Primary Point, Vol 6 Num 2
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PRIMARY POINT Book Reviews in these pages but instead from thejobs and relationships ofBeck and her students. Instead of misty mountains and drinking tea. you' 11 find soapy babies and traffic noise. One unusual feature of Everyday Zen; Love and Work. By Charlotte Joko Beck. these talks is the more than occasional yetunobtrusivedisclosure edited by Steve Smith. Harper & Row. 1989. aboutBeck' s own practice. She is able to teach as well as convey that her own learning continues in full force. Reviewed by Ellen B. Gwynn As stated by the editor. "Devoid of pretension or self importance. she teaches a form of Zen that manifests the ancient After reading a few pages of Everyday Zen. I realized Ch'an principle ofwu shih - 'nothing special' ... Beck began that I had stumbled upon a Zen classic. This is a book that practicing with MaezumiRoshi of the Zen Center ofLos Angeles contains the essence ofZen teaching. conveyed in words that are in 1965 and became his third dharma heir in 1978. She and her as accessible to one who knows nothing about Zen as they are to students seem to be developing their own version of American long-time students. The combination of depth and simplicity in Zen. and have been eliminating or modifying some ofthe formal this book is comparable to that found in Shunryu Suzuki Roshi's elements ofJapanese Zen practice. An interesting description of classic Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Joko Beck and the Zen Center of San Diego may be found in Everyday Zen comprises forty-two dharma talks. usu Lenore Friedman' s Meetings With Remarkable Women. ally given during sesshin at the Zen Center of San Diego where As every Zen student knows. although we may no Charlotte Joko Beck has taught since 1983. Some of the talks longer seek the more typical forms of embellishing life such as close with briefdialogues between Beck and students. Although fame and fortune. practice helps us see the more subtle means we the book is divided into a number of thematic sections (e.g. use to add drama to each moment. Beck compares such constant "Practice." "Relationships." and "Choices',). each talk encom self-preoccupation with the ink a squid produces to cloud the passes the same theme: the present is perfect as it is and our lives surrounding water. In every page ofthis book. she encourages us are complete. and although we don't want to believe that. Zen to notice the ink we produce and to return to the plain. unvar practice enables us to learn that truth for ourselves. But it is not nished. undramatic and infmitely reliable present. Acknowledg easy. The way to that truth is tojust be with what is over and over ing the difficulty of this. Beck mentions a few times that Suzuki and over. choosing not to "spin off' into habitual thought and Roshi once warned his students that they shouldn't be too sure drama. This of course sounds like a breeze but is in fact an that they wanted enlightenment, since from theircurrentperspec absolute bear. tive, it would look quite dull. There are occasional Zen stories in these talks. and references to sayings of the ancestral teachers. but for the most "To look at this structure we have built is a subtle. part, you will find pure Zen teaching with little of the "stink" of demanding process. The secret is, we like that unreal Zen speech and imagery. An American who has experienced the structure a lot better than we like our real life. People have challenges of raising four children as a single mother. Beck been known to kill themselves rather than demolish their encourages committed practicing by talking about the events of structure. They will actually give up their physical life our daily lives in a refreshingly straightforward manner. As the before they will give up their attachment to their dream. Not title suggests. you will not find examples from the monastic life uncommon at all. But whether or not we commit physical suicide. if our attachment to our dream remains unques r-----------------� tioned and untouched. we are killing ourselves. because our true life goes by almost unnoticed. We're deadened by the Y ° PRIMAR pOINTSUbSCriptoIon Form ideals of how we think we should be and the way we think everybody else should be. It'sadisaster, And the reason we For a one-year subscription (3 issues), I am enclosing: in don't understand that it' s a disasteris because the dream can _ $10 u.s. _$11.00 Canada/Mexico _$20.00 Foreign be seductive. we think a Send payment, in U.S. dollars only, toKwan UmZen School, very comfortable. very Ordinarily disaster is an event like the of the Titanic. But when PRIMARY POINT, 528 Pound Rd.