACT THE EDITOR AT CSX railroad pedestrian underpass; Alexandria, Virginia; latitude: 38° 48' [email protected]. 28.23" N, longitude: 77° 3' 38.33" W. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN ZEN BOW ARE THOSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS ALONE AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE ROCHESTER ZEN CENTER, ITS A publication of the Rochester Zen Center DIRECTORS, ITS TRUSTEES, ITS MEMBERS, OR ITS STAFF.

2 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 Autumn 2018 Soundings

MEMORIES OF CYNTHIA Cynthia had a special gift for altar Cynthia Seefeld served for 17 years as and flower arrangements, and each altar a Center staff member. When I began to prepared for each occasion was an artistic practice and first came to the Center, Cyn- adventure of form, texture, and especially thia was already a fixture on staff and the color. In my first summer at Chapin Mill, Head of Housekeeping. At a Zen Center, one of my assignments was to do the altar it is often obvious how much we have to flower arrangements—something about learn from a teacher or from the Head of which I hadn’t a clue. Cynthia had already . But the moment-to-moment prac- trained me to clean the incense pots—a tice that is so much a part of Zen training somewhat tricky job which she had intro- can only be absorbed from the seasoned duced with many a tale of students whom practitioners who surround and supervise the task had reduced to tears of frustra- our work. tion. The ash was to be tamped down to As a newbie, I was regularly assigned the firmness of room-temperature butter. to housekeeping whenever I came around If you stuck in the stick of incense and to volunteer. Cynthia, then, was in many the ash felt like refrigerated butter, that ways my introduction to the Center—at was too hard, but if it fell apart like flour, least to the work-practice side of it—and that was too soft. As I struggled with the has been, from that time to this, a contin- ▲ One of the many colorful rakusus that Cynthia recalcitrant ashes, she repeatedly assured ual source of inspiration for my life and made for Buddha’s Birthday celebrations. me that I was a “natural” (not true), and my practice. It was not only her dedication insisted that if I were not crying yet, I and devotion, but the contagious joy she was doing brilliantly. Now that I had been seemed to find in everything around her, assigned to do the flowers as well, she her warm heart, and her wonderful sense ▼ Cynthia Seefeld, in the photo that she requested produced for me a little hand-drawn book- of humor, that made me know that Zen for her memorial service. let that I could take out to Chapin Mill training was something I wished to pursue. for reference. It showed the flowers and As Head Housekeeper, Cynthia had a their moods at different times of the day; special way of training us beginners to do I remember their reaction to the fixative the many cleaning and caretaking jobs re- being added to the water—standing up quired at the Center, most of which might quite straight and a bit surprised! seem humdrum or routine at first glance. By the time I came onto staff full-time, It is a Zen truism that if you are bored, it Cynthia had moved from the housekeep- means you are not paying attention, and ing department to the kitchen, and so Cynthia, not only through her creative in- had I. There she would regularly hone our structions, but through her wholly engaged , calling our attention to the body-language, had a way of making each beauty of the food we were working with: small job seem the most important and “Look at that orange!” “Oh, just look at the interesting thing in the world. The zendo way that red and green go together!” She mats were not only to be brushed and could arrange the most striking salads. straightened, but to be gently smoothed by Just as important were the sudden flashes hand until the surface shone like ice. The of humor that could buoy us through the round cushions were to be plumped until toughest kitchen mornings. If you have they stood up straight like mushrooms, ever struggled with organizing a Tupper- taller than they were wide, each placed just ware cupboard at home you might begin so and matching all the others in the room. to understand the challenge of managing a (Occasionally there would be an old one, Tupperware collection for 20 people ▶ with the kapok crushed to all but dust, that simply couldn’t be coaxed to the requisite while i thought that I was learning how to live, I have been height, and then we could only do our best “ and offer it our sympathies.) learning how to die.”—leonardo da vinci ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 3 ▷ SOUNDINGS

◀ Cynthia’s award-win- ALL THINGS ARE PROCESS events is that things persist in time; ning doll of Roshi. The entire evolution of science events have a limited duration. A stone is would suggest that the best grammar for a prototypical “thing”: we can ask our- that travels thinking about the world is that of change, selves where it will be tomorrow. Con- between two not of permanence. Not of being, but of versely, a kiss is an “event.” It makes no kitchens as well becoming. sense to ask where the kiss will be tomor- as back and We can think of the world as made up row. The world is made up of networks of forth to Chapin of things. Of substances. Of entities, of kisses, not of stones…. Mill for various something that is. Or we can think of We therefore describe the world as it occasions. it as made up of events. Of happenings, happens, not as it is. Newton’s mechanics, Cynthia of processes. Of something that occurs. Maxwell’s equations, quantum mechanics, took on as Something that does not last, and that and so on, tell us how events happen, not her own the undergoes continual transformation, that how things are. We understand biology by never-ending is not permanent in time.… studying how living beings evolve and live. task of keeping Thinking of the world as a collection We understand psychology (a little, not this collection in of events, of processes, is the way that much) by studying how we interact with order, stacking lids allows us to better grasp, comprehend, each other, how we think….We under- with their matching and describe it. It is the only way that is stand the world in its becoming, not in its containers, sorting subtly compatible with relativity. The world is being. different yoghurt pots, iso- not a collection of things, it is a collection “Things” in themselves are only events lating unmatched tops until their bottoms of events. that for a while are monotonous.—Carlo re-appeared. (“But where do they go?” I The difference betweenthings and Rovelli, The Order of Time asked her, to which she replied, “Don’t think that way or you’ll go mad.”) One day, ONLY BREATH on her knees as she sorted through the Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu origin story. My place is placeless, a trace cupboard in the main kitchen, she looked Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen. Not any religion of the traceless. Neither body or soul. up at me somewhat wistfully and remarked, “When I die, just bury me in Tupperware.” or cultural system. I am not from the East I belong to the beloved, have seen the two Though she hadn’t much money, or the West, not out of the ocean or up worlds as one and that one call to and know, Cynthia loved to make or buy small gifts for people at the Center and give them from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not first, last, outer, inner, only that anonymously (though we came to recog- composed of elements at all. I do not exist, breath breathing human being. nize her style in time). As for the many secret favors and random acts of kindness am not an entity in this world or in the next, —Rumi that Cynthia performed through the years, did not descend from Adam and Eve or any I can’t tell you about them, as they have never been discovered! When she heard THE VALUE OF THE STORM that my husband was having some pain To get the value of a storm we must be No umbrella, getting soaked, in his knees and ankles when he sat, she out a long time and travel far in it, so that I’ll just use the rain as my raincoat. personally made for him a special sitting it may fairly penetrate our skin and we be Daitō mat with a foam core. It is wonderful, as is as it were turned inside out to it, and there the special hand support she made for me. be no part in us but is wet or weatherbeaten. Cynthia devised and created the colorful Thoreau elephant rakusus that are given each year to selected Center volunteers to wear on In one heavy thunder-shower the light- Lightning flies, thunder rolls, mountains Buddha’s birthday. It is a wonderful way to ning struck a large pitch pine across the crumble, rocks split. express appreciation, and is just one more pond, making a very conspicuous and A Zen Grove example of the way that Cynthia always perfectly regular spiral groove from top made each of us feel appreciated and cared to bottom, an inch or more deep, and four Note: Passages and responses are arranged in for. Cynthia, I hope we have been able to do or five inches wide, as you would groove a this order: the same for you. Thank you for all the gifts walking-stick. I passed it again the other 1 2 you gave us, and may the elephants all bow day, and was struck with awe on looking up down to you!—Kathryn Argetsinger and beholding that mark, now more distinct 4 than ever, where a terrific and resistless bolt 3 Note: This memoir was written on the occasion came down out of the harmless sky eight of Cynthia Seefeld’s retirement from staff in 2014. years ago. —from Zen Traces: Exploring American Zen with She died on August 4, 2018. Thoreau Twain and Thoreau, by Kenneth Kraft

