▶ Beautiful snowflakes: Roshi WHO AM I?: Peeling away the layers EXPECTATIONS AND REALITY: A Kjolhede hits us with a snowball of time, privilege, and gender identity Western student explores Nanjing

WINTER2021 | VOLUME XLII, NUMBER FOUR EDITOR Chris Pulleyn | [email protected] Z E N B O W EDITORIAL CONSULTANT The mind of the Zen adept is taut—ready, like a drawn bow Roshi | [email protected] COPYEDITOR Winter 2021 | VOLUME XLII, NUMBER FOUR Cecily Fuhr | [email protected] AUDIOTRANSCRIPTIONIST Psychiatrist John Rolland, in his 3 M SOUNDINGS Jennifer Kyker seminal book Families, Illness, and Disability, A Memorial for the Dead | 2020 ARTDIRECTOR makes a distinction between dealing with a hindsight: what last year meant to some Daryl Wakeley | [email protected] medical crisis and coping with a chronic PROOFREADER of our members | Q&A: How do I know John Pulleyn condition. The skills needed for each are if I’m making progress with my very different, and it’s easy to see why. In a practice? |Definition of CALLFORSUBMISSIONS medical emergency—an accident, an All readers are encouraged to submit essays and unplanned surgery, an unexpected and dire images at any time and on any topic related to Zen diagnosis—most partners and families go practice. Articles may be of any length. Suggestions ROSHIBODHINKJOLHEDE for articles and artwork also welcome, as are “found on red alert. The adrenaline pumps, plans objects” such as quotations, haiku, and/or excerpts are made and put in place, friends and ’s from articles in other publications. Submission beautiful snowflakes guidelines may be found on theZen Bow page of the family are galvanized, casseroles and Center’s website: www.rzc.org/library/zen-bow. For desserts suddenly make their appearances “When the mind is empty, everything any and all questions and suggestions, please email Chris Pulleyn at [email protected]. on our doorsteps. becomes miraculous. There's no

Contrast that with the situation several subject, no object, and no action.” ▶ 6 SUBSCRIBINGTOZENBOW months down the road…the long haul. As‐ �e subscription rate below reflects current postage suming the medical situation can be LORE MCSPADDEN fees: 4issues 8issues addressed, the initial shock and pain has U.S.: $20.00 $40.00 been transmuted into a dull roar, accompa‐ Who am I? FOREIGN: $40.00 $80.00 nied by countless appointments for med In the wake of Daniel Prude’s death, a Please send checks and your current address to: checks, physical therapy, additional proce‐ long-time member gets a jolt of cis Zen Bow Subscriptions Desk dures, etc. Friends and family will occa‐ white privilege.▶ 12 7 Arnold Park sionally check in, but there’s nothing much Rochester, NY 14607 to say other than, “We’re hanging in there.” DHARMACLOUD(DOUGCARR) PLEASENOTE: If you are moving, the Postal Service The doorstep is devoid of carbohydrates. charges us for each piece of mail sent to your old Stranger in a address, whether you have left a forwarding This is precisely the situation we’re in address or not. If you change your address, please right now with the pandemic. The initial jolt strange land let us know as soon as possible. Send your address of adrenaline is long gone, and it’s easy to corrections to theZen Bow Subscriptions Desk at A Western Zen Buddhist on his first the above address or email [email protected]. become bored or even lax with our pre‐ trip to .▶ 16 cautions. Rather than the initial “fix it” COUNTLESSGOODDEEDS mentality of the crisis phase, which can be If you’re thinking about financial planning, estate so instantly rewarding, we need to adopt a planning, or both, please remember that there are 22M SIGHTINGS myriad ways you can help theRZC through planned posture of patience, of radical acceptance giving. �e right kind of plan can help you reduce of the things we cannot change. We will Letter to the editor |Book review | your taxes significantly while providing for a larger, Roshi Kapleau’s relatives visit Arnold longer-lasting gift to the Zen Center. Because there probably never have a greater need for is a wide array of bequests, annuities, trusts, and Zen practice in our lives than right now. Park and Chapin Mill |Movie review| other financial vehicles to consider, you’ll want to And we can probably never offer so much Beyond sustainability: Building a work with your financial advisor to decide what’s regenerative organization best for you. Long-time Zen Center member David unexpected comfort to those in need than Kernan, an attorney who concentrates his practice we can right now.—Chris Pulleyn 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, ONTHECOVER please contact the Center’s receptionist. IMAGEBY Giotto di Bondone| Ceiling fresco of the Capella degli Scrovegni, Padua,circa 1305 (detail). �e luminous blue is ultramarine, finely ground COPYRIGHT ©2021 ROCHESTER ZEN CENTER

lapis lazuli, appliedsecco , after the plaster had dried; the stars are gold leaf. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED INZEN BOW ARE THOSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS ALONE AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE ROCHESTER ZEN CENTER, ITS DIRECTORS, ITS A publication of the Rochester Zen Center JOSÉ LUIZ BERNARDES RIBEIRO TRUSTEES, ITS MEMBERS, OR ITS STAFF.

2 ZENBOW WINTER 2021 Winter 2021 Soundings

A PANDEMIC PRAYER thing to go after death. For that reason, DURING THE PANDEMIC, Roshi Kjolhede in the memorial prayer we’re addressing has been issuing frequent “Coronacasts” the deceased directly. to members. Following is an excerpt from But if that’s too much for anyone to be- his last Coronacast of 2020. lieve in, maybe it’s a little easier to believe in the fact that we are calling on Buddhas �is is December 17, 2020. And that means and , which really means en- we’re settled into the very longest, darkest lightened ones, to help the deceased. nights of the year. And maybe that’s why Maybe the best way is to think of what I’m thinking of all of the victims ofCOVID - son: their parent, their sibling. or even we’re doing is calling on our own Bod- 19. Last week we surpassed 300,000COVID their child that is dying. So here you are, hisattva- and Buddha-nature as a way of deaths just here in the United States. I drawing your last breaths alone, alone in honoring and fortifying the deceased as thought it would be appropriate to stop a way that probably none of us has ever she or he finds their way through the in- and memorialize these 300,000-plus dead been, and we’re dying. �e nurses and termediate state that we call the . So in our country, and then the altogether doctors do the best they can but they’re this memorial prayer will be directed to one and a half million dead worldwide. shrouded in masks and shields and gowns the hundreds of thousands of people who �ese numbers are staggering. It’s diffi- and gloves. So imagine that the last thing have died. I will recite the prayer three cult to assimilate them, isn’t it? I keep up you see in this life is this figure whose times.—Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede ■ with the news, and so I notice that the face you can barely see. numbers are so abstract, especially when �en consider the grief of the survivors. O Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, it’s day after day, month after month: this Anyone who has lost a family member abiding in all directions, drip drip drip of statistics that come at us. knows that kind of grief. And it’s all the endowed with great compassion, endowed How can anyone feel each of these deaths, more difficult when it’s sudden, when you with love, these terrible deaths? Maybe we’re not haven’t had the time to adjust to the per- affording protection to sentient beings, meant to feel them, but at least we can re- son fading away because the fading away consent through the power of your great member these people. We don’t want to happens so fast. President-elect Joe Biden compassion to come forth. become callous to it. And yet, it’s very has talked about how you’re left with this easy to become numb when we don’t have black hole in your heart and that empty O Compassionate Ones, faces, but only numbers. chair at the table. It’s terrible. Even since I you who possess the wisdom of Someone once said that one death is a began this talk ten minutes ago, there are understanding, the love of compassion, tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic. So people who have died alone, ofCOVID . For the power of protecting in incomprehensible I’m struggling to not become numb to all the survivors there is that terror of final- measure, these deaths, and to try to find a way to ity, the inescapable knowledge that the COVID victims are passing from this world to acknowledge the magnitude of what we’re person is gone. Gone. the next. going through. Sometimes writers use �ose of us who believe in They are taking a great leap. analogies, such as the number of deaths don’t see death as final. It sure feels final The light of this world has faded for them. is equal to the number of people in a cer- when it’s someone close to you. But I They have entered solitude with their karmic tain city, or the number of people who thought it may be helpful to recite the forces. could fit in Yankee Stadium. �at helps a memorial prayer, which is the heart of a They have gone into a vast Silence. bit; it makes it a little more concrete, but Buddhist memorial service or funeral. I They are borne away by the Great Ocean of still. How can we fully embrace these will recite the memorial prayer for the birth and death. numbers? Maybe we just can’t. 320,000 people who have died in this We’ve seen so many health care work- country alone. What else do we do? So O Compassionate Ones, ers testifying in tears to the anguish that that’s what I’m going to do. protect these victims, who are defenseless. they go through day after day, talking In Zen and some other forms of Bud- Be to them like a father and a mother. about how they have to serve as surro- dhism, the memorial prayer is done as a gates for the family members of critically way of speaking to the deceased. Accord- O Compassionate Ones, ill patients. What kind of hell are we in ing to the Tibetan Book of the Dead and let not the force of your compassion be weak, when even the closest family member ancient texts about death and dying, it is but aid them. cannot sometimes be with the dying per- said that the sense of hearing is the last Forget not your ancient vows!