• Cumberland, RI 02864. sinking CaMtliall aNl/o"i,,. cUo,"",..: w. aallllOt acc.pt JOWJMrlONJl ducb JUtlcudmW1I 0114 we are lostin our ideals and our fantasies. pleasurable as they u.s. baM. PI."._ ..IIIlC"NJdi4ftPo,14l MOM] Order. in U.s.dcll4r"IIIl.nUJJio",,1 Poll41 MOM] Ortk", or baM web paJdblc on ""1 U.s. bdllk or bdwr', ",."",. may be. this is a disaster. We die." Please me on list _ put your mailing to Here's contribution to To read Everyday Zen is be repeatedly reminded that _ my (tax-deductible) help produce PRIMARY POINT practicing Zen is a process of piercing dreams and fantasies not Affiliated with a Buddhist or otherreligious group in order to find perpetual joy or unfailing wisdom. but simply to of (name group), _ experience an undiluted life. Name _ Ellen B, Gwynn is a member of the Cypress Tree Zen Strwt __ Center (formerly the North Florida Meditation Center) in Tal Florida, State lahassee, City _ Zip _ L � Page 28 October 1989 PRIMARY POINT often difficultto separate the two. The monk Chinul (1158-1210) A Buddha/rom Korea: The Zen Teachings o/T'aego. By J.C. has been the only notable monk in Korean Buddhist history to Cleary. Shambala Publications, 1988. escape this dilemma. The second part of the book, ''The Collected Sayings of Reviewed by Mu Soeng Sunim Taego" introduces us, for the first time in English translations, to the wide range ofTaego's poems and insights. It is pure pleasure. The monk Taego Pou (1301-1382) occupies a unique As a sample: position in Korean Zen: he is the monk to whom all Korean Zen monks trace their lineage. Until recently, this lofty position was Hermitage ofRealization reflective more of Taego's political achievement in merging the No wall in any direction disparate "Nine Mountain Schools" of Zen into one single No gate on any side school, the Chogye School, than of a great enduring legacy as a Buddhas and patriarchs do not get here teacher of Zen. Cleary's book fills that gap in our knowledge of Sleeping at ease among the white clouds Taego the Zen master quite admirably. For this alone, the book would have been a valuable addition to our growing knowledge The Path ofEmptiness of Korean Zen; what makes it doubly important and interesting This emptiness is not empty emptiness is the long (77 pages) introductory chapter called "T'aego's This path is not a path that can be considered a path world", in which Cleary outlines the context in which Buddhism Where peaceful extinction is totally extinct in East Asia grew and functioned for more than a thousand years, Perfect illumination is complete and final from the early fourth century to T'aego' s own time, the end ofthe fourteenth century. The economic, political, and religious forces No Attachments at work in East Asia during these years shaped Buddhism and Going on this way, fundamentally without seeking were in turn re-shaped by Buddhism. It is a succint and sympa Going on otherwise, also independent thetic view. East, west, south, north, the road of perfect Zen came to Korea between 825 and 935 when Korean penetration monks, who had trained long years in China and received trans Every day exultant, free to go or stay. mission from the patriarchs there, returned to establish theirown temples at different mountain locations. This was a time when Both for its explanation of the historical background "State Buddhism", which had dominated the religious scene in and for its translation ofTaego' s Zen teachings, Cleary's book is Korea for nearly five hundred years, was in tatters; the returning a wonderful and welcome addition to the Buddhist bookshelves monks were able to introduce a sense of vigor and creativity in the English-speaking world. which had gone out of Buddhism. Then the vitality of the nine Mountain Schools itself went into decline for a number of reasons, and for the next four hundred years several reform Errata movements, particularly those led by the monks Uichon and tried to correct the internecine that went on Chinul, squabbles We inadvertently left out two lines in "The Adventures within Zen schools and also between the Zen and S utra Schools. ofFrog and DucIC' , which appeared in the June 1989 issue of In his out the back introductory chapter, Cleary lays complex PRIMARY POINT. Oursincere apologies to Robert Genthner, to this decline, and reform and ground resurgence, quite "clearly JiDo Poep Sa Nim, author ofthe story. The last section should effectively. read: It fell to Taego, when he was a Royal Teacher at the court of to the to unite the Nine Moun King Kongmin, urge king "Frog sat and sat determined, half crazy, but unable to tain schools into one school ofZen.