4 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 ▷ SOUNDINGS

THE EIGHT WINDS impact on how I choose to live. The root of suffering is desire, yet For years, I have been deeply engaged samadhi \sə-'mä-dē\ n [ there isn’t a one of us who doesn’t prefer with environmental work, primarily to sam. ‘together’ + a ‘toward’ + dhā ‘get, some outcomes over others. The Eight help initiate meaningful climate mitiga- hold’] 1 : a state of meditative absorp- Winds is a list of experiences that are most tion. Etched in my brain are images of the tion, a collection and unification of likely to destabilize the mind. But who unprecedented and unimaginable human the mind among us wouldn’t prefer, deep down, gain suffering that climate change wreaks— over loss, fame over disrepute, praise over not just in the future, but now. I have Buddhist and Hindu literature includes censure, and pleasure over displeasure (the worked extensively with environmental descriptions of various , some eight winds)? And in the chant “Affirming activists nationally on dozens of projects. deeper and more profound than others, Faith and Mind,” we are admonished to Over and over I ask myself the question, but all are characterized by one-pointed have no preferences. Yeah, right! “Why is it that nothing has changed?” Or, concentration and the fading or complete The key here is the nature of our rela- said in another way, “Why is it that so disappearance of the sense of self and tionship to outcomes. Of course we all many highly motivated and capable peo- other. The Japanese Dogen have our desired outcomes, and that itself ple have together utterly failed?” famously said, “To study the Buddha Way does not cause problems, but do we cling The standard answer to this is that is to study the self; to study the self is to to them? Do we need those outcomes to the immense power of what we are up forget the self; to forget the self is to be be realized for us so that we, ourselves, against—politicians, oil companies, and enlightened by the ten thousand things.” can feel whole? If so, we are vulnerable to the huge segment of the population that In other words, it is when the mind has experiences over which generally we have is ignorant and disengaged—is just too completely settled that insight into our little control. When things are good, we big. Or that humans are just hard-wired to True Nature may arise. feel good; when things are bad, we feel bad. value the present and near-term over the This cultivation of focused concentra- We live riding a roller coaster within us long term. Yes, perhaps. But to think of tion is arguably neglected in the current controlled by the external, making for one ourselves as victims of immensely power- secular craze for mindfulness. Ideally, bumpy ride! The wise proverb, “Beware the ful forces is disempowering. Simply, I feel mindfulness (awareness of what the mind man coming to do you good,” means that I am up against too much and I am too is doing) works in tandem with deepening most of those well-meaning people are small, so there is nothing meaningful for concentration, so that when the mind helping primarily so they can feel good. me to do. This attitude comes, at a deep strays into the stream of thoughts, we I suppose one way to think of the goal level, from our need to have the world notice at once and are able to renew our of Zen practice is to realize a sense of change for the better so that we can feel focus. The two aspects work together, like inner wholeness that is not dependent on better. It seems to me that the vast ma- the wings of a bird, and correspond to the what happens to us. In practice, we learn jority of environmentalists fall into this seventh and eighth steps on the Buddha’s that to cling to an outcome is actually a all-too-human trap, and just as in practice, Eightfold Path: Right Mindfulness and roadblock. For me, this wisdom has limit- it is the most important, perhaps the Right Concentration.—John Pulleyn less implications and has had a profound only, roadblock to effecting change. Not

▼ Wood and stone sculpture by Andy Stern.

ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 5 ▷ SOUNDINGS

to mention the reason for our collective My legs keep falling asleep when I sit. Is there anything that failure. As a disempowered victim, how can I do to help with that? can one be effective? If I need the CEO of Exxon to agree with me so that God can once again be in his heaven and so I will The technical should relieve any pressure. feel whole, not only won’t I get very far, Q reason why legs— Occasionally one foot alone will fall but I will feel defeated and hopeless. or a leg, or a foot asleep in a half- or full-lotus posture. It’s the same with practicing medicine. —fall asleep is For Westerners, these positions are not There isn’t a doctor in the world who pressure on the always easy to get into and sometimes doesn’t want their sick patient to get sciatic nerve. This your limbs are being forced beyond their better. But the results of clinging to that &is a very commonA problem, especially in flexibility. That being said, with time your preference, of needing the patient to feel the beginning of practice when you are still body will adjust to these sitting postures better so the doctor can feel competent, experimenting with the best way to sit. and your legs may stop falling asleep, but that he is doing good, and that he can feel If a leg falls asleep during a round, the it is worth spending the time to get the an inner wholeness, are likely to have im- best thing to do is stay seated when the position right initially to avoid injury and portant negative impacts on the healing. round is over; that is, don’t try to get up discouragement. What happens if the patient does for kinhin and risk a fall. Remain facing You may find some cushions too hard not get better or it takes a very long the wall until your leg tingles and comes and others too soft. Either density can time for any improvement to occur? The back to life and your foot can move up and increase nerve pressure. Like Goldilocks, doctor and patient are both likely to feel down. Normal feeling should come back you will have to try different cushions until discouraged or even hopeless. That will within a few minutes, and then you can you find the one that’s just right. If you’re lead to some degree of disengagement join the kinhin line. at RZC, ask someone to show you the wide at the precise time when a closer, more Here are a few tips for keeping your array of custom cushions that members supportive relationship to the patient is legs awake: use. Often an inflatable round cushion will called for. And even for the patient who –If your hips are tight when you sit work best, and you can experiment until does get better, there are negatives. The cross-legged, you may need a cushion you find the right amount of air to use. doctor, now feeling fulfilled and complete, with more height. Experiment with If you’re experiencing persistent numb- may pay less careful attention to what is support cushions of different thicknesses ness, discomfort, and even weakness in happening, and become intolerant of any until you find a height that works for you. spite of trying the above suggestions, suggestion of setbacks. The patient may –Sit on the front third of the cushion then a chair may help, with a gel, or better feel unconsciously that he or she must instead of the middle. By doing this, you yet, an air cushion on the seat. (The best report progress to the doctor, even if that avoid sinking into a dip in the middle of brand is the Roho cushion: Mosaic Roho is not quite the truth. the cushion. It tilts your pelvis forward MOSAIC1818C 18×18 Seating and Position- I have been a woodworker for many just the right amount and relieves the ing Cushion w/Standard Cover, available years, spending hours every day in my pressure on your sciatic nerve. from Amazon.) workshop (more time than I sit!). Initially –Make sure that you’re not slouching or Finally, there is a lot you can do on your I made reproduction fine furniture, then rounding your lower back. These postures own to ameliorate this problem, but if original design contemporary furniture, expose the sciatic nerve and put pressure numbness and lack of motion persist for and, in recent years, wood sculpture, no directly on it. round after round, seek medical attention. longer limited by any concern about prac- –Check to be sure there is no pressure Undue pressure on your sciatic nerve tical function. I hesitate to call myself an against the outside of your knees against could lead to permanent nerve changes.— artist, as I hold artists in the highest regard, the mat. A soft support under that area Eryl Kubicka but bit by bit I am evolving into one. For art, the outcome—the final version of the In furniture making, the outcome is set we live is driven by our personal need to sculpture or painting or musical composi- at the beginning, and the measure of suc- feel better, our “endless blind passions”? tion—is unknown when the work begins. cess is simply how close to that outcome is Few of us would pass the test of the Eight If there is too much focus on the final work, the final work. But in the sculpture I make Winds, which applies to a very advanced the art generally is less alive and vibrant. now, I do not have any picture in my mind level of development. To know this about The final version is intimately informed of a final outcome. This requires huge trust ourselves is so important for realizing by the process as the work unfolds: the in the process, in my intuition, courage true inner wholeness and fulfillment in evolution of the artist at work, her level of around the unknowns, and faith in the the midst of the inevitable ups and downs courage in unleashing forces that can’t oth- value of the work. I can now generally view and complexities of life. It is an elusive erwise be really understood, and the nature “mistakes” as forward progress. Making aspect of self-knowledge since, nearly and limitations of the material. This is ex- sculpture calls on far deeper currents in me, always, awareness of our attachment to actly why art, at the highest level, has the from which I learn daily. the Eight Winds is unconscious. And per- potential to touch us deeply and change The devilish question is how do we haps the ultimate challenge is that feeling our relationship to the world forever. know to what extent what we do and how good…feels good!—Andy Stern