WINTER 2021ZEN BOW 3 ▷ SOUNDINGS

SITTINGFORDANIELPRUDE ANOTEFROMSWEDEN: �ree bodies, THEIMPROVISEDSESSHIN I NOW HAVE two online behind silent meditative postures. me. �e first thing that comes to my mind We walk through snow and join them. is: fantastic! �e second: thank you, Now we are five. COVID-19. �e third: thank you, Zoom, In- ternet, my computer and so on. �e Each week remembering Daniel Prude. fourth: thanks to all who have grasped Each week justice has not come. this opportunity, made this change, orga- Each week whoever is at our sitting nized all of it, and provided daily service remembers this life cut short. during sesshins too! Like most of us, I had to take my expe- Remembers all Black lives cut short. rience of sesshins at a few Zen centers Sounds within our silence and Chapin Mill and transplant it, accom- revving of cars pulling away modate it, detail by detail, to my little coughing in the distance two-room flat. I live alone in Uppsala, Sweden, in a time zone six hours ahead of laughter as young girls walk across Rochester, so I did sesshins part-time: the the field we sit on. INMEMORIAM three first blocks. Today a man with his phone JOEMETZINGERdied of COVID-19 in early I still have vivid memories of the videotaping us and our signs. April, 2020. He was an active member of Swedish ’s first sesshins in a vari- the Cleveland group for decades Verbalizing his thoughts about what and the Vice-President of our Board. he is seeing. Joe was generous with his time, always Back and forth he walks ready to lend a hand for house and yard along the fence with our signs. cleanups. Joe managed our group’s Face- book page and drew inspiration for his Speaking as he walks. posts from his wide reading in Zen and Speaking for himself? other Buddhist books. He played the Speaking for us? mokugyo for our chanting services and at- What he says is kind. tended our meditation intensives and at Chapin Mill. At the time he Kind is so needed in this time. died, he had recently applied for theRZC’S One of our signs: March 2020 seven-day sesshin, the first to We Meditate to be cancelled due to the coronavirus. Cut �rough the Darkness Joe was a very private person with a gentle spirit. He enjoyed our brunches �at Caused Daniel Prude’s and he is sorely missed by all in our Death. Sangha. His body was cremated and re- —Martha Howden turned to his family for burial in Indi- ana.—Susan Rakow■ WISE WORDS FROM 1948 Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all the first action to be taken is to pull In one way we think a great deal too much of whom you love were already sentenced to ourselves together. If we are all going to the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an death before the atomic bomb was be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as invented: and quite a high percentage of us bomb when it comes find us doing you would have lived in the sixteenth cen- were going to die in unpleasant ways. We sensible and human things—praying, tury when the plague visited London almost had, indeed, one very great advantage over working, teaching, reading, listening to every year, or as you would have lived in a our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have music, bathing the children, playing Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint might land and cut your throat any night; or about whimpering and drawing long faces and a game of darts—not huddled indeed, as you are already living in an age of because the scientists have added one more together like frightened sheep and cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, chance of painful and premature death to a thinking about bombs. �ey may break an age of air raids, an age of railway acci- world which already bristled with such our bodies (a microbe can do that) but dents, an age of motor accidents.” chances and in which death itself was not a they need not dominate our minds.—C.S. In other words, do not let us begin by chance at all, but a certainty. Lewis, “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) exaggerating the novelty of our situation. �is is the first point to be made: and in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays ■

4 ZENBOW WINTER 2021 ▷ SOUNDINGS

ety of rented, most inexpensive venues in How do I know if I’m making progress with my Zen practice? the Swedish countryside. �ese took FORSOMANY of gins to loosen. Once it loosens, that is place at kindergartens, elementary us, especially in the when the benefits start to pop up unex- schools, etc. which were abandoned dur- beginning, we can pectedly. You can call it serendipity, but ing the summer time, and we had to im- Q be plagued by this these benefits and insights do not happen provise like crazy to prepare for sesshin. nagging question. by chance; they happen because of the But it was, of course, very inspiring too! In fact, it may even daily (DAILY!) zazen. “Just do it” and All this before we had acquired, besides persist several “whatever it takes” are two slogans that our little Zen Center in Stockholm, our years into our Zen will take us a long way in Zen practice. own “residence” in Finnaker—a former �Apractice. Another way of putting it is “How �at question “How do I know if I’m mak- country school too. do I know if this is working?” Well, there ing progress?” will lose its grip on us. It’s Improvisation was great then, 30+ will be periods of time when it does not just a thought after all. years ago, and it still is. feel like it’s working. One day, our zazen is Finally, there is the teacher and the Back to my flat. running smoothly: “I’m getting pretty con- support of the Sangha. In our post-work- 1) �e —It’s a combined living centrated”; “My thoughts are not a prob- shop orientations, I’m fond of telling room–guest-room–office–library–yoga- lem.” �en suddenly, tomorrow’s round newcomers that there is nothing a room with a little altar on one of the book becomes stale and flat. Worse, the day af- teacher can give you that you don’t al- shelves above the mat and cushions. For ter that and my practice is still flat! “My ready have. It’s just a question of putting sesshin, it wasn’t a monitor with a kyosaku mind is filled with thoughts”; “I’m bored”; in the work of serious Zen practice and who had to have access to my shoulders “Why the hell am I doing this?!” Ironically, discovering it for yourself. And yet, Zen but the computer’s camera instead. you are now noticing these thoughts due has always been a mentor-based practice. to the fact that youare making progress. �e teacher is both cheerleader and thief. Because you have been practicing intently, He or she encourages you when you feel they are more obvious than ever before. down about practice, your mind filled Beyond this reassurance however, there with self-doubt. At other times, they pull is no better substitute to progress than the rug from under you, taking away your committing oneself to daily Zen practice. false notions about practice and your per- Zen meditation must be a long-term, seri- ceived limitations. �is is always coming ous affair if we are going to see progress from a place of compassion, no matter and experience its true rewards. It’s a how painful these false realizations or marriage really. One of the tricky things personal insights may be. about zazen is that the visible results of And the Sangha? It’s just such a relief our practice do not happen on our own to be in the company of like-minded prac- schedule. For most of our lives, we’ve had titioners. Because we are change itself, it’s this extremely blurry filter called “self- very difficult to see it in ourselves (re- and-other” in our mind and its influence member that nagging hindrance, “How do is all-encompassing; we truly cannot see I know if I’m making progress?”). But if what is in front of us. It’s only through we stick around long enough, we can see dedicated, long-term practice that we can the change in others who are sticking start to wipe away and polish the lens; all with it, and that can be encouraging.— that self-and-other smudge and dirt be- Trueman Taylor■ ◀▲Majka’s sitting environment (opposite) and altar (above) in Uppsala, Sweden. as usual. Preceded by a short “thanks- UNSUI( Japanese; literally, “cloud water.”) giving,” and assisted by a willing dish- Novices in a Zen are called unsui, 2) �e kyosaku—How do you give washer. and ornaments in a Zen monastery and kyosaku to yourself? Simple, with an elec- 5) Yoga—I did this in the morning temples are often in the form of stylized tric Chinese massage/acupressure device (the middle of the night in Rochester) clouds and water motifs. Aimlessly coming and with a great “sting” to it thanks to the elas- after the first hour of sitting on my going, moving freely, forming and changing in tic and steel handle. Quite unorthodox tim- own, without a Zoom connection. accordance with external circumstances, ing, though, in between rounds or after. 6) �e soaking bath—In the evening disappearing without reluctance like clouds; 3) �e kinhin—Around the living I took a warm bath with Epsom salts to like water soft and flowing around every room, through the kitchen to the tiny hall soothe the pain in my legs. In the obstruction without hesitation; like water in and back. �e reflexive habit of holding morning a slow deep soak in the previ- relation to a container, fully adapting to any my eyes down was still strong and there ous day’s water. �is time, it was cold situation—these are the characteristics of living was nobody I might encounter on this and refreshing. �e same water was in the mind of Zen.—The Shambhala path, so kinhin went smoothly and easily. used later, throughout the day, to flush Dictionary of and Zen 4) �e meals—Very simple, vegetarian the toilet.—Majka Duczko■

