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Soto Zen in Australia: Tradition, Challenges and Innovations

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Soto Zen in Australia: Tradition, Challenges and Innovations Solo Zen in Australia 37 of the development and characteristics of Soto Zen Buddhism in Australia at an 2 Soto Zen in Australia organizational and individual levels To get more of a nuanced sense of the cultural shifis and clashes involved. my discussion will include ‘the view from the cushion‘ Tradition, challenges and innovations‘ in the form of experiential data from practitioner interviews and reports. To this end, the chapter proceeds in three stages: Leesa S. Davis 1. Ekai Korematsu’s biography is briefly recounted and the evolution of the Jikishoan community is outlined with emphasis on the implementation of Japanese structures. 2. The challenges of a monastic structure to lay practitioners are investigated through practitioner reports and interviews. 3‘ Adaptations and innovations in the Australian context are noted. Establishing Buddhism in a new country is like holding a plant to a stone and for it to take root. waiting Where appropriate, aspects of Jikishoan’s history and development are compared Suzuki Roshi 1999: Shunrytt (Chadwick 252) and contrasted with other western Zen groups, both in Australia and overseas. Soto Zen came The concludes to isolate some characteristics of Buddhism to Japan almost eight centuries ago. when the Buddhist chapter by attempting defining Soto Zen Buddhism in Australia and ifthere as monk, Eihei Dogen, rerumed from China to teach in his native land, In the late questioning are, yet. any significant differences between Zen in Australia and other western branches of Zen. I990s, in a radically different historical and cultural context, a Zen monk moved pennanenlly to Melbourne and began to develop a Solo Zen teaching program Soto Zen Buddhist teachers had visited Australia and began Zen groups before2 ‘Out of nowhere’: the evolution ofa Soto community but religious Ekai Korematsu. known to his students as Ekai-osho, is the first resident Zen Ekai to Zen monk to teach purely in the Soto tradition. The Zen community that he founded. Knrematsu (b. 1948) has an interesting ‘cross-cultural‘ background as. born and raised in he Zen in the United Jikishoan.’ has recently celebrated its tenth anniversary and has enjoyed a steady practice although Japan. began practice States at the San Francisco Zen Centre with the intention ‘lo in the United evolution over the years from a handful of dedicated practitioners to a small but practise in to establish some kind of thriving community based on spiritual and administrative structures established in States, California. practice community‘ (personal thirteenth—century Japan by the Soto School ‘founder', Eihei Dogen.‘ communication 1999). Having no family temple to inherit. as is the custom for as an in the The 10-year development of the Jikishoan Zen Buddhist Community offers temple priests in Japan. Ekai Korematsu comes to Soto Zen ‘otltsider‘ fertile ground for the study of the adaptations, challenges and innovations involved sense that he has had to build it hit community without the immediate recognition in and of the Soto Zenshu in The of an transplanting Buddhist practices and organizational structures to an Australian financial support Japan. necessity coming afiilialed with Soto cultural setting as ‘it is an opportunity to study the acculturation ofa tradition as independent living coupled with the need to become officially it is Zen in on .likishoan‘s in the actually occurring.‘ (Gregory 2001:233) For the purposes ofthis discussion, headquarters Japan impacts organizational strategies, sense that a from the students‘ the organizational and spiritual aims ofJiltishoan are especially interesting because there is drive to conform to Solo ‘orthodoxy' and, of a sense the teacher Ekai Korematsu‘s leaching emphasizes traditional ways and adherence to tradi- point view. there is of obligation to help financially support tional and his was affiliated with the Soto Zen School in forms, which in the Solo Zen context means attempting to fit a monastic family (Jikishoan officially a in practice to primarily lay community This is not always an ‘easy fit‘ but the Japan 2001). in the at problems and successes of this ‘transplantation' process offer a window into the mid-I980: after training in temples in Japan and two lengthy periods cultural shifls and clashes that organizations undergo and individuals experience. 