6 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 ▷ SOUNDINGS

THE OLD TEA ROOM Roshi-sama told stories ranging from side. Roshi-sama said the solution was to It is common for Zen practitioners tales of his past as a student of Daiun move like a dive bomber across the hole to place their teacher on a pedestal so Harada Roshi, to jokes, to stories of World so you would be out of the way when the high as to make it impossible to have an War II and his time as a kamikaze pilot. splash came. He jumped up from his seat, eye-to-eye meeting. This apotheosis of Occasionally tea would last for an hour or squatted, and demonstrated the move. the teacher presents the same barrier to more. If it looked like tea-time was about More tea room stories: One winter realization as setting up enlightenment as to end, we might stretch it out by asking a day, the monks, having returned from a grandiose ideal. It is useful at a certain leading question. takuhatsu, were grousing in the tea stage but needs to be seen through. One day Roshi-sama tossed a piece of room about the cold. Roshi-sama got up For me, the tea room was as important a anpan (a sweet bean-filled cake) into the quietly and stepped out of the tea room learning situation as the dokusan room. It genkan for Koro, the black-and-white and crossed the genkan. He returned, sat temple dog who was standing at the foot of down at the head of the table and placed the step. The anpan caromed off the door a large snowball on top of his head. He frame and landed in the back of the genkan sat there quietly for a few moments, the by the line of shoes and sandals where snowball beginning to melt, and then said, Koro lost track of it. We could see it but in English, “Most warm.” he couldn’t. We were all encouraging him And it was in the tea room that win- to look behind for the anpan. “Over there ter that Roshi-sama told us of the plane Koro.” “Turn around.” He just got more and that had crashed the day before into the more excited without understanding. Fi- Potomac, and of the who had nally, Roshi-sama balled up a cake wrapper passed the rescue harness to one after an- and threw it at the anpan. Koro went for other of the passengers struggling in the the wrapper and found the cake. icy water, until finally he went under. Sometimes when he was feeling partic- And it was in the tea room, alone ularly voluble and had more stories to tell, together by the kerosene heater after eve- he would jump up and run into the hondo ning , that I learned that Roshi-sa- (Buddha hall) with his almost girlish, ma didn’t like Picasso’s painting, and that sliding gait and fetch a new supply of fruit we shared a love for Tolstoy. And that our and cakes from the altar, which, upon his favorite scene in Anna Karenina was of return, he would produce, one by one, like Levin mowing with the peasants. a magician, from the sleeves of his kesa. One last memory of the old tea room. He would pull a pear from his sleeve and Toya is a day of celebration that falls on hold it up before the group with an ex- the winter solstice, when everyone in the pression of wonder, and exclaim excitedly, cooks up something special to is where I got to know Tangen HaradamRo- “Nashi!” (which means both “pear” and be eaten by the group in the evening, and shi as a simple, playful human being. “nothing” in Japanese). during which the monks can do whatever I spent much of the period 1981–1982 If by chance there were an odd bean they want. We had a great party in the bed- at Bukkokuji, having returned two years cake or cookie left over, we would do Jan- room beneath the zendo, eating and joking, after my first with Roshi-sama in ken-pon (rock, paper, scissors) to deter- drinking sake and whiskey, smoking 1979. At the time there were only seven mine who would get it. The competition cigarettes until late at night. I played a tune or eight of us living together with Ro- across the table was fierce. No one wanted on the fiddle, Roshi-sama sang a drinking shi-sama, who, at the time, we all called to be eliminated. In the end the winner song. Neither Roshi-sama nor I drank any Hojo-san (temple head). In fact it was my would make a great show of dividing the alcohol and we both left a little early. friend Karin and I, the only two foreign- morsel into tiny portions to distribute A few days later I asked Roshi-sama ers at Bukkokuji, who began to call him round the table. why fish and meat were sometimes served Roshi-sama (an honorific). And the talk was very free. We were like at meals at Bukkokuji despite the fact In those days we had tea twice a day a family hanging out with a wise old uncle, that he agreed that Buddhists should be with Roshi-sama, after samu (work peri- though at the time Roshi-sama was only vegetarian. He said that we just receive od), in the eight-tatami tea room just off 57 years old. whatever is given without question, and the genkan (entrance hall), approximately One day Owaki-san farted loudly on en- use it gratefully. I pressed him, asking, where the upper kitchen is today. He tering the tea room and, blushing, meekly “Then why didn’t you drink the whiskey at would sit at the head of the table with the apologized. Roshi-sama, without hesita- Toya which was also given to the temple?” genkan to his left and peel and slice apples tion, responded from the other end of the He put his hand in front of his face and pears which he would distribute along table, “Ii, oto, ii oto!” (“Good sound!”) like a geisha coyly hiding behind her fan with cakes and cookies and all manner Someone complained that the level of and replied, “Natural desire.” This was an of Japanese treats. The atmosphere was water in the toilet was so high that the important moment for me.—John Herr- always light and social around the table. splash-back would hit them in the back- mann, Asheville, NC

ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 7 I RESOLVE NOΤ TO KILL A CALL TO ARMS

Continued mass shootings and other ghastly events in recent history inspire reflection upon the First Grave Pre- cept (I resolve not to kill, but to cherish all life). While this may

sound like the easiest of all precepts to follow, it Buddha-nature that all existences, animate and may actually be the most difficult, and it tests inanimate, are unified and harmonized” (empha- whether we practice as a hobby or a sis added). Thus, to willfully take life “means to text by religion. disrupt and destroy this inherent wholeness and Amaury Cruz Roshi Kapleau explains in To Cherish All Life to blunt feelings of reverence and compassion that ahimsa (harmlessness) has a religious rather arising from our Buddha-mind.” oil paintings by than a moral or metaphysical basis because it It is clear that, in Roshi’s view, the First Precept Jan Fijt is grounded in our Buddha-nature. “It is in this covers not only human and non-human animals,

8 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 WIKICOMMONS

ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 9 plants, and viruses, but also “the Earth where we stand” and the universe as a whole. Existence is the focus, not a particular arrangement of mole- cules. This view exceeds even the custom of some Buddhists to avoid stepping on small insects and the Jains’ refusal to kill microorganisms, which leads to the practice of filtering water to save the tiniest beings. To what extent are we willing to engage in ahimsa in our modern, harried lives? How can we fully respect the inherent wholeness of all existence? I see strict adherence to the First Precept as a figurative call to arms that requires understanding, commitment, dedication, and courage.

A scrupulous adherence to non-violence is not the exclusive province of Jains and some Bud- cockroaches can be quite disturbing when one is dhists. Before the U.S. had a standing army, Quak- perched on a zabuton.) But his accord- ers opposed the use of arms not just for militia ed with the mainstream Buddhist principle that service, but for any violent purpose whatsoever. we are responsible for Mother Earth and must Quaker frontiersmen were forbidden to use arms protect the environment as part of our ahimsa to defend their families, even though “[i]n such practice, as far as is practicable. circumstances the temptation to seize a hunting Leaving aside the complex matter of what life rifle or knife in self-defense... must sometimes is exactly, when it begins, and the agonizing issue [ 1 ] E.g., P. Brock, Pacifism in the have been almost overwhelming.” [ 1 ] This spirit of abortion, we can still recognize a point made United States, 359 (1968). of self-sacrifice is taken to an extreme in the fa- by Lewis Thomas in his acclaimed workThe Lives mous story where the Buddha offers his life to a of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974): the best tigress so that her cubs may survive. Parallel to way to describe our planet is in terms of a living Roshi Kapleau’s exposition, the Torah teaches organism. From this viewpoint, it is easy to see that only when there is a true state of “wholeness,” that caring for “this earth where we stand[,] the meaning that everything is “complete,” does true pure lotus land,” is practicing ahimsa too. Are peace reign. The directly-related Arabic greeting we disposed to catch flying cockroaches inside Salaam encapsulates the same idea. our living rooms instead of crushing them? Are The self-immolation of Buddhist monks in we willing to demonstrate on the streets against Vietnam in 1963 is another example of this ex- depredations of our environment? How about treme dedication, expressing a willingness to ac- putting some time into organizing opposition cept rather than inflict suffering. It appears that, to members of Congress who voted for the Key- at least in Buddhism, the objective stone XL pipeline or drilling in the Arctic National is to minimize suffering in a world where much Wildlife ? suffering is inevitable. The Vietnamese Buddhist monks taught us, however, that violence may be- Not killing in general, and protecting the fall us whenever we oppose violence. The killing of environment in particular, are clearly worthy students at Kent State University demonstrating goals. How can we achieve them? Roshi Kapleau against the war in 1970 reflected that reality. Are writes that deliberately taking life by shooting, we willing to face white supremacists and neo-Na- strangling, knifing, drowning, crushing, poison- zis in our streets? Can we muster the courage to ing, burning, or electrocuting another human or express dissenting points of view under threat non-human animal, or by purposefully inflicting of losing a job? pain on them, are not the only ways to violate the I never saw Roshi Kapleau watching for small First Precept. To cause another to commit these insects when we walked together during his time acts is also a violation. Therefore, Roshi writes, AMAURY CRUZ is a writer, pho- in Hollywood, or filter his water to avoid killing to eat an animal makes one an accessory after tographer, and retired lawyer who microorganisms. I do remember that he reluctant- the fact to its slaughter, although different con- lives in Miami Beach. He has been ly accepted the need to fumigate the house where siderations determine the degree of culpability a member of the RZC since 1995. he had retired, which contained a zendo. (Tropical for taking life, according to Mahayana Buddhist