WINTER 2021ZEN BOW 5 BY VIVIAN WU: VIVIARIUMS.COM/PROJECTS/SNOWFLAKE/INTERACTIVE/ SNOWFLAKE GENERATOR

ZENBOW WINTER 2021 CASE 42:LAYMANP ANG’SBEAUTIFULSNOWFLAKES ▶ The case ▶ The commentary When Layman Pang took leave of Yaku- When Pang first spoke I would have san, the latter asked ten Zen students made a snowball and hit him with it. to escort him to the temple gate to bid him farewell. The Layman, pointing to ▶ The verse the falling snowflakes, said, “Beautiful Hit him with a snowball, hit him with a snowflakes; they fall nowhere.” ball! Even the best will fail to reply. Nei- Then one of the Zen students named ther heaven nor earth knows what to Zenkaku [i.e., a practitioner of Zen] do. Eyes and ears are blocked with asked, “Then where do they fall?” snow. Even the blue-eyed monk can’t The Layman slapped him. Zenkaku explain. said, “Even a layman shouldn’t be so rude.” The Layman said, “Though you call yourself a Zen student, Old Yama [i.e., Lord of the Dead] won’t let go of you.” Zenkaku said, “What about you?” Again the Layman slapped him and said, “You look but you are blind; you speak but you are mute.”

Today we’ll take up the “Layman Pang’s Beautiful Snowflakes” from the Blue CliffRecord, number 42. Layman Pang lived in China in the eighth century, which places him much that could be said about this stance!) in the Tang dynasty, often called the “Golden �ere are many other stories about these re- Age of Zen.” He is the most famous lay Zen markable householders, and what follows comes (Chan) Buddhist in Chinese history, and he from Zen’s Chinese Heritage, by Andy Ferguson. trained under both of the most heralded Zen Layman Pang began training under Shitou in teachers of his era, Shitou and Mazu. One rea- 785, and here is an account of his initial break- son Layman Pang is so famous is that his wife through: and daughter were also enlightened Zen practi- Shitou asked the Layman Pang, “Who is the tioners. one who is not a companion to the ten thousand Legend has it that when Layman Pang ?” Shitou quickly covered Layman reached middle age and his family had attained Pang’s mouth with his hand. At that, the Lay- the Way, he gave his house away to be used for a man had a realization. temple and sank his possessions and money in a �e ten thousand Dharmas refers to the infi- nearby river in order to be rid of them forever. nite things, all the phenomena of the universe. He regarded the acquisition of wealth as an im- So this is another way of asking, “Who is it that KOAN COMMENTARY pediment to enlightenment, and for that reason has transcended all phenomena imaginable?” BY Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede didn’t want to give it away to others, either. (So How might you respond to that question? How January 2009 Rohatsu sesshin

WINTER 2021ZEN BOW 7 could anyone do so in words—which themselves there’s an eclipse.” When Layman Pang went to are phenomena? the door to see, Ling Zhao walked straight to her One day Shitou asked, “What have you been father’s seat, placed her hands together, and doing each day since we last saw each other?” passed away. Layman Pang smiled and said, “My Layman Pang said, “If you ask about daily daughter’s deftness.” He then postponed his de- affairs, then nothing can be said.” And then he parture from the world by seven days, presum- recited a verse, the last two lines of which are ably to follow the conventional schedule of widely known in Zen: “How miraculous and memorial services. wondrous—hauling water and carrying fire- �e Governor Xiangzhou came to visit Lay- wood!” man Pang, and asked about his illness. Layman �is is the world seen through the eyes of Pang said to him, “I ask that you regard every- enlightenment: even the most ordinary, rou- thing that is as empty. Nor give substance to tine tasks become wondrous. Brushing our that which has none. Farewell. �e world is like teeth, stirring soup, using the toilet, walking reflections and echoes.” �en, placing his head up the stairs. When we’ve seen into the “True on the governor’s knee, Layman Pang passed Self that is no-self,” there’s no one brushing the away. His cremated remains were cast upon local teeth, no teeth to be brushed, and no brushing. rivers and lakes. �ree hundred of Layman And yet, teeth brushing is somehow happen- Pang’s poems were left to spread through the ing! �ere it is! Just the pure action itself—the world, and there’s a whole book in English just pure no-action. of the sayings of Layman Pang. When the mind is truly empty, everything becomes miraculous. �ere’s no subject, no ob- Now back to the case before us. When it ject, and no action. And yet all of us go about opens, Layman Pang had been with master performing these little miracles every hour, ev- Yaoshan for seventeen years before now taking ery day. How wondrous! Shoveling snow, tap- leave of him. So it would not have been unusual ping at our keyboard, driving to work, taking out for Yaoshan to enlist a select group of students the trash, stepping forward with one foot in to escort this long-term resident to the temple front of the other…. gate to bid him farewell. Layman Pang spotted an opportunity here for some dialogue, Back to Layman Pang’s response to his so he stood there in the snow—maybe for a few teacher Shitou: “If you ask about daily affairs, minutes, to take it all in—and then, gesturing then nothing can be said.” Why not? When we’re with his hand, said, “Beautiful snowflakes— absolutely one with what we’re doing, it’s not they fall nowhere.” �is is the nub of the koan. easy later to remember what we were doing. So what about this statement, “�ey fall When I finish with a teisho, I can hardly remem- nowhere”? It flies in the face—literally, since it’s ber anything I said (mercifully), and that was snow!—of what our senses tell us. How can they true even many years ago when my memory was fall nowhere? With my own eyes I can see them stronger. When I was training in Japan, at So- falling! But our conventional view of things— gen-ji, the abbot, Harada Shodo Roshi, said, “As that is, what our senses tell us—is not the whole you advance on the Path, your memory goes.” picture. It’s half, at most. �en again, as we advance on the Path we are Buddhist psychology speaks of six senses: also getting older, and aging has never been seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, known to improve memory. But notice this and, as the sixth, thinking. But then there’s the yourself in simple activities - when you’re com- realm of reality that is beyond all these func- pletely absorbed in them, you’ll find that there’s tions—beyond falling and rising, coming and less likely to be any etching in the mind, any going, before and after. �is is a world alto- tracks left afterward. Because “you” weren’t gether beyond “name and form,” to use a phrase “there,” nothing happened. from the old texts. It is the Unconditioned, the According to legend, when Layman Pang was Absolute, the complement to all things, to every about to die, he said to his daughter, Ling Zhao, single thing: it is no-thing. No time, no space, no “Go watch the sun to follow what time it is. When differentiation. Yet ultimately it’s not other than it’s just noon, come and tell me.” She went to the the world of phenomena, of differentiation. In door, looked out, and called back to her father, our Affirming Faith in Mind, the fourth ances- “�e sun has just reached noon. But look— tor, Seng Tsan, is expressing this nondual nature