0n: of the Soto head temples, Eihei-ji. Ekai-osho received dharrna transmission from his to This chapter is based on three years of participant observation fieldwork with teacher, lkko Narasaki Roshi. As per his stated intentions, he returned the .lilcishoan (and to a lesser degree, other Australian Zen groups),5 communil} United States and was beginning a Zen practice group in Oakland. California. (sangha) publications, personal interviews with Ekai Korematsu-osho and Zen while also practising at the San Francisco Zen Centre. At his teacher‘s request, he then practitioners and Ekai-osho‘s talks given both on retreats and to the general returned to Japan. to help convert Narasaki Roshi‘s ‘second' temple, Shogojis into an public. In this chapter. by way of a case study. I will begin to explore some ol’ international training monastery. In all, Ekai Korematsu spent over seven the issues that these adaptations and challenges to traditional Zen practice in the Years at Shogoji, three years preparing the monastery and helping to train the first Australian context raises with the aim of working towards some understanding visiting American monk6 and then a firrther four years working to fully establish the training centre. * 38 Learn S. Davis Solo Zen in Atmlra/ia 39 reports that he was a little hesitant to return to after to Ekai~osho Japan beginning (indeed Jikishoan conducts its activities at six different ventres in two states). the a pmclice community in the United States because with American estahlrsh pro group's activities have contintred to attract interest and have developed into a troners he had seen other possibilities of‘opening up the path.‘ He that: reports comprehensive Zen teaching program. Following Ekai-osho‘s intention to develop an organization founded on Like a birch tree whose branches go this and that ideas were way way, my community practice. the first .likishoan committee was formed in 1999 consisting fluid and developing so the thought back to that ofgoing rigid training system oieight members with administrative and practice responsibilities: presidentldochu was diflicultl I knew that i had to be to become a prepared Bonsai. [laughing] (teacher); (practice coordinator): treasurer (firm); secretary at vice-presidentfmo Bonsai tree with all my branches cut down and roots confined to the my [/iknlrtl); lenzo (head cook]; shissrri (building manager): kanru (Ballarat coordi- shape my master wanted. nator); and [who (publications). The committee positions were based on the (Korematsu 2000: 2) traditional Soto monastic organi/tttirrnal stnrcturcs and. as more students became members these positions developed into the ryo group. ." The of the Zen structures in rigidity training Japan and the of catering for necessity 'l he ryn structure is closely connected with Dogen’s ‘model engaging the to the many ritual and social obligations that have parishioners (dun/m) bring ttay‘ (Mada/m). This approach is outlined by Dogen in his Eiher'vthgi (Pure prompted similar responses from other Soto monks in the west. The most famous. Standards for a collection of six essays that gives detailed and the Eiheiji Monastery), arguably most successful Soto monk to establish a Zen centre in the west‘ instnrctions for the daily conduct and attitude of monks living a disciplined Suzuki Roshi. founder ofthe San Shunryu Francisco Zen Centre, similar 7 expressed monastic spiritual litew In 2009 likishoan has 1] ryo groups referred to as ‘the views when he meditation sessions for and began was 7 non-Japanese impressed by of Zen that are for running and maintaining every their 7 body practice‘ responsible ‘beginner's mind‘ where the ot'a purer Zen possibility practice lay (Suzuki of the and administrative functions." Each Ij'u leader 1984: aspect groups' spiritual 2]).7 in her study of Zen in Brazil, Rocha reports that Soto monk Daigyo rs responsible for keeping detailed records of the groups‘ activities and assets Moriyama Roshi, former abbot of Busshinji in Sao Paulo, was also the inspired by and reports to the committee. In the spirit of community practice. ofa of gives regular group practitioners with ‘beginner's mind‘. In an interview possibilities members are encouraged to join I’yfl groups as ’becoming involved in the day to Roshi states: ‘That is why i put my energy into a foreign country; here Monyama day practicalities of ryo practice gives rise to a special kind of intimacy, with the Zen Buddhism can [in Brazil] be created again in a purer (Rocha 2000: 40). way' community. with the teachings and ultimately with your self‘ (Jikishoan 2009). This is not w to say that tern come to 2m unencum- practitioners practice in Jiltishoan‘s as the structures have become bered development. 1th organizational by preconceived notion. [n the case of an Asian teacher a convert leading more smhle. the teaching has increasingly emphasi'led a monastic orientation community such as .likishoan, there were the that early perceptions among sangha uith a core of at the centre 01. the The the group lay-ordained practitioners sangha. teacher‘s made Jikishoan more some ‘authentic‘ 7 ethnicity with 7 practitioners of robes the teacher has also become standard for more that wearing given by saying they ‘couldn't practice with a western teacher‘ commu- (personal senior members. A hierarchical structure has been where nication leadership developed 2000). Conversely, some practitioners who had experience with other for example. access to the teacher is no longer direct but takes place through a Ijvn teachers in the United or States Japan were initially ‘Yes. he was disappointed: group leader.
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