10 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 are being aided by pro-Buddhist authorities,” said Paul Robinson, chief executive at Release Inter- national, “a ministry that exposes persecution of [ 2 ] “Christians Facing Violent Per- Christians,” in a 2016 interview. [ 2 ] secution in Buddhist Sri Lanka,” CBN Consider also Ashin Wirathu, one of the most News, 18 April 2016, www1.cbn.com/ powerful monks in Myanmar, who was brand- cbnnews/world/2016/april/ christians-facing-violent- ed the “Face of Buddhist Terror” by Time mag- persecution-in-buddhist-sri-lanka azine. TheGuardian reported that his visitors are received in Wirathu’s own compound within the Masoeyein monastery in Mandalay by a wall of bloody and gruesome photographs showing machete-inflicted head wounds and severed limbs, disfigured faces and slashed bodies, which Wirathu claims, “without the slightest evidence,” are the images of Buddhists who were attacked WIKICOMMONS [ 3 ] “‘It only takes one terrorist’: by Muslims. [ 3 ] The evidence actually shows that teaching. Do we practice ahimsa when we abide the Buddhist monk who reviles Wirathu, the Myanmar military, and lay “Bud- the acts of others who commit the unskillful acts? Myanmar’s Muslims,” The Guardian, dhist” extremists have engaged for years now in 12 May 2017, www.theguardian.com/ If we didn’t eat animals, they wouldn’t be killed global-development/2017/may/12/ a genocide against the Rohingya Muslims, com- or tortured. If we didn’t consume eggs and dairy only-takes-one-terrorist-buddhist- parable to Pol Pot’s, Hitler’s and Stalin’s atrocities. products, chickens and cows wouldn’t suffer from monk-reviles-myanmar-muslims- Ironically, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel peace prize overcrowding, imprisonment, and other abuses. rohingya-refugees-ashin-wirathu winner and the darling of Buddhists and peace- To avoid that is relatively easy, although indoctri- niks worldwide while she was under house arrest nation by the meat, poultry and dairy industries in the days of military rule, has refused to take may make it seem like we can’t live or enjoy good action to stop horrendous spasms of violence health without their products. It may be that some against the Muslim minority, and even approved people require them, but probably not too many. the prosecution of journalists who reported on It is a fact that organic life in our planet evolved [4 ] “Myanmar government says the Buddhist abuses. [ 4 ] Suu Kyi apparently forgot in such a way that all living things must eat other case against Reuters journalists can she may owe her life to a worldwide campaign in living things. We cannot perform photosynthesis. proceed,” Reuters, 18 December the press during the years when the ruling junta 2017, www.reuters.com/article/us- We could subsist on plants and those life forms myanmar-journalists/myanmar- oppressed her. “Suu Kyi—the country’s de fac- which are neither plant nor animal: fungi and government-says-case-against- to leader, though not its official president—has cyanobacteria such as blue-green algae that can be reuters-journalists-can-proceed- stood by and watched the slaughter and flight of considered a complete food. Even plants, however, idUSKBN1EC0O4 hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya.” [5 ] have been found lately to behave in some ways [ 5 ] “Why Aung San Suu Kyi isn’t Isn’t it complicity to remain silent in the face as sentient beings. How many would be willing protecting the Rohingya in Burma,” of these atrocities committed in the name of Bud- to subsist on manufactured Soylent-type foods The Washington Post, 15 September dhism? Doesn’t our silence or inaction contribute 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/ made from Protista and Monera? Still, these outlook/why-aung-san-suu-kyi- to the impunity of the military leaders of Myan- would be living organisms, and consuming them isnt-protecting-the-rohingya-in- mar? Shouldn’t we somehow join those who are would offend the Jains as well as violating the burma/2017/09/15/c88b10fa-9900- protesting? Does the wholeness recede with the strict version of ahimsa. Besides changing our 11e7-87fc-c3f7ee4035c9_story. cultural and geographical distances? eating and consumption habits in order to protect html?utm_term=.16a451e195b4 animals and the environment, are we willing to Less than a century ago, Zen priests and stop wearing leather shoes and belts? other religious Japanese officials enabled and justified the brutality of the empire’s conduct But even where it’s clear that killing is taking during World War II. In his 1997 book , or has taken place and we have not cherished even Brian Daizen Victoria offers a “compelling history human life, all so-called religions of peace (the of the contradictory, often militaristic, role of Abrahamic religions) and yes, Buddhism, have Zen Buddhism..., meticulously document[ing] descended to hellish levels. “You don’t normally the close and previously unknown support of a associate Buddhism with violence, but time and supposedly peaceful religion for Japanese mili- again we hear that it is Buddhist monks who are tarism throughout World War II. Drawing on the leading the attacks against the churches [in Sri writings and speeches of leading Zen masters and Lanka]. And our partners have found the monks scholars, Brian Victoria shows that Zen served

ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 11 as a powerful foundation for the fanatical and recurring massacres in our country, the Bud- suicidal spirit displayed by the imperial Japanese dhist-on-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka, the ongoing military.” [6 ] The author also shows how Zen was [ 6 ] Zen at War book review, genocide in Myanmar, and innumerable insults on used to justify racism, fascism, and genocide. Zen Good Reads, www.goodreads.com/ the environment inflicted by the current admin- masters contributing to the justifications include book/show/238872.Zen_at_War istration, among other things, make it incumbent some in our own . This shows how tempt- upon us to look into the deep meaning of the First ing it is, even for otherwise enlightened leaders, Precept and its relation to the Three Treasures. To to be sucked in by prevailing notions of racial or “resolve, with all beings, to understand the Great national superiority. Doesn’t that ring a bell with Way whereby the Buddha seed may forever thrive” respect to MAGA, the myth of American excep- implies that we should see how our actions or in- tionalism, Manifest Destiny, and their many ram- action tend to reduce or increase suffering on “this ifications in foreign policy, which were and are Earth where we stand” and to defend the Earth justified by religious leaders quoting scripture? itself. To “resolve, with all beings, to enter deeply So it is legitimate to ask, why do religions always into the treasure whereby our wisdom may find ways to justify violence despite preaching love grow as vast as the ocean” demands that we try to and peace? Alan Strathern of Oxford University better understand the infinite network of connec- put it this way: tions that make up this world and affect the lives of all sentient beings. To “resolve to live in harmony” [H]owever any religion starts out, sooner with all these sentient beings by taking refuge in or later it enters into a Faustian pact with Sangha suggests that collective measures are nec- state power... The result can seem ironic. essary. These notions conjure one word that may If you have a strong sense of the overrid- be repellent to some: politics. ing moral superiority of your worldview, I understand that the mission of the Rochester then the need to protect and advance it Zen Center and other Buddhist organizations does can seem the most important duty of all... not include advocating for political causes, nor Christian crusaders, Islamist militants, or do I suggest that it should. Each Sangha member the leaders of “freedom-loving nations,” can look for ways of participating in the political all justify what they see as necessary process if so inclined. To those who say “I’m not violence in the name of a higher good. interested in politics,” I say politics is interested in Buddhist rulers and monks have been no you, and you are involved in it whether you want to exception. [7 ] [ 7 ] “Why are Buddhist monks be or not. If you have a child in school, or just care attacking Muslims?” BBC News, 02 for children, as you surely do, then you may want to No wonder that “Buddhist monks have looked May 2013, www.bbc.com/news/ do something to help prevent another tragedy like magazine-22356306. to kings, the ultimate wielders of violence, for the the ones at Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland. support, patronage and order that only they could And you may want to do something to help stop the provide. Kings looked to monks to provide the genocide in Myanmar, which is giving Buddhism a popular legitimacy that only such a high moral bad name, although that should be the least of our vision can confer.” [8 ] [8 ] Op. cit. concerns. As Robert Aiken Roshi concluded as far back as 1984 in his book The Mind of Clover, Essays When we tolerate the existence of laws that in Zen , “We have reached the place allow the purchase and possession of weapons in international affairs, and in local affairs too, of war, designed for mass killings, are we not en- where it is altogether absurd to insist, as some of gaged in an implicit Faustian pact with state pow- my Buddhist friends still do, that the religious per- er? When we stay silent regarding the genocide son does not get involved in politics.” Remember perpetrated by other so-called Buddhists, aren’t the famous dictum, “All that is necessary for the we disrupting and destroying the inherent whole- triumph of evil is that good [people] do nothing,” ness and blunting feelings of reverence and com- often attributed to the conservative philosopher passion arising from our Buddha-mind? When we Edmund Burke, who wrote much about the impor- tacitly accept that American lives are worth more tance of religion in moral life. than others, and justify as “collateral damage” How to engage in this challenging task is up to the murder of innocents by remotely-controlled each of us. I personally don’t know if I can “not drones, where is our commitment to ahimsa? kill.” But I hear a figurative call to take up pacifist Viewed in historical context, the ethnic cleans- arms: do good, avoid evil, liberate all sentient