8 ZENBOW WINTER 2021 of reality when he says, “What is, is not; what is Fundamentally, there are no snowflakes, not, is.” In the Prajna Paramita we chant, “Form there’s nowhere they fall, and there’s no falling. is only emptiness, emptiness only form.” And when the Layman commented on the scene Another aspect of the form-emptiness di- before him, he might have added that because chotomy is that of color. In classical Chinese and they fall nowhere, they’re beautiful—breathtak- Japanese writing, I’m told, the character for People sometimes ingly beautiful. “form” is the same as that for “color.” It makes sense, somehow; “color” doesn’t apply to that think that Resuming with the koan, one of these ten which has no form. And what’s the complement Zen practitioners, a monk named Zenkaku, to the realm of color-form? No-color-form, Zen masters asked, “�en where do they fall?” �is is not an which in Asia is sometimes represented as the unreasonable question. But this encounter takes color white. Like snow. say nonsensical us beyond the realm of reason. �e Layman is “�ey fall nowhere.” People sometimes think trying to engage the monks in something that that Zen masters say nonsensical things just to things just transcends the box of reason. mess with their students’ minds—“Oh, those �e Layman slapped him. Don’t think this zany Zen masters….” We can’t always rule out to mess with just means, “Oh, shut up.” �ere’s quite a bit of such a motive, but more often they’re being hitting and slapping in Zen and Zen sto- dead serious. In this case, the Layman, in his their students’ ries. As Westerners, it’s hard for us to appreciate “nonsensical” musing, is pointing to the reality such rough physical treatment in the way the that exists out of reach of our senses. Just as minds—“Oh, monks and masters did. It’s seldom just puni- the contingent of students had escorted him tive; more often it’s a demonstration of the mas- out of the monastery, he with a sweep of his those zany ter’s determination to open the students’ eyes. hand ushered them into the pure, white world Experienced students would have taken it to of nothingness. Zen masters….” mean that the master cares enough to want to help them. So, Layman Pang slapped him. For most of human history there was no em- We can’t always Zenkaku said, “Even a layman shouldn’t be so pirical evidence to support this teaching of crude.” �is Zenkaku, then, was a monk. And emptiness that Buddhist masters realized rule out such one of the distinctive features of this koan is through direct experience. But in the 20th cen- that the tables are turned. By tradition, any tury Einstein and other quantum physicists a motive, but monk would outrank any layperson—period. came up with theories suggesting that this con- But here instead the Layman is daring to strike founding principle wasn’t so implausible after more often the monk. And the monk doesn’t go for this! In all. Meanwhile, the Buddha had expounded it in his mind, it’s not within the rights of any lay- his 2,500 years earlier, and other women they’re being man to hit a monk. and men continue to confirm it today through With Layman Pang now having provoked a their own awakening. �is teaching of the non- dead serious. reaction by the monk that exposes his attach- substantiality of the world of appearances is the ment to status—to form—he now rebukes the very essence of the Dharma. One of the most fa- monk: “�ough you call yourself a Zen student, mous of Zen sayings proclaims: “From the very old Yama won’t let go of you.” Yama is short for beginning there has never been a single thing.” Yamaraja, the Lord of the Dead. According to �is became a well-known subject of calligraphy, Buddhist mythology, when we die we go before and it is painted on a scroll hanging in my Zen Yamaraja for our reckoning. In one version he Center quarters in Rochester in the same place simply holds up a mirror to show us all of our Roshi Kapleau displayed it while living there. karma stretching from our most recent life back So then what is all this? Talking, listening, through previous lives. In another version he moving, coughing, the myriad activities? Who’s holds open a large book with the records of ev- doing these things? Who, or what? What is it? erything we’ve ever done, said, and thought. What is ? And with that we are consigned—we’ve con- We are deceived by our senses. �ey are amaz- signed ourselves—to our next lives. ing in how they gather and process the data of In popular Buddhism the figure of Yamaraja our environment, and we couldn’t function is a personification of the teaching of karma, the without them. But as useful as they are in so Law of Cause and Effect on the moral plane. In many ways, they cannot reveal the fundamental karma there’s no God who sends us to heaven or emptiness of things. hell. Rather, it is our actions, words, and

WINTER 2021ZEN BOW 9 thoughts that create the momentum propelling heavy snowstorm. It may create practical prob- us into our next existence. �e doctrine of Fundamentally, lems, but there is something magical that karma is immensely complex. And so to give un- spreads over people in their interactions. We’re educated Buddhist followers, especially, some there are more likely to want to help one another—check- grasp of it, the myth of Yamaraja was created. ing on our neighbor, maybe shoveling their It’s more concrete. no snowflakes, walk, even stopping on the street to push a stuck How might Zenkaku have responded to this car out of the snow. We more readily talk with slap if he had been more developed as a Zen stu- there’s nowhere one another, with strangers. Why is that? What dent? In Roshi Kapleau’s early years after re- is it about the deep silence of snow that makes turning from Japan and founding the Center, he they fall, people reach out? It’s as though the mind of self- would say that one of the best ways of gauging and-other is blocked with snow. We don’t so eas- the depth of someone’s insight was to see how and there’s ily see strangers as “other.” Notions of separate he responded to being slapped. Now, I myself identity—racial, ethnic, sexual, religious—be- never knew of him to have slapped anyone. He no falling. come muted, at least for a while. We’re all in the would often rebuke us, though, which would same boat. We’re all leveled somehow by the sting plenty, and is itself a good test of ego-at- And when majesty of the weather system that has loosed tachment. this cornucopia of pure whiteness from the Zenkaku, in his whining about privilege, fails the Layman heavens and brought a hush to our world. the slap test, and after getting rebuked by the Layman again responds, “What about you?” But commented on There is a wonderful poem Roshi Kapleau just how did he say this? What was his state of shared with me after he passed me on this koan. mind? �is is a key factor in koans, and one the the scene before It’s by Wallace Stevens, an American poet who student has to demonstrate in dokusan. �e died in 1955. It’s called “�e Snowman.” Layman doesn’t give up on him, though, and so him, he might slaps him again and says, “You look, but you are One must have a mind of winter blind. You speak, but you are mute.” have added To regard the frost and the boughs Of the pine trees crusted with snow; Next comes the comment by Setcho (Ch., that because Xuedou), who compiled the Blue Cliff Record And have been cold a long time and whose comments are peppered throughout they fall To behold the junipers shagged with ice, the collection. He says: “When Pang first spoke, I �e spruces rough in the distant glitter would’ve made a snowball and hit him with it.” nowhere, �is irreverence is very much in the Zen Of the January sun; and not to think style—overturning what the master presented, they’re beautiful Of any misery in the sound of the wind, lest we make something precious out of it. And In the sound of a few leaves, maybe Setcho, after seeing how Pang had roughed up the monk, figured, “Pang turned the Which is the sound of the land tables on the monk, so I think I’ll just turn the Full of the same wind tables back on him.” But that aside, what might �at is blowing in the same bare place you have done when Layman Pang first spoke? And then there’s Setcho’s verse:Hit him with a For the listener who listens in the snow, snowball, hit him with a ball! Even the best will fail And, nothing himself, beholds to reply. Neither heaven nor earth knows what to Nothing that is not there and the do. Eyes and ears are blocked with snow. Even the nothing that is. blue-eyed monk can’t explain. �e blue-eyed monk refers to . We’re all snowmen, aren’t we? With height What does Setcho mean, even the great Bodhid- and mass, with eyes and hair of color, we do give harma can’t explain? If “eyes and ears are the appearance of personhood. But our form is blocked with snow,” so too with the faculty of evanescent. Like snowmen, it’s only a matter of discriminating thought. Under a coating of time before we melt away. And unlike snowmen, snow, names and forms—trees, cars, houses, we know it. But look again, closely—we’re al- fences—start to blend together in a landscape ready melting. �ere’s nothing to us that’s fixed. of no-color, no-form. Or one-form; uni-formity. We’re change itself. We’re… nothing. And so �ere’s something so wonderful about a we’re everything. ///

10 ZENBOW WINTER 2021 ▷ FROM THE ARCHIVES

Where are the snows of undated archive photos illustrate what many of storm that completely buried our Volkswagon yesteryear� It’s a good thing they’re not us think of as a “typical Rochester winter.”That beetle. My then-husband Fred and I pro‐ evident in the current year, as the thought of may be a bit of an exaggerated statement; of ceeded to dig it out by hand and I managed to excavating the sidewalks with the skeleton crew the past ten winters, just five have given us get to work, feeling very proud of myself, by currently living at Arnold Park is daunting. more than 100” of beautiful snowflakes. 10:00. Shockingly, everyone else had been We are fortunate that this has been a rela‐ Of course, the season isn't even close to be‐ there on time, at 8:30. That’s when I realized tively mild winter. According to theRochester ing over. Snow can fall in Rochester as late as they all owned snowblowers.—Chris Pulleyn Democrat & Chronicle, 27.2 inches have fallen so May, though winter typically serves its last large far this season, roughly half the amount of snow wallop in March or April, with April, of course, Rochester typically sees at this point. These being the cruelest month. When I first moved to Rochester in 1969, I remember a late-season

