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MOUNTAIN RECORD MOUNTAIN DHARMA COMMUNICATIONS P.O. Box 156MR, 831 Plank Road Mt. Tremper, NY 12457 (845) 688-7993 W ildness Vol. 32.4 Summer 2014 ildness Vol. The Zen Practitioner’s Journal Wildness • Summer 2014 $9.00 / $10.00 Canadian Now available in a digital version! Switch to a digital subscription and help us save trees. Just email [email protected], or call us at (845) 688- 7993, and tell us you’d like to make the switch. You can also upgrade your subscription to print + digital for just $8.00 more. New subscribers to the digital edition get an extra issue, for a total of five issues. Mountain Record Dharma Communications President Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei, MRO Dharma Communications Director Konrad Ryushin Marchaj Sensei, MRO DC Director of Operations Mn. Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, MRO DC Creative Director & Editor Danica Shoan Ankele, MRO Layout and Advertising Mn. Angela Mujaku Caponigro, MRO Production Assistants Shea Ikusei Settimi, MRO; Bethany Senkyu Saltman, MRO; MOUNTAIN RECORD (ISSN #0896-8942) is published quarterly by Dharma Communications. Periodicals Postage Paid at Mt. Tremper, NY, and additional mailing offices. John Bruno, MRO; Anna Shifton, MRO; Brian Dunn, MRO; Postmaster: send address changes to MOUNTAIN RECORD, P.O. Box 156, Mt. Tremper, NY 12457-0156. Yearly subscription of four issues: $32.00. To subscribe, call us at (845) 688-7993 or send a check payable to Dharma Communications at the address below. Postage outside ter ri to ri al U.S.: add $15.00 per year (pay in U.S. cur ren cy). Darren Hall; Betsy Kolmus; Janet Makaris, Carol Magin Back issues are avail able for $9.00. All material Copyright © 2014 by Dharma Com mu ni ca tions, Inc., unless otherwise specified. All pho tog ra phy and art are Mountain and Rivers Order’s National Buddhist Archive prints unless oth er wise credited. Printed in the U.S.A. CDs of the dharma dis courses that appear in the Mountain Record are avail- able free of charge to the visually impaired. The articles included and the opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors, who are solely re spon si ble for their contents. They do not necessarily reflect th opinions, positions or teachings of Zen Mountain Monas tery or the Mountains and Rivers Order. © Cover image by Mathijs Delva Even though empty space May be named or conventionally defined, It is impossible to point it out as “this.” It is the same for the clarity of mind itself: Although its characteristics may be expressed, It cannot be pointed out as “this.” —Machig Labdron Vol. 32 No. 4 • Summer 2014 Wildness 4 The UnexpecTed ReaRs iTs head, Konrad Ryushin Marchaj Sensei The nature of all things is intrinsically unknowable. 12 ToUched by Raw TRUTh, Danica Shoan Ankele Editorial 13 The holy spiRiT as wild spiRiT, Matthew Fox To live fully means to surrender to the wild, free wonder of being. 17 a collaboRaTive inTelligence, Susan Griffin The roots of the hierarchical mindset and the very different lessons of ecology. 26 sacRed wildness, John Daido Loori Roshi The most profound teachings of reality are offered by the natural world. 33 poRcUpine, Linda Hogan Observing the cycle of life, death, decay and life again. 35 elegy foR The gianT Tortoise, Margaret Atwood poem photo ©Scott Sturgeon 36 natural, vivid, alive, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei Intimacy with our raw, undomesticated experience. 44 ManifesTo: The Mad farmeR libeRaTion fRonT, Wendell Berry poem 46 MirroR in The streeT, Rebecca Solnit The shadow side of urban wildernss. 50 The TiMe foR The singing of biRds, Kathleen Dean Moore The voice of the divine speaks through creation. 55 JoyoUs body: The wild flesh, Clarissa Pinkola Estés Subverting the dominant culture’s notions of a “good body.” 63 MeeTing Machig labdRon, Jody Hojin Kimmel Osho A brief introduction to a lesser-known Buddhist sage. 66 Machig’s lasT instrucTions, Machig Labdron Teachings on the primordial nature of mind. 73 To Know living Things, Thomas Merton A reflection on nature and God from Merton’s journals. 