ing of Native American tribes, the more recent, WIKICOMMONS beings. / / /

12 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 ▷ FROM THE ARCHIVE

Plein-air yoga, sometime in the Sixties, her aesthetic advice when 7 Arnold Park was Cindy Walker, the late Delancey (Maitrayi) with the late Ruth Sandberg. Ruth was highly being rebuilt after the fire. Accompanying Kapleau, Chuck Wright, Ted Shoemaker, influential on the Center in its early days, not her on the grass (at Chapin Mill? the Gratwick Ruth Sandberg, (in rear) Julia McCorkle, Jeff just with her yoga instruction, from which Place?) are, from left: Alan (Dharman) Stortz, Volk, and unknown. And the ears? Perhaps a Roshi Kapleau benefited greatly, but also for demonstration of a yoga pressure point.

ZEN BOW SPRING 2018 13 &&ART �

14 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 I entered the zendo for the first time, clad in my well-made brown sitting robe with my rakusu hanging proudly around my neck, and my first thought was, “Oh my God!” I had recently moved to a new town and, making use of Google, I had discovered zendo to go to the bathroom and then returned the existence of a Zen group there. This was my before the round ended. No one said, “No moving!” first sitting with this group, and I was appalled I thought, “Don’t these people know that mov- by what I saw. ing disturbs other people? Most of these people Not a sitting robe in sight, but lots of shorts, are apparently beginners, so moving must be skirts, brightly patterned T-shirts, halter tops, particularly disruptive to their concentration.” and even a Hawaiian shirt. Paraphrasing the Wiz- Then, a little shadow of doubt began to appear ard of Oz, I said to myself, “Dorothy, you are not in my thoughts. An inner voice asked, “Whose in Rochester anymore.” zazen is actually being disrupted by the moving, your zazen or that of the people whom you are There were more surprises to come. When calling ‘beginners’?” I heard this snarky question, zazen was about to begin, I realized that I was knew the answer, stopped thinking about the sit- the only person in the zendo sitting in half-lotus. ters who moved during the round, and returned Everyone else was sitting in Burmese posture, or to trying to count my breaths. in seiza on a large pile of cushions (a pile of the Kinhin was at about the same pace as at Roch- size that I used when I first began doing zazen), or ester, but there was a difference: people were told in a chair. In fact, there were lots of people much to keep in step with the person in front of them. I younger than I sitting on chairs, and one of them started thinking about whether this was a good or was the , the person timing the rounds. a bad way to do kinhin, until I noticed that I was S/he had obviously not been instructed in how completely out of step with the person in front of to strike the inkin bell properly, because it did not me. Trying to keep in step required that I pay at- give off the lovely, reverberating sound that can tention and not drift away into thoughts (as I am be obtained by striking the bell on the side of its usually wont to do when I do kinhin in Rochester). lip, rather than on top of it. The person playing As I tried to stay in step with the person in front the han had also obviously received little or no of me I found myself counting my breaths with training, because s/he was not hitting the wooden almost the same degree of concentration as when board in the hole in its middle, and the acceleran- I do seated zazen. Between breaths I thought, dos were uneven and temporally separated from “Trying to keep in step is actually a pretty good the sequences of slower strikes. way to do kinhin.” While the han was being played, the jikijitsu got up to do three prostrations, but there were When I returned home that evening, I told my no actual prostrations, just three standing bows. wife about the shorts, skirts, brightly-patterned Since the jikijitsu was apparently physically fit, I t-shirts, and halter tops; about the number of was very surprised that the traditional three pros- people sitting in chairs; about the upright pros- trations were replaced by three standing bows. trations; and about the apparent lack of training The first round of zazen began, and I had -an people had been given about how to strike the other shock—people moved during the round. inkin bell and how to play the han. As I listened to They changed postures, they stretched their legs myself demeaning the sitting and the sitters, I re- Illustration by out in front of them; one person actually left the alized, “I sound like a Zen snob. These people are Inuyasu

ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 15 kind enough to let me come practice with them, have a “blind leading the blind” quality about and I am returning their kindness by disparaging them, I must admit that they do serve a valuable them. What does that say about the fruits of my function. Sharing a conversation does bring the own Zen practice? Isn’t there a precept about not members of this Sangha, including me, closer to praising oneself and disparaging others?” I was each other. ashamed of myself! There are some really admirable qualities about But only temporarily. Some of the time I am this Sangha. For example, since there is no staff, still stuck in judging negatively the attire, the everyone has to pitch in to help set up for all-day moving, and the lack of what I would call “Zen sittings and for sesshin, and people have to volun- professionalism.” I try just to observe, without teer to prepare meals for these events. Also, some judging, but I find that I easily slip from the for- people are quite ardent about their own practice. mer into the latter. However, when I do slip into On the evening of December 7, some members of judging yet again, I hear an accusatory inner voice the Sangha begin sitting at 10 pm and continue in the background of my thoughts, calling to me until 9 am on December 8. Then, instead of going and saying, “You are a Zen snob!” home to bed, they stay for the morning service at 10 am: two more rounds of zazen and a lecture I should be able to do better than that, because that ends at noon. I have seen this tendency in others and it is not I am also impressed by the purity of the moti- pretty. I have noticed the bemused looks of Zen vation for practicing zazen in this Sangha. When priests who have trained in and who ask I began my practice, I wanted to get something about Rohatsu sesshin in Rochester when I tell out of it. I wanted to “get enlightened” (although them that we get up half an hour earlier than usu- now I would say that what I really wanted was to al each morning. If I take the bait and then inquire, come to some sort of awakening). The members “And what did you do at Rohatsu when you were of this sangha do not talk about kensho or awak- training in Japan?” they answer breezily, “Oh, we ening. Rather, they seem to practice just for the were not allowed to lie down for the entire week.” sake of practicing. On my first trip to Japan, I had expected to My judgmental self would say that the desire for hear some deprecatory remarks about Kapleau awakening is crucial for serious practice because Roshi, since he did not complete his formal train- it fuels and intensifies one’s zazen. True as this ing when he trained under Yasutani Roshi. There- may be, there is something inspiring about people fore, I was surprised to hear no such comments. who do zazen with no self-conscious motive. I find Instead, the first Rinzai monk whom I met told myself admiring the members of the Sangha who me dismissively that Yasutani Roshi is regard- practice zazen not to get something for themselves, ed by the Rinzai establishment as having been but just for the sake of the practice. something of a madman in his strident denunci- ations of traditional Soto Zen practice, and that Beginning to practice with a new Sangha the entire lineage that Yasutani has taught me many things. First, I have a re- Roshi founded is perceived as “just a bunch of lay grettable tendency toward being a snob. Second practitioners.” is that, although I may have practiced zazen for Having admitted the bitter truth, that I have many more years than most of the people with a strong tendency toward being a snob myself, I whom I am currently sitting, I keep realizing that, wish I could say that my judgments about the fundamentally, I am not superior to any of them. Zen group with which I am currently sitting have Practicing with this new Sangha reminds me that completely gone away. They have not, as I am re- from the beginning, all beings—even those who minded one night each week. On that night, after do zazen in shorts, halter tops, and brightly pat- a single round of zazen, we take turns reading, terned t-shirts and who move in the middle of one paragraph each, a chapter from a book on rounds—are Buddhas. Zen. At the end of each chapter, the moderator I am grateful to my new Dharma sisters and says, “Well, that was interesting! What are people brothers for helping me to relearn this fundamen- THE AUTHOR is a longtime thinking about it?” tal lesson every time that I do zazen with them. member of the Rochester Zen I want to respond, “Zen is not about thinking!” I am also grateful to them for providing me with Center. Although he is unable to But I don’t. I have had lots of practice in keeping the opportunity to see, over and over again, how hide his true face, he would like to my mouth shut during these weekly discussions. hard it is for me to break the habit of Zen snob- hide his name. Nevertheless, although these discussions often bery and for inspiring me to keep trying. / / /