WINTER 2021ZEN BOW 11 WHO I? AM

Great is the matter of birth and death Life slips quickly by Time waits for no one Wake up Wake up Don’t waste a moment! I have walked by those words countless times through the years, rakusu in hand, as I made my way into the zendo Nevarez. So, so many more. { at Arnold Park for sittings. And now, locally, Daniel Prude. For many years, I read the words outside the �e tenets of Buddhism teach us of the pre- zendo solely through the lens of my own work ciousness of all life, and of the deep and abiding and personal experiences. You see, shortly after potential of being reborn as a human: the poten- I first moved to Rochester in 2003, I was working tial for enlightenment, the potential to awaken- as a home health aide, and the majority of my ing to the bodhisattivic path, the potential to clients were receiving palliative hospice care. My liberate all sentient beings. Every Jukai, we are work and zazen were a powerful combination, as invited to contemplate the six realms of unen- they were so deeply resonant with each other. lightened existence, and through doing so are �e moments of my life were well steeped in reminded of the vital importance of not taking reminders of the certainty of death and the un- this potential lightly, for ourselves or for others. certainty of the time of death, but were still limit- Every one of those murders was a violent de- ed: after all, they were grounded in a perspective struction of this potential. that viewed death primarily through the context And so it was that, on September 5, I joined of sickness and old age. well over a thousand other protesters on the What they didn’t account for was the impact streets of Rochester. Our goals were and are to of systemic oppression and marginalization on protest Daniel Prude’s murder and to elevate the mortality, health, and longevity. As my direct demands being made by the Black organizers of involvement in anti-oppression activism has in- Free the People Roc. Our end goal is to make the creased through the decades, this has changed. It changes that are necessary to prevent future vi- is clear that any deep practice of contemplation olence by the police against members of the regarding the uncertainty of the time of death Black community. must plumb the depths of racism’s role in society. In other words: the protests arose from a It is heartbreaking that this lesson has been place of deep compassion and from a profound so strongly present here in Rochester, particu- commitment to cherish all life. larly in the aftermath of the murder of Daniel Unfortunately, but perhaps not surprisingly, Prude by several officers of the Rochester Police one of the the first protests against police brutal- Department on March 23, 2020. It wasn’t until ity was met with an overwhelming show of police September 2, 2020 that the video footage of the brutality. �rough the night, police deployed murder was released to the public. pepper balls, tear gas, military vehicles, sound �e murder of Black people by police officers cannons, and flash bangs at me and the other in the United States is heartbreakingly frequent. protesters. We were “armed” with nothing more Breonna Taylor. Rayshard Brooks. George Floyd. than umbrellas and handmade shields to help Atatiana Jefferson. Aura Rosser. Stephon Clark. protect ourselves from the tear gas and pepper Botham Jean. Philando Castille. Alton Sterling. balls and bottles of water to help each other wash Michelle Cusseaux. Freddie Gray. Janisha the tear gas and pepper spray from our eyes. TEXT BYLore McSpadden Fonville. Eric Garner. Akai Gurley. Gabriella Over the course of over two hours, the barrage

12 ZENBOW WINTER 2021 PRESS PHOTO/COURTESY OF PRUDE FAMILY

WINTER 2021ZEN BOW 13 of tear gas and pepper balls pushed the protest- Sometime around 12:30 am, the protesters ers back from the Blue Cross Arena to Spiritus who had been able to weather all of the chemical Christi Church, locations that are approximately and sonic weapons that had been deployed at us a half mile from each other. �e police officers were at the intersection of Church and Fitzhugh. would announce loudly through their PA system We had been on Church, but when the cops that the gathering was unlawful, and that any- charged us for yet another time, the protestors one who did not disperse would be arrested— split between continuing a bit further down on and then, instead of moving forward to arrest Church and going onto Fitzhugh; I was one of anyone, they would once again shoot chemical the ones who went onto Fitzhugh. �e cops weapons upon us and deploy the sound can- formed a line again, this time no more than 20 nons. People who were not wearing respirator feet from us. masks, goggles, or earplugs ended up dispers- �ey charged towards us again, and I had to ing, but not because they wanted to leave the make a calculated decision about whether to run protest; rather, they were going to find the many yet again, or stand my ground. I did not want to street medics who were out on the streets or to turn my back on them charging us from such make their way to Spiritus Christi, where medics close proximity, and I was and continue to be were set up to help provide medical treatment to willing to be arrested, so I chose to stand my protesters. ground. �ose who ran ended up at Spiritus I had already talked with my friends who had Christi Church, which was still open to protest- been out the night before. One had his nose bro- ers who needed medical care and/or sanctuary. ken by a police officer, and was then arrested. A cop slowed down in front of me, spun me One had been hit in the head with a pepper ball around, and threw me to the ground. I could feel with so much force it had left an open wound. the sharp impact of my knee pads against the One had been knocked out of his wheelchair by ground: I have no doubt that if I hadn't been the charging police officers; another one of my wearing high-impact knee pads, I would have friends who was next to him put her body over experienced a serious injury to my kneecaps. his to protect him from the still-charging offi- �e cop grabbed me by my shoulders and pushed cers, and when she refused to get up and leave me face down onto the ground. I was told gruffly him, she was hit in the face with an officer’s club. I was going to be arrested. If she hadn’t been wearing the protective gear of �e officer then told me to put my hands be- her profession (she’s a union ironworker), I shud- hind my back so that I could be handcuffed. I der to think what injury would have happened. did, and this was the first time that he would And these are just the most dramatic of the list: have been able to clearly and undeniably see that countless of my friends are nursing bruises, my skin was white. He instantly became gentler sprained ankles, skin wounds, and aching lungs. in his handling of me, and used less force to put And so it was that I had come prepared. I was the handcuffs around my wrists. Instead of the also covered from head-to-toe in black clothing. violence he used when pushing me to the I had on a black bike helmet, a respirator mask, ground, he talked me through how he was going goggles, knee pads, and was holding a black um- to help me stand up. brella in front of me to block the toxic waves of As he and I were walking to the police car tear gas that we were being engulfed in. Very lit- where he was going to start processing me, he LORE MCSPADDEN (they/them) is tle, if any, of my skin was visible. referred to me multiple times as “dude” and grateful to have a fellowRZC Sangha As a result, I ended up experiencing in real “man.” I became panicked when I started to think member, Larry McSpadden, as their time the change in how the cops treated me through how he would respond when he saw my father, and for the early introduction to from the moment when they thought I was a driver’s license, which still lists me as female. I the Dharma that he provided. They young Black man until they saw myID and real- figured I should let him know what to expect. began sitting with the Madison Zen ized that it said I am a 40-year-old white woman. “My driver's license says I’m female,” I said Center in 2002, and attended their first You see, for those who don't know me person- through the mask. sesshin in Rochester in 2004; early ally, I am a non-binary transmasculine person He didn’t quite hear me, so I repeated it louder. experiences at theRZC also included who has been on gender-affirming hormone He laughed. “Well, what are you?” nearly a year and a half on staff. Lore lives therapy (testosterone) for almost 18 months, I decided that, given the context, I don't want in Rochester with their wife and son, and and who had gender-affirming top surgery last to get into a Gender Studies 101 conversation they are regularly joined by their six cats November. I am also a strength athlete, and my through my respirator mask, so I simply an- and one dog for at-home zazen. silhouette is easily interpreted as that of a man. swered, “Female.” �e sadness I felt at telling