74 plum blossoMs, Eihei Dogen The old plum tree arouses wild wind and stormy rain. 80 The veil of The beloved, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan Abandoning ourselves to union with the divine, the raw joy of life moves through us. 86 MoUnTains and RiveRs oRdeR news & TRaining, MRO News, Sangha Reflections, Book Reviews, Affiliate Directory 111 lisTing of ResoURces and seRvices 4 The Unexpected Rears its Head Dharma Discourse by Konrad Ryushin Marchaj Sensei ‘I alone am sober’—this is drunkenness indeed. Yangshan speaks of a dream just like when awake. But say, as I say this and you hear it, tell me, is this wakefulness or is this a dream? Case Yangshan dreamed he went to Maitreya’s place, where he occupied the sec- ond seat. A venerable one said, “Today it’s up to the one in the second seat to preach.” Yangshan rose, struck the gavel, and said, “The teaching of the Great Vehicle is beyond all predication.” In a dream, wrapped in his patchwork robe, he calls on the elders; The ranks of the saints serene, he sits to their right. Responsible for humanity, he doesn’t defer—the sounding board rings; Expounding the teaching without fear, the lion roars, Mind as peaceful as the ocean, Heart as big as a bushel. Fish eyes shed tears, Clam guts open in pearls. Much talk—who knows it leaks one’s potential? Shaggy eyebrows—laughable, they reveal the family disgrace. Beyond all predication: Mazu, father and sons, in sickness stopped doctoring. 5 photo: Rob Wyatt he han is struck in the dharma hall “The Teaching of The gReaT vehicle is beyond to announce the teaching: Thwock! predication”—all teachings are subsumed and TYangshan delivers this teisho of a folded into this single teaching. The truth of single line: “The teaching of the great reality goes beyond any definable, graspable vehicle is beyond all predication.” The pure fact. This may sound esoteric, but consider sound of the han is just this Thwock! This is the simple reality of resting intimately in your the moment before the first thought arises. breath. Within the complete experience of Is this wakefulness? Or is this a dream? your breath, what is the breath? Who are you Is there anything else that needs to be amidst that intimacy? What becomes avail- communicated? able to you? What is revealed has always been I recognize the irony in a Polish person available to you. All paramitas are beyond taking up English grammar, but the word predication. Compassion is beyond all predi- Yangshan uses, “predication,” caught my cations. The teacher-student relationship is interest. I checked in with some English beyond all predication. teachers in the sangha to refresh my memory: Is this wakefulness or is this a dream? “predicate” is the part of the sentence that Dogen urges us to practice without concern qualifies the subject, asserting something for fortune and fame. We can appreciate about its nature. “Predication,” then, is the how this relates to our approach to life more process of coming to the kind of conclusion broadly. Where do we find ourselves within that a predicate allows. So, “the plum blos- these two words? What can we recognize som is white.” The subject “plum blossom” is about our need for attention, status, recogni- qualified as white. According to Yangshan’s tion, power, influence? What about our need teaching, since this plum blossom is now for peace, freedom, happiness, or any sort of predicated, obviously this cannot be the experience, whether it seems to be an internal teaching of the great vehicle. “The spring state or an external circumstance? These are, breeze is ineffable.” Again, given that the after all, predications. If you’re not convinced, predicate appears with the subject of the ask yourself how you would complete this sen- spring breeze, this, too, cannot be the true tence, “Buddhist practice is. .” Do you have dharma. Likewise, “you are something,” and an answer? “you are nothing,” are also not the teachings of the great vehicle. To go beyond all predication makes this These are conclusions, and whether we the ultimate path of loss: losing yourself and are speaking of the conclusions themselves, losing the ground where that self can pos- or the act of reaching the conclusions doesn’t sibly rest. It is the path of losing any sense really make much difference. So, what is left of orientation, losing yourself in relation to if we abandon such conclusions? What hap- any of the qualifying notions you hold about pens to the plum blossom? The spring breeze? yourself and the world. Abandon all defini- What happens to you when all the predicates tions, articulated feeling states, fixed rela- disappear? The teachings of the Mahayana go tionships. And then abandon the possibility beyond any foundational facts. This is the core of somehow establishing yourself within that of the Heart Sutra. This is what Mu reveals. loss or emptiness. 6 Dogen had a pivotal encounter with his the encouragement to see all of this life, all teacher Rujing in which he expressed that dharmas, as a dream. We also turned our atten- he was finally able to let go of letting go. tion toward our literal dreams—toward that This seems paradoxical: What is the nature dimension of our self that frequently remains of that letting go when you’ve just let go of out of our reach. To some degree, we want to letting go? This is what Yangshan is point- keep it that way, fearful of the bogeyman that ing to.
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