16 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 ▷ WORK IN PROCESS

Klava House has begun to look like a Shiplap siding was then applied to the first floor Tarps protected the house from the weather, while house instead of a basement! Earlier this summer, walls, providing a rustic look to the interior and the siding was gradually covered with green exte- first floor framing was completed along with a eliminating the need for drywall. rior sheathing—a vapor and air barrier that is tight temporary bridge for construction purposes. and energy efficient.

The roof beams were sanded and oiled before Staff member Joey Wustner installing the finished A view of the ceiling and roof with the roof beams being installed. ceiling, which is known in the trade as NLT (nail and NLT ceiling in place, along with metal tension laminated timber). It’s constructed of solid 2×4s rods that provide stability to the walls. nailed together.

A view of Joey from above, wrangling the NLT Klava House’s design is rooted in simplicity, open- The ceiling will remain unpainted, while the shiplap ceiling sections. ness, and economy: a Zen esthetic. walls and studs will be painted white.

ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 17 ▷ When Minister Wang went to Shokei temple they were making tea. Ro Joza, lifting the kettle to bring it to Myosho [the head monk], happened to overturn it. Seeing this, the minister asked, “What’s under the tea stove?” Ro said, “The God of the Hearth.” The minister said, “If it is the god of the hearth, why has it upset the kettle?” Ro said, “A thousand days of government service and only one accident.” The minister shook out his sleeves and left the room. Myosho said, “Ro Joza, you have long eaten the food of Shokei temple, but still you wander about the countryside gathering charred wood.” Ro said, “What about you?” Myosho said, “That is where the devil gets the better of you.” [Setcho comments, “At the time I would just have kicked over the tea stove.”] Blue Cliff Record. No. 48: “Turning Over the Teakettle”

18 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 In this koan there are three Figures, and we know little about any of them. Minister Wang was the Governor of the district, Ro Joza was a senior monk, and Myosho was the Vice Abbot of the temple. All three were descendants in the Rinzai lineage of is the first point of the koan. Sekida-roshi writes, Tokusan (Chi: Deshan). Ro Joza must have been “According to ancient folklore there were gods or a senior monk because he was assigned the very spirits in many parts of the house: in the kitchen, important role of serving tea to the Governor. the hearth, the fireplace, the bathroom, the lava- And Myosho, as the Vice Abbot of the temple, was tory, the central pillar of the house, the well, and of course even more senior. even the corners of the garden,” and these gods The context of the tea ceremony is meaningful were very much revered. The housekeeper would in this koan. According to Sekida-roshi in his book present offerings to them. The effect of this was of commentaries, Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan that the people in the house would feel compelled and Hekiganroku, having the Governor come to to carry themselves mindfully. They would have the monastery for a tea ceremony would have been raised to “watch out under your feet,” a Zen been a momentous occasion. As was the Chinese saying meaning to maintain your aplomb, your custom, the participants would have been sitting balance, your center. on chairs or stools, and perhaps the kettle had to In reply to the Governor’s question, Ro Joza be fetched from the hearth in the corner of the said, “The god of the hearth.” Of all the responses room and placed on the table. At a tea ceremony, we might come up with after committing an error whether in China or Japan, the host’s first consid- and having it pointed out to us, probably the com- eration is the comfort of the guest. The guest, in monest is to blame it on someone or something turn, is expected to be attentive to his host so that else—what in psychology is called externaliz- together they create a harmonious atmosphere. ing. This is the go-to response of many children. Sekida-roshi writes, “Their concentration is such (One of our members tells of a toddler he knew, that even the slightest mishap is rare. If by any Andrea, who always blamed her mistakes on her chance a minor accident happens, it is dealt with younger brother, Gregory. And once when Andrea quietly, and may even enhance the composed spir- pooped in her pants, she tearfully cried, “Gregory it in which the ceremony is conducted. Everything did it!”) In adults we might expect a higher level is done with seeming nonchalance, but in reality of moral development, but often don’t find it. with collected serenity.” Blaming others is especially on display among And then Ro Joza spilled the tea kettle, right politicians and others working in the public sec- in front of the Governor. tor, whose mistakes more easily become public. If they don’t blame their colleagues or political This case counters the notion of as opponents, they cite circumstances or bad timing. just arcane stories of ancient masters dueling in Rarely do we hear someone take full ownership of confounding utterances. It addresses one of the the mistake, and even then it has strategy behind most ordinary of worldly challenges: how to deal it. Compare these reactions to the words of Hui with our mistakes. Every day we all make mis- Neng, the Sixth Patriarch himself: “In abandoning takes of some kind, so we get a lot of practice in errors, wisdom will inevitably arise. But defend- managing them. More than that, this koan asks ing one’s defects reveals an ignoble mind.” us to consider how we handle ourselves when our carelessness, our misjudgments, or just our But who among us has never done this? It’s forgetfulness are exposed to another. painful to accept blame! It’s bruising to our In today’s story the Governor, upon seeing Ro pride—our self-image. Our reflex is to dodge the koan commentary Joza’s mishap, asked him, “What’s under the tea blame, avoid the pain, as Ro Joza did. To do so, by Roshi Bodhin stove?” Now, what is he really asking here? This though, is to bind ourselves to the mistake. To Kjolhede

ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 19 move beyond it, we need only acknowledge our these things get burned into your memory), I responsibility in it. saw that he might end up with less than everyone Best of all is to apologize. That’s the silver bul- else. So I tipped the kettle all the way over. The let—the way to put the mistake behind us in an lid clattered out onto the floor—right in front of instant. For instance, I believe that if President Roshi. The last of the tea splashed onto the floor Clinton could only have acknowledged, early on, as well, accompanied by a strained outbreath of his sexual misconduct with Monica Lewinsky and disgust from Roshi. I was mortified, and hara-kiri then apologized for it, millions of us would have was not hard to imagine at the time. been ready to move on. He could have spared Naturally we can’t avoid making any mistakes himself—and the whole country—months of at all, but we can minimize them through mind- misery. (Presumably his lawyers advised against Naturally fulness. That’s what we’re really brewing in a tea it to lessen his legal liability.) ceremony: mindfulness. It’s a way of refining our Ro Joza’s response wasn’t enough for the Gov- we can’t avoid attention, and that’s why so few mistakes, appar- ernor, who then pressed him: “If it’s the god of the ently, are made, at least in these big ceremonies. hearth, why has it upset the kettle?” He wasn’t making any But then, should we make a mistake, that’s where going to let Ro Joza get away with that. our real mettle is tested. Our kettle mettle. How Then Ro Joza protested, “A thousand days of mistakes to wisely manage our mistakes is a critical part government service and only one accident.” (This is of Zen practice. an allusion to another, famous governor, who in his at all, but years of service allegedly made only one mistake There are two obvious extremes in respond- in his official functions.) It’s not hard to grasp the we can ing to mistakes. The first is to be cavalier, as in, spirit of that remark: “Hey, accidents happen. No “Oh, whatever. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s not one’s perfect, after all.” But how did he say it? This minimize the end of the world.” This can be a defensive is for the student in dokusan to show. stance, a compensation for the feeling of shame. In response to this comment by Ro Joza, the them through But trying to sweep the mistake under the rug by governor shook out his sleeves and left the room. dismissing it as unimportant is a missed oppor- If a picture is worth a thousand words, an action mindfulness. tunity for working on oneself. can be worth a thousand pictures. The more common response among people in At that point, Myosho, the Vice Abbot, stepped Zen training here, it seems, is to get into a tizzy forward and said, “Ro Joza, you have long eaten over it and keep working it in one’s mind. In the the food of Shokei temple, but still you wander West we don’t face the elaborate, high-stakes code about the countryside gathering charred wood.” of etiquette that people in Asia have to navigate Much of koan work, especially with this kind with day in and day out, but what we do have is a ten- extended dialogue, is just trusting your intuition. dency to be self-judgmental. We tend to beat up Don’t look too closely at the wording, but try to on ourselves. I think of the comic actor Chris Far- get a sense of what’s being conveyed. ley, whose character on SNL would blurt out some- And then Ro Joza: “What about you?” Those thing foolish and then slap his forehead—hard. were his words, but again, what is he really saying? Among Zen students this reaction, internally, is And Myosho’s rejoinder: “That’s where the devil more common than just skating past a mistake. gets the better of you.” Even when there are extenuating circumstanc- es to consider in the case of a mistake, do we really This koan always reminds me of a painful expe- need to defend ourselves? In this koan, a mouse rience of my own, when I had been on staff at the may have suddenly darted across the floor, nat- Center for a couple years. It happened at a sesshin urally diverting the monk’s attention. But still, where I was assigned as a server in the opening the fact that this monk was so quick to point his tea ceremony—and with the added honor of be- finger at the supposed “god of the hearth” does ing in the pair of servers who went up the center not reflect well on him. It would be a rare situa- aisle and served Roshi Kapleau himself. After first tion in which one has no share of responsibility pouring his tea (without a mishap—whew!), we at all. And even when there are secondary causes served each person in turn, down the aisle and and conditions in addition to one’s own actions then back up. The last person whose cup I was (or inactions), someone who has seen into the to pour was the one seated right next to Roshi. I interdependence of phenomena would not jump had calculated how much tea to pour, but upon to place the blame elsewhere. Thus the famous reaching the last guy (Pat Simons, I remember; words of Hui Neng: “When others are wrong, I too

20 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 am responsible. When I am wrong, I alone am to has spent much time in communal living. From blame.” Such a statement could only come from Nowhere time to time one of the residents will leave just a someone with the profound understanding that trace amount of food in a container of leftovers so ultimately it is all one’s Self. do we learn as not to have to wash the container. Or neglect to clean the lint filter in the clothes dryer. Or leave In traditional monastic train- to let go one of the vehicles with the gas tank almost empty. ing the student is tested on this, and sometimes Then, at one of the daily staff meetings, comes the in a severe way. To see how you would respond, of our test: “Who left the...?” Will the culprit admit it? If you might be scolded even for things that clearly so, he or she passes the test. What’s more, their were not your responsibility. While I was in Ja- failures admission reveals more about their character— pan I heard a story about a young monk who was their integrity and honesty—than whatever the given instructions to “go get a bucket of hot wa- better than infraction did. It eclipses the mistake. ter.” He scurried off, did as he was told, but then Nowhere do we learn to let go of our failures was confronted by his supervisor: “Why did you in our zazen, better than in our zazen, because they’re hap- bring hot water?” When he answered, “Because pening every few seconds. We keep dropping you told me to,” his supervisor slugged him. It because the practice. That’s where we really develop this was a test, to see how the monk would respond ability to let go, and we learn the price we pay for to a harsh rebuke for something that they both they’re clinging to thoughts of our own or others’ failures. knew was not his fault. Now, this is not the kind So when we make a mistake, right there is the of treatment you’d ever see here, but it does have happening chance to avoid the two extremes of beating up the potential, with a resilient enough monk at on oneself, which is pointless, and dodging the the right time, to checkmate the mind of right every responsibility for it. In sesshin, especially, when and wrong. Then you’re liberated from the net our mishaps or inattentiveness—in the kitchen, of fault-finding. The game is up. few seconds. in the dining room, in the zendo—loom large, Having to contend with these scoldings is a right there is the opportunity to transcend the great way to scour away one’s attachment to self trap of self and other. and one’s attachment to right and wrong. We can find a space, a realm that is beyond right and wrong At the end of the case Zen master Setcho gets even when we’re at the receiving end of these com- the last say: “At the time I would have just have mon mistakes. And that realm is simply to let go kicked over the tea stove.” Now that would really of it in the mind. Not to go on chewing over the have made a mess! So what does he mean? Just memory of what just happened. And then we’re leaping free of the net of right and wrong, good free! We’ve learned not to do it that way or not to and bad, my fault, his fault, her fault, their fault. forget, and then go on. No teacher wants you to Miles Davis once said. “Don’t worry about mis- go on chewing over your mistakes. A teacher or takes. There are none.” We need to see so-called supervisor wants you to get the point that that mistakes as even themselves not somehow outside was a mistake and you have to be more mindful of the Way. It’s not like there’s the Dharma, our in the future, but then drop it right away. Drop it. Buddha nature, and then there are these mistakes A famous passage by a master speaking of this that somehow creep in, that we have to expel. Ev- realm that is beyond right and wrong goes as fol- erything is it, even the mistakes. In the Mumonkan lows: “Don’t be overjoyed at the right. Don’t be we read, “The failure is wonderful indeed.” It is distressed over the wrong. For the ancient masters, perfect in its own way. It is exactly what needs things are like flowers and blossoms. Peach blos- to happen. We can never exclude anything from soms are red, plum blossoms are white, and roses the truth. are pink. Though I asked the spring breeze why We have this this most exalted method of they are so, it knows nothing.” This realm of no- freeing ourselves from the bondage of “right and mind is where the legendary 20th-century Chan wrong,” “good and bad,” “failure and success”: master Hsu Yun must have been dwelling during zazen. T.S. Eliot wrote, “From wrong to wrong the tea ceremony at which he experienced enlight- the exasperated spirit proceeds unless restored enment. As his tea was being poured, the cup was by that refining fire wherein you must move and dropped, and when it broke, his mind awakened. measure like a dancer.” The forge. The blast fur- nace of zazen. It removes these impurities from In dealing with their mistakes, those in residen- the mind. It enables us to move through our daily tial training here face a test known to everyone who life with grace and buoyancy. / / /

ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 21 Autumn 2018 Sightings

a common approach at Japa- of “eagle huntress”? occupation are, effectively, a nese temples. Why it’s worthy: Like minority; a reminder of the Dharman Stortz Shakyamuni faced by , effortless splendor which Obama, Japan and despite her youth, Aishol- surrounds us, should we care pan is the embodiment of per- to notice it. The pastoral-no- Ever since the latest issue severance in the face of doubt. madic community’s reverence of Zen Bow arrived [Summer Her heart’s wish is to pursue for and closeness to nature 2018], I have been meaning to the lonely, difficult path of serve as a timely reminder of write to congratulate you on the bürkitshi, and she follows our own interdependence with it. If I were to comment on its it with an inspiring clarity of all species sharing this fragile content, I would have to be purpose rarely seen in people world.—Angela Hakkila modest and write that, with of any age—a reminder to us the exception of the article by all of the short time we have in In Print the person who was rejected which to live meaningfully and The Book: Selfie: How We further remarks for membership in the RZC authentically. Became So Self-Obsessed and Tangen Roshi tribute ¶ 49 years ago, it was a won- Breaking with tradition’s What It’s Doing to Us by Will Thank you for all of the work derful issue. But what really shortcomings while embrac- Storr ¶ What it’s about: Selfie that you did for the Tangen impressed me about the issue ing its merits is a theme in is a history of self-identity in Roshi issue of Zen Bow. I were the visual aesthetics. To both Aisholpan’s story and Western civilizations and how have just two comments on me, the issue looks very lovely in current Buddhist practice. it has evolved chronologically Bodhin’s very well written and very professional. Resistance to the ordination through six stages, from tribal- section. One is that a few Congratulations, of women is a historical and ism to the age readers could erroneously get Wes Borden ongoing problem in Asia in of Instagram. the impression that there is Vashon, WA both Zen and other schools Why it’s often only one samu (work) of Buddhism, and barriers to worthy: The au- period at Bukkokuji, when on screen true inclusiveness still prolif- thor suspects in reality there are usually The movie: The Eagle Hunt- erate in American Zen along that however three, interspersed with break ress (2016) ¶ What it’s about: multiple demographic lines. humans have periods during which one can This moving documentary Nevertheless, we have the conceived of either continue with one’s follows the story of Aisholpan, agency to choose differently, themselves job(s) or go to the zendo. His a 13-year-old Qazaq (Kazakh) whether it’s the focus of our through time, they have article also suggested that girl living in remote, west- attention moment to moment, always been wrong. While his there seemed to be a more ernmost Mongolia. Aishol- whether to go to sesshin when arguments often fall short, the laissez-faire approach at pan’s dream—to become her we can, or whether to try new data he presents manage to lay Bukkokuji than at the RZC, community’s first female methods and perspectives bare several common delu- and superficially that is true. bürkitshi, translated as “one to address issues within the sions about the self in a way To flesh that out, new practi- who raises and trains golden greater Sangha. Aisholpan’s that just might fatally wound tioners inevitably receive quite eagles to hunt”—breaks with bravery and willingness to en- one or two of the ego’s defens- a bit of instruction soon after centuries of patrilineal prece- dure hardship help set a new es, clearing your way to direct arrival while ordained peo- dent. But why not? Why can’t and more inclusive precedent experience.—Joshua Groves ple with experience, such as for future female bürkitshi Bodhin, are assumed to know and encourage viewers to worldwide the essentials about practice, question problematic cultural Letter from Glasgow ¶ including temple decorum, inertia and their role in main- The Cloud Water Zen Centre’s and are therefore usually not taining it. new home opened almost given a lot of 1:1 guidance out- Finally, the film leaves view- exactly a year ago, although side of dokusan. And they will ers awestruck by the beauty of work really began a number be watched by the teacher in a girl dream of continuing this the sweeping, majestic setting of years earlier. For around 10 order to see how they behave unique and honorable tradi- of the natural world in which years we had a sitting group under such circumstances. It’s tion and proudly wear the title humans and their self-pre- here in Glasgow, supported

22 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 ▷ SIGHTINGS

things about a big project has Sangha Engagement been to see the ways in which Chapin Mills Sleepovers ◀ The original office space—located people step up: it really is a ¶ Twice this year the Sang- in a business district of Glasgow— communal effort. And to see ha youth group has held as it was before we moved in. Lots people develop new skills that sleepovers at Chapin Mill, of potential but needing plenty maybe they didn’t know they where children and parents of work had. Before you try, how could alike can enjoy the pond, the you know that you can build a retreat center, the wide open Buddhist altar or a han (wood spaces, and the joy of unstruc- block)? We were fortunate tured time together. enough to have skilled wood- For sleepovers, the exer- workers and artists who could cise room is converted into a turn their hands to these play space: kids zip around on things. Just as importantly, an scooters, play games, watch accountant, property manager movies, and make the kind and other members with ex- of noise that one rarely hears tensive experience in the field at Chapin Mill. It has become of charity work volunteered. such a treasured destination And, of course, working and for the youth group that one

▲ Six months later, after a small group limited in terms of what this of talented people had learned arrangement could offer: no how to make dividers and build an space for private instruction altar (always useful skills!). or dokusan, no storage space for mats and cushions (which by occasional visits by Kanja we spent 10 years transporting Roshi and Sante Roshi. A solid around, week in week out!), no core of people soon appeared space for a library, for socializ- and—like many other sitting ing, and so on. groups—we hired space locally So while the idea of a per- on a weekly basis and occasion- manent home was always in ally for longer weekend events. the back of my mind, it really It was always clear to me, started to coalesce when I was however, that we were pretty sanctioned to teach three years ago. This gave many of our members a confidence boost and meant that we practicing together in this way, ▲ Sangha children ham it up with could—potentially—offer a Sangha begins to emerge. their s’mores sticks. people a more complete and One year in, and the center much deeper experience of is well and truly up and run- four-year-old recently com- Zen practice and training. ning. Lots of the spade work mented, “It’s the Children’s Right here in Glasgow. And, is done and now we can turn Zen Center!”—Chris Pulleyn while noone can ever know in our hands to the real matter at advance whether a project like hand: Zen training. We have this will really take off, I didn’t a number of public events want to die wondering! planned over the next few One of the interesting weeks to help arouse interest in Zen. It’s hard work—proba- ◀ We now have a zendo which can bly the hardest thing I’ve ever seat up to 20 people comfortably done—but we’re in the game (and more if need be) with a now. Just put an end to all this beautiful, simple han (wood block) coming and going, sit down constructed by a couple of our art and get to work.— school graduates. Karl Kaliski

ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2018 23 rochester zen center NON-PROFIT 7 arnold park ORGANIZATION rochester, ny 14607 U.S. POSTAGE PAID Address service requested PERMIT NO. 1925 ROCHESTER, NY

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28 29 30 31 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 A�CE �C �DC � � � � �C �C �C US �D BGPC �D ZP TEMPLE 30 31 CLEANING ▶ november �C � 1 2 3 NEW YEAR’S EVE �C �C CEREMONIES �D� W ▶ ▶ SEPTEMBER 29– ▶ NOVEMBER 3–10 ▶ DECEMBER 1 OCTOBER 6 seven-day sesshin with introductory 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 seven-day sesshin with Roshi (CM) workshop (AP) Roshi (CM) � � � � � � ▶ NOVEMBER 15 ▶ DECEMBER 2 � B � Z ◀ W ▶ OCTOBER 9 Application Deadline All-day sitting, 6:15 am bodhidharma cere­ for December sesshin –3 pm (AP) mony 7–9 pm (AP) 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 ▶ NOVEMBER 15 ▶ DECEMBER 4–8 �C �DC �C �C �DC ▶ OCTOBER 11 ceremony of aid, 7–9 four-day sesshin with �D BGPC �D ZP Application Deadline pm (AP) John Pulleyn (CM) for November sesshin AID CEREMONY ▶ NOVEMBER 18 ▶ DECEMBER 13 SH. DEADLINE ▶ OCTOBER 11 ceremony of Application Deadline 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 term intensive opening gratitude, 8:30–10:30 for January sesshin �CU �C �DC �C �C �CE ceremony 7–9 pm (AP) am & youth sunday ▶ DECEMBER 16 CEREMONY �D BGPC �D Z 10:30 am (AP) OF GRATITUDE PRECEPTS ▶ OCTOBER 13 sangha meeting, 10:30 TEMPLE NIGHT CEREMONY introductory ▶ NOVEMBER 23 am (AP)) workshop (AP) temple night, 7–11 pm 25 26 27 28 29 30 ▶ DECEMBER 20–26 (AP) � �C �DC �C �C ▶ OCTOBER 14 center closed All-day sitting, 6:15 am ▶ NOVEMBER 24 �D BGPC �D ZP ▶ DECEMBER 28 BUDDHA’S –3 pm & youth sunday precepts teisho, ENLIGHTENM’T temple cleaning 9:45 (AP) 8:30–10:30 am (AP) am–12:30 pm (AP) Schedule subject to change. For the latest updates, please see www.rzc.org/calendar/ ▶ OCTOBER 19 & 20 ▶ NOVEMBER 24 ▶ DECEMBER 31 Trustees meeting precepts ceremony M A.M. EVENT A ALL-DAY SITTING F E TEISHO New year’s eve ▶ (Jukai), 5–6 pm (AP) M P.M. EVENT B BEGINNERS NIGHT G GROUP INSTRUCTION � TERM INTENSIVE OCTOBER 28 ceremonies, 8 pm–12:30 All-day sitting, 6:15 am ▶ NOVEMBER 29 am (AP) M ALL-DAY EVENT C CHANTING SERVICE P PRIVATE INSTRUCT. I WORKSHOP –3 pm, sangha meeting, buddha’s enlighten- M SESSHIN D DOKUSAN S SANGHA MEETING U YOUTH SUNDAY youth sunday 10:30 ment ceremony, 7–9 pm � CENTER CLOSED W SESSHIN � FORMAL SITTING am (AP) (AP)