14 ZENBOW WINTER 2021 this lie about who I am stabbed at me. �e sad- liberation possibly unfold if we turn away from dest part of it was that there was no room for the Who is the realities that particular embodiments bring? truth to be safely shared in that situation. To confront hatred with spirituality is to confront He asked me where my ID was, and I told him Daniel the way we view race, sexuality, gender, or what- which of my zippered pockets it was in. He took ever form of embodiment we are as living beings. it out, and started writing down my informa- Prude? To provide a meaningful path to spiritual libera- tion. He got to my birthday. tion, spirituality must acknowledge the body and “Wait: how old are you?” What is the denigration of certain types of bodies in the I told him that I’m turning 40 in a few weeks. world.” As with all things related to the practice of At this point, I could see in his eyes that he the truth Zen, this acknowledgement is not a theoretical was doing some complicated mental gymnas- one, nor one that is solely intellectual. tics. In the last three minutes, he had had to ad- of his body? Rather, this acknowledgment of the body and just his interpretation of me from young Black the denigration of certain types of bodies is the man, to young white man, to young white What is the direct, lived experience of all people. It is the woman, to 40-year-old white woman. He had this-ness of Just This. It is the heart and sub- put it together that I’m not in the category of truth of stance of what we must navigate along our com- people he was taught to treat as violently as he mitment to the liberation of all beings. did when he first interacted with me. his body Who am I? Who is this body? Who is this body (Side note: no one should be in that category. in this world? No one should be treated that brutally at the in this world? Joe Prude called the Rochester Police Depart- hands of a police officer.) ment because his brother Daniel was having a Sometime during those mental gymnastics, mental health crisis that had been worsened another cop asked him if he should bring the through ingestion of drugs. Daniel was naked wagon around to take me to jail. �e officer who and bleeding, and the night was cold and wet. had pushed me to the ground, grabbed and �e police officers placed a spit hood over shoved my shoulders, and told me in no uncer- Daniel’s head, but failed to provide him with a tain terms that I was being arrested changed his blanket. Officer Mark Vaughn pressed him to tune, and said that I’m not being arrested, that the ground, using both of his hands and all of his instead he’s just going to take down the infor- body weight. Daniel became unresponsive; after mation on my ID. the ambulance did finally arrive at 3:27 AM,he While myID information was being taken was declared brain dead. He was kept on life sup- down, he was regularly calling me “he... I mean, port for a week, but died upon being removed she.” He made fun of me for being at the protests, from life support. His death was ruled a homi- and said that I should be at home relaxing in- cide by the Monroe County Medical Examiner. stead. He asked me at one point why I stayed at Who is Daniel Prude? What is the truth of his the protests after they “stopped being peaceful,” body? What is the truth of his body in this world? and I replied something along the lines of, “My In ’s translation of The Zen Teachings definition of peace and yours are clearly differ- of Bodhidharma, Bodhidharma is recorded as ent.” I was told that I need to leave the area and having said, “Life and death are important. go home, and that if he interacts with me again Don’t suffer them in vain. �ere’s no advantage at a protest, I’ll be instantly arrested. in deceiving yourself.” �is is the call that I guarantee that if I wasn’t who my driver’s li- brought me to the front lines last Saturday and cense says I am, and if he hadn’t been so shocked that will continue bringing me back. at the discrepancy between who I am and who Life and death are important. �ere’s no ad- he had assumed I was, I would have been booked vantage in deceiving ourselves: racial injustice that night. I also guarantee that I’ll be back on and systemic racism are the root cause of so the front lines whenever possible; in fact, on the much suffering, of so many deaths. �e Dharma day that I am writing these words, I am prepar- teaches me this, in no uncertain terms: Black ing to go out to another protest tonight. I may or lives matter. /// may not be arrested: who knows? �is fight con- tinues, and I’m in it for the long haul. Editor’s note: On February 23, a grand jury refused In the bookThe Way of Tenderness: Awakening to indict any of the officers involved in Daniel Prude’s through Race, Sexuality, and Gender, Zenju Earth- murder. The protesters, who never stopped lyn Manuel writes, “How could a path to spiritual demonstrating, have now redoubled their efforts.

WINTER 2021ZEN BOW 15 16 ZENBOW WINTER 2021 A WESTERN ZEN STUDENT VISITS CHINA land strange a in Stranger

For many in the West, China is an immense plexity of traveling to a place as culturally distant paradox; a koan writ large in which our collec- from the United States as China. Contradictory ad- tive mind sees reflected its own fears, anxieties, vice was everywhere; one Chinese friend was and fantastical delusions. Like working on a aghast that we were planning to go it alone rather koan, too, trying to understand China without than pay a full-service tour company to arrange ev- direct experience of it can be like “wandering in ery detail for us; on the other hand, another Chi- darkness” from one dark path of misunder- nese friend was so certain that we would have an standing to another. What I found when I went effortless, easy trip that he discouraged my at- there for myself upended my expectations, de- tempts to learn Mandarin as unnecessary. Guide- spite my best attempts to learn about it in ad- books, travel blogs, and even the U.S. State vance. �e truth was more subtle and complex Department all offered assurances that China is a than anything I had anticipated, and also more very safe place for Americans to visit; however, beautiful and inspiring, especially as a Western news sites, history books, and other sources some- student of Buddhism. I went to China in part times left me feeling anxious. Consider this advice seeking connections between my Zen practice I received from a trusted and very well-traveled and the ancient heritage of our tradition, and I family member: did end up finding such connections, though not “Do not expect to be incognito. You will be in the places I had initially set out to see. tracked, followed, listened to, photographed and interactions with ‘locals’ will be reported. You will In early 2019, my wife was asked be questioned: what are you doing here? Where by a colleague if she would consider are you going? Where have you been? Who did traveling to Nanjing, China to teach you talk to? Expect to have your passport and visa a week-long class to a group of Chi- “held” at your hotel. I don’t mean to sound para-

THEGRAMMAROFCHINESEORNAMENT nese professionals. Visas and accom- noid but… you should stay on the beaten path.” modations were part of the package, including �is went on for pages, and far from being TEXT AND arrangements for a tag-along husband. We jumped completely over the top, everything he wrote fit PHOTOGRAPHS BYDharma

OWEN JONES, FROM at the opportunity, and only later realized the com- a pattern of harassment reported by foreign Cloud (Doug Carr)

WINTER 2021ZEN BOW 17 ▶ Memorial to Baozhi, one of the journalists in China who, it turns out, have a monks with the imperial patronage tendency to write and publish their personal of Emperor Wu stories. When my wife read this email, for a brief moment she was almost ready to back out of the whole trip. We were just a few days away from departure and were vacillating between feelings of excitement and anxiety. For all our attempts to know, we really had no idea what was in store.

As a reader ofZen Bow, chances are higher than average that you’ve at least heard of Chan, the Chinese older sibling to , and that you know some of its history. Maybe you have a few Chinese friends or col- leagues, or you have a favorite Chinese restaurant that serves a pretty good General Tso’s chicken or Buddha’s Delight vegetable medley (neither of which are actually common dishes in China). If you’re a news hound or history buff, maybe thinking about China stirs up images of student protests at Tiananmen Square, unsettling stories of the Cultural Revolution, or reports about how the quintessential “�ird World” country, a term context attempt at art. At customs, an enormous coined by Chairman Mao, is today industrializing screen played an endless loop of a flashy recruit- so fast that it will soon eclipse the United States ment ad for the border patrol, featuring high as the world’s largest economy. �e Chinese gov- tech battle gear, action packed adventures, and ernment’s provocative behavior abroad, oppres- helping hands and warm smiles for senior citi- sion at home, and appalling treatment of ethnic in need. “Serve your country, protect your minorities all provide endless fodder for the 24- family and your way of life, join the Border Pa- hour news cycle, and American politicians seem trol!” By contrast, the customs officials in their to love nothing more than to blame the Chinese glass booths looked bored out of their minds. bogeyman for every possible ill. �ey showed less interest in us than the guards �is basically sums up my perception of China at most Canadian crossings. We were waved prior to stepping off the plane in Nanjing in No- through curtly after presenting our passports. vember 2019. China was a mystery, and my wife �at first afternoon what stood out most were ▶▶ Vulture Peak Chan Temple, and I stood at its gates, bleary eyed, jet-lagged, ex- the differences. Security cameras were ubiquitous, Nanjing cited, and uncertain. Nor could we have had any mounted prominently at every store-front and idea that just a few short weeks after we had seen street corner as deterrents. �e chaotic roads our sights and gone home thatCOVID -19 would made my most stressful rush-hour commutes erupt into the world in Wuhan, just a few hours’ seem like polite queues at the bank. Even upstate drive from where we stood. In retrospect, almost New York’s most creative drivers would be hum- every one of our concerns were misguided in some bled and awed by the style and bravado of the way, but we had yet to learn any of those lessons. Shanghai taxi-man. Later, I recall just sitting in Residents of Rochester might be amused to the window of our hotel room overlooking a busy know that my first impression on the ground in commercial plaza, feeling lost in a sea of neon mainland China was that the Nanjing airport Hanzi characters, until jetlag finally overcame me. reminded me faintly of the Rochester Interna- tional Airport. We shuffled our bags down a long, Our three-week itinerary would DHARMA CLOUD (Doug Carr) isaZen fluorescent lit, grey-tiled terminal, echoing and take us all over the country, and I practitioner and engineer in Carnation, empty except for a handful of employees and incorporated famous Buddhist sites Washington. He has been a member of other stragglers from our flight. �e walls were like the Tibetan temple in theRZC since 2002, and is eagerly awaiting the “all clear” for a return to decorated with lonely ads touting local busi- Beijing, and Dàfó, a 233-ft Buddha carved into a sesshin at Chapin Mill. nesses and tourism, and the occasional out-of- cliff during the Tang dynasty. �e first week,

18 ZENBOW WINTER 2021 though, was dedicated to business; as my wife vague intention that I should honor it somehow. lectured in Nanjing, I was left to wander on my Everywhere Another broken-English placard explained that it own. Guidebooks aimed at the general traveler was the memorial of an important Liang dynasty don’t list many Buddhist attractions in Nanjing. I went, monk. I felt like this was a special place somehow, �e city boasts spectacular museums, parks, and but wasn’t quite sure why, so I snapped a few pic- monuments, but in some cases these modern regular people tures and eventually moved on. attractions are papered right over the sites of an- If you’ve heard even one or two of Roshi Kjol- cient and temples, reflecting the were out hede’s teishos, chances are good that you’ve norms of contemporary Chinese society. One heard him read from Andy Ferguson’sZen’s Chi- such spot, in the midst of a beautifully forested enjoying nese Heritage, a translation of a huge body of say- park, was a building with a tall arching roof made ings and biographical stories of the ancient Chan entirely from stone. Today it houses some ne- the mild fall masters. A few months after I returned from glected, dimly lit, and eerily creepy mannequin China, I discovered another of Andy’s books, displays of “Heroes of the People” posed eter- weather, and Tracking Bodhidharma, in which he lays out a case nally in acts of valor, something clearly left over for reconsidering the traditional story of the leg- from a previous generation’s political zeal. A they had a endary First Ancestor of Zen, Bodhidharma, for placard outside explained in broken English that whom I’ve long felt an affinity. �e book details the vaulted stone ceilings had given the building disarming the history of Emperor Wu of Liang, who fea- its ancient name, the “Beamless Hall,” and it had tures in the first case in the Blue Cliff Record, originally been built to house an enormous openness and when Bodhidharma infamously told him that his golden statue of Amitabha, the Celestial Buddha. building of Buddhist temples and supporting of �e Beamless Hall sits inside the sprawling warmth that monks amounted to “no whatsoever.” Zhongshan park, which encompasses a mountain Emperor Wu’s capital was the city that is to- that has hosted important religious sites for mil- reminded me day called Nanjing, and among the many monks lennia. Most of those are invisible now, lucky to he supported with imperial patronage, one of the be remembered even as a footnote on a placard. A of stereotypical most famous was named Baozhi. �is eminent restored Ming dynasty tomb and the mausoleum Dharma teacher had probably risen to promi- of Sun Yat-sen draw the biggest crowds to the small town. nence before the Indian sage Bodhidharma ap- park, but I preferred walking through the nearly peared in China, but some of the stories about deserted quarter of the Lingyu , where I Baozhi have a Zen-like flair, and it’s possible that found the Beamless Hall. �ere was a calm seren- the two masters might have met in the flourish- ity in those woods, maybe something left over ing Buddhist scene surrounding Emperor Wu’s from the days when a Buddhist monastery had court. In the official dynastic histories, another resided there. As I came to the end of one mean- of Emperor Wu’s favorite monks was reported to dering path, I found what looked like a weather- have been a disciple of Bodhidharma. �e “blue- worn , and so I stopped for a while, with a eyed barbarian” Bodhidharma famously refused imperial patronage himself, setting the tone for generations of Zen monks that followed in his . In his book, Ferguson described visiting a memorial to Baozhi while on the trail of Bod- hidharma, and the place sounded familiar to me. When I pulled up the pictures I had taken, sure enough, that “important Liang dynasty monk” whose memorial I had visited was none other than Baozhi, who had taught the Dharma to Em- peror Wu and possibly crossed paths with Bod- hidharma. I’d been wandering around seeking signs of Zen’s history, completely unaware that I was totally immersed in it.

After a few days exploring Nan- jing, my worries had mostly van- ished. Nanjing is a modern city with bustling commerce and good

WINTER 2021ZEN BOW 19 public transportation. Armed only with some park, replete with tai-chi and dancing classes in phone apps and my scant Chinese language It turns out that the courtyards. �is was a vibrant, living commu- skills, I was able to navigate around and enjoy nity center on a busy Saturday morning. I the city easily enough. People mostly ignored Bodhidharma, stopped to listen to a group of monks chanting me; it was rare to see a non-Chinese, but not rare sutras in a fast two-tone drone that bounced enough to be noteworthy. Everywhere I went, or “Dámó,” back and forth between pitches in a syncopated regular people were out enjoying the mild fall rhythm. �e monks read from thick books weather, and they had a disarming openness was everywhere that lay open in front of them. �ey looked as and warmth that reminded me of stereotypical though they’d been at it for a while, and probably small town, mid-western Americans. For refer- in China; still had a long way to go, too. Across the court- ence, Nanjing, as a modestly large Chinese me- yard from the chanting room, I discovered what tropolis, has a population about the same as pop culture has may have been the zendo for the monastery. I New York City. immediately recognized a familiar figure on the One sunny afternoon, late in the week, I was subsumed the wall at the head of the room; none other than exploring in the city with no set agenda when I Bodhidharma. had an intuition that I should visit a particular Buddhist legend It turns out that Bodhidharma, or “Dámó,” was park. Just a blank green square on my map, everywhere in China; pop culture has subsumed White Egret Island Park was not mentioned in into an the Buddhist legend into an amalgamation of wild- my guidebooks. The park surrounds a scenic eyed, grizzled, and misshapen features more remi- pond, and people were out socializing, playing amalgamation niscent of the Bridge Keeper from Monty Python chess, and making music in the nooks and gaze- and the Holy Grail than a Buddhist monk. You can bos of the carefully arranged landscapes. Tucked of wild-eyed, walk into just about any trinket shop or gallery away in the most remote corner of the park, I selling carvings in China and ask for him by name, stumbled upon the “Vulture Peak Chan Temple.” grizzled, and and they’ll have at least one grotesque figurine to �e doors were open, but it was nearly de- show you. �e better-quality ones may even have a serted except for a handful of older lay women in misshapen feature or two retained from his Buddhist legends, volunteer vests. �ere were handwritten signs in like a missing shoe or a reed for crossing the Yangzi Chinese and English about not disturbing the features. monks, but no monks to be seen. A tiny woman, hunched over with age, approached me and started asking questions in Chinese, but all I could say in return was “Wô méi tīng dông [I don't understand].” To my surprise she seemed satisfied by this answer, and shuffled off down the veranda saying “Wô méi tīng dông... Wô méi tīng dông...” On my way out, I startled two women who were restocking incense offerings at an altar to , the of Compas- sion. �ey both bowed toward me with gassho and reflexively I did the same. �at was all that seemed necessary to reach a mutual under- standing, and their faces eased from uncertainty into smiles. It was a reassuring glimmer of a shared connection, something beyond our in- ability to communicate with language.

In the southwestern city of Chengdu, we stayed in the neigh- borhood of the Wenshu (Man- jushri) Monastery. On our last morning in the city we decided to explore the temple grounds, which were thrumming with all sorts of life and activity. Wenshu is part monastery, part public temple, and part city

20 ZENBOW WINTER 2021 hard for me to find evidence of more familiar tra- ◀ Guanyin in the Vulture Peak Chan ditions. In Wenshu, not far from Bodhidharma, I Temple discovered a sequence of 10 paintings arranged around the walls of the room, unmistakably illus- trating the famous Zen ox-herding series.

The etymology of the word “re- veal” links it closely to “re-veil,” to re- place one veil of misunderstanding with another. China’s chief impres- sion on my memory is of open-hearted and earnest people, and yet paradoxically it is also a country that demonstrates almost daily its capac- ity for stunning brutality. �e bookThe Souls of China by Ian Johnson describes the complex ways in which the Chinese people and their government have lately been interacting in the sphere of reli- gion, which helped me make sense of some of what I had seen. �e beautifully restored temples almost certainly owe much to the government’s recent ob- session with promoting “traditional values.” �e line between political expediency and genuine in- terest in traditional religious culture is blurry. Go- ing all the way back to Emperor Wu and probably well beyond, the embracing of Buddhism by any political movement has usually carried a subtext of statecraft. Likewise, from Shenxiu’s Northern river. But here in Wenshu, like a breath of fresh air, School to the Zen teachers who encouraged was a simple and unmistakable image of a monk Japan’sImperialism, returning those embraces too facing a cave wall, doing zazen. wholeheartedly has often proved perilous. �ere was little evidence of any recent medita- My impulse is to look to Bodhidharma. Re- tion activity in the room; its main purpose at that portedly a prince in India prior to becoming a moment seemed to be to serve as a foyer for the monk, he would have known all too well about ◀◀ Bodhidharma facing the wall in administrative offices of the monastery. Consis- the corrupting influence of worldly power. He Wenshu Monastery tent with stories I’ve heard from others, the many taught the Dharma to his disciples far away Buddhists we encountered didn’t seem much in- from imperial courts and prestigious monaster- terested in meditation; then again, I was just a ies, and that’s where his lineage thrived after tourist passing through, unable to read the sig- him while other rose and nage or talk to anyone. What would such a person fell with imperial favor. What I encountered in make of the Zen Center at Arnold Park? �e most Nanjing and Chengdu felt more authentic than a visible practice by far was before the contrived government campaign. If old tradi- various gilded Buddha and Bodhisattva figures, tions are actually being revived in these places accompanied by prayer and offerings of incense it’s not because the government has been foot- and money. �at aspect of popular Chinese reli- ing the bill for glossy building restorations, but gious practice is especially common, but it felt because people have preserved those traditions strikingly foreign to me. �e more mainstream in their homes and in quiet backwater temples Buddhist places we visited all had droves of peo- when the same government was trying to stamp ple making the circuit from altar to altar carrying them out not so long ago. sticks of lit incense, one by one bowing in obei- Perhaps it’s a testament to the wisdom of Bod- sance before each figure. In the midst of these hidharma and his successors, and to the en- public displays of piety, I felt like a gawking durance and forbearance of common Chinese tourist more than a fellow Buddhist. Still, I was people, that signs of the Chan tradition are today drawn to these places as though by magnetic at- springing up, lotus-like from the muck, to inspire traction, and on closer inspection it was never another generation of seekers of the Way. ///

WINTER 2021ZEN BOW 21 Winter2021 Sightings

department of a large urban ONSCREEN northeastern hospital. He is Dick Johnson is Dead the author/editor of �Netflix, 2020� ¶ What it’s Encountering Buddhism: about: �is one-of-a-kind film Western Psychology and was made by a documentarian Buddhist Teachings and writes (Kirsten Johnson) who is grap- about , pling with the impending loss psychology, ethics, art, of her father, a psychiatrist, to history, social engagement Alzheimer’s and eventual and practice for his blog,The death. Kirsten is very close to Existential Buddhist.Heisalso her father, so, as a sort of ther- the science writer for the Research Monthly. His latest book is Living Zen: A Practical Guide to a Balanced Existence. FURTHER REMARKS asapuppy. Mr. Segall dazzles the South Bristol Idyll ¶ I love Zen Bow; thanks for reader with his diaphanous Dear Zen Bow:�e cover photo the great work! writing style. He shines a light apy for both of them, she films of this issue was so striking I DAVID FERNANDEZ on the development of “rehearsals” of his death by var- opened the issue right Ithaca, New York and ious means and in various away. �e photo of Roshi with offers his views on the places. Dick gamely collabo- friends further in the issue IN PRINT direction it could take to rates with her, and the inter- caught my eye. �e lyrical de- The book: BUDDHISMAND strengthen its roots in new play between the two of them scription of the Gratwick Place HUMAN FLOURISHING by soil. �is reminds me of Roshi as he “dies” multiple times is is right on but the identities of SETH ZUIH� SEGALL ¶ What Kapleau’s firm belief that suffused with humor, tender- the location and the people in it’s about: �is book is about Buddhism had to change ness, and a growing awareness the photo might be corrected the tension between Buddhist because everything changes, of how much they mean to (perhaps with the digital edi- and Western conceptions of and Indian trappings were each other. tions?). what it means to live the best swapped once for Tibetan Why it’s worthy: As Dick says �is photo was taken in life according to the Greek trappings, and then Japanese at one point, “I’m pretty good 1966 or 1967, soon after Roshi concept of eudaimonia (human and Korean, etc., so why at living in the here and the arrived in Rochester. �e flourishing). shouldn’t it reflect now the now.” It’s touching and inspir- scene is the deck of our family Why it’s worthy: �e author conditions and circumstances ing to see such openness, hon- cabin in South Bristol, near studied Zen and other of the West? esty, and joy in the context of Naples, New York. �e couple practices with several �e author transports the deeply felt pain and loss. �e seated next to Roshi are not teachers, and Rev. Daiken reader over considerable terri- radical willingness of father the Gratwicks but are Mary Nelson, , ordained him. tories of Aristotelian philoso- and daughter to face and ac- and Ed Barnitz, who were Mr. Segall is an erudite in phy, comparing and cept death brings light to ev- family friends from the Uni- Buddhist study and practice contrasting it with the Bud- eryone around them.—JOHN tarian Church and who were and several other fields. He is dhist path of living the right PULLEYN frequent visitors and outdoor alayZen life. �e great challenge for us enthusiasts. Roshi was intro- priest and as Western practitioners, he VISITORSLOG duced to a number of folks psychologist says, is “how to make Bud- On Wednesday, February 24, from this group when he first who taught dhist practice our own—how 2021 a nephew and grand- arrived. �e young lady is my at four to make it something we can nephew (Mark Rosenberg and sister, Ellen, who was 14 or 15 universities fully endorse without inner di- his son Michael) of the late years old. Roshi loved our and directed vision or pretense.” Roshi visited “golden beagle,” who was a the Verdict: highly recom- both Chapin Mill and Arnold mutt we found by the roadside psychology mended.—AMAURYCRUZ Park. �ey were hosted by

22 ZENBOW WINTER 2021 ▷ SIGHTINGS

Roshi Kjolhede, who noted, ◀ Michael and Mark in the Arnold “�e visit…went swimmingly. Park zendo Mark is a warm, openhearted guy who was very much affected by seeing Roshi’s old quarters and the zendo. I ex- plained to them that the Cen- ter has been shut down for nearly a year now, and that they were the first non-staff to step into PK’s old quarters in that time. “Michael, the grandnephew, is very youthful, personable, and enthusiastic…. He had read parts ofThree Pillars and …spoke fondly of Uncle Phil bringing him gifts when he was a boy: first an Erector set, then a bow and arrow (‘…and not just a cheap bow and ar- row, but a really good one!’) ◀ Michael and Mark Rosenberg “When I presented Mark visiting Roshi’s gravesite at Chapin with a copy of Roshi’s memo- Mill rial publication,I Won’t Say, he was surprised and visibly moved, and thanked me sev- eral times. He and Michael leafed through it, marveling especially at Roshi in his yoga poses. “I was a bit surprised at how gratifying it was for me to meet Mark, especially since I could see Roshi in him. It left me feeling filled up.”

BEYONDSUSTAINABILITY Building a regenerative newal survey as “Sangha organization sculpting Sangha.” As part of �e recent Sangha Renewal sur- an ongoing process of self-ex- vey of active local members— amination, surveys will be im- the results of which will be plemented at least every other ready to share soon—was one year to provide continuing of the first activities in a new feedback to members, strategic planning process the trustees, and staff—which Center has undertaken to help will, in turn, pinpoint the ar- us become a more flexible orga- eas on which we need to focus. nization that is set up to adapt �e entire Sangha will be in- more quickly to change. �e no- vited to participate in this tion of a “regenerative organi- process, and later this year zation” has implications for out-of-town members will be change that a “sustainable orga- sent a slightly different ver- nization” does not. sion of the Sangha Renewal In a recent teisho, Roshi survey that was sent to local characterized the Sangha Re- members.—CHRISPULLEYN

WINTER 2021ZEN BOW 23 ROCHESTERZENCENTER NON-PROFIT 7 ARNOLD PARK ORGANIZATION ROCHESTER , NY 14607 U.S. POSTAGE Address service requested PAID PERMIT NO. 1925 ROCHESTER, NY

RZCONLINE NEXTISSUE ASTHISZENBOW GOES to press, our offer- �e coming of Spring brings a lot of evoca- ings continue to be mostly online. Online tive words to mind: fresh, blooming, sesshins and workshops have attracted a youth, promise, sunlight, awakening. high number of participants, and, as a re- What are you most looking forward to as sult, workshops have been scheduled the pandemic restrictions ease? And, as more frequently. �e only downside is that warmer weather makes more outdoor ad- a donation is optional for the workshops, ventures possible, are you planning a trip? and most people have elected to not pay. A garden? A visit to Chapin Mill? Will the A small task force that includes mem- increased possibilities make it more or less bers who are medical professionals has difficult for you to sit? Let us know what been meeting to determine when and you think and hope for as we move from how the Center will reopen. Full vaccina- cold and dark to warmth and light. tion will be required to resume sitting in person at both Arnold Park and Chapin Mill, and the task force is considering us- ing Signup Genius for people to reserve a mat, as the number of seats will be lim- ited. It is unclear when the requirement for social distancing in the zendo will be lifted or when chanting can resume. We’re all looking forward to reopening, but the decisions will be made based on evidence-based practices.