The Zen Practitioner’s Journal M o u n t a i n L i g h t Winter 2018-2019 $10.00 / $11.00 Canadian SUBMIT YOUR ARTWORK Bundling Mountain Record journals for distrubition, circa 1990. Photo by Pat Enkyo O’Hara. MOUNTAIN RECORD Dharma Communications President DC Director of Operations Managing Editor MOUNTAIN RECORD (ISSN #0896-8942) is published quarterly by Dharma Communications. Periodicals Postage Paid at Mt. Tremper, NY, and additional Editor mailing offices.Postmaster: send address changes to MOUNTAIN RECORD, P.O. Box 156, Mt. Tremper, NY 12457-0156. All material Copyright © 2019 by Dharma Com mu ni ca tions, Inc., Unless otherwise specified. Printed in the U.S.A. The articles included and the opinions expressed herein are those of the Layout individual authors, Who are solely re spon si ble for their contents. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions, positions or teachings of Zen Mountain Mon as- tery or the Mountains and Rivers Order. Production Assistants: Cover Image: Winter Light by Michelle Seigei Spark This marks the last issue of our paper and ink Mountain Record: The Zen Practitioner’s Journal, which was first published in the earliest years of Zen Mountain Monastery. Whenever I think of the Mountain Record, I think of Daido Roshi and those who made the journal possible over the years, like Bonnie Myotai Treace, Sensei and Carole Kyodo Walsh. Their dedication to the dharma and to creative expression was the driving force that gave birth to the journal and nurtured its development. This was especially important in the early years when there was little staff and financial resources to bring each issue to fruition. Readers like you have been both the inspiration and the beneficiaries of these many years of publication, and have witnessed the Mountain Record as it has grown and matured into its present form. I bow in deep respect to my teacher, Daido Roshi, and to you and all those dedicated to hearing, practicing and realizing buddhadharma. May we continue to bring forth the great light of wisdom through the sacred teachings old and new, through our lives, and through our next expression of the Mountain Record. We look forward to bringing you an annual published volume of dharma teachings and creative works, and to an ongoing offering of the sayings and doings of Zen Mountain Monastery and the Mountains and Rivers Order online. Thank you for your interest, support, and participation in our continuing evolution. In gassho, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Abbot, Zen Mountain Monastery Vol.37 No.1 Winter 2018-2019 Mountain Light 4 All the Ancestors are Like This, by Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi When the discriminating mind rests, all things appear as they are. 15 Ending Well, Beginning Well, by Suzanne Taikyo Gilman Spanning over thirty years, contributions by MRO teachers and sangha which still shine. 16 Serving the Spirit, mondo, by John Daido Loori, Roshi From Spiritual Calling, 2008 28 Wilderness Camping as Retreat, by Robert Genjin Savage From Compassion, 1991 32 Shikantaza Is for Wimps, by Maureen Jisho Ford From Wellness, 1990 48 The Immovable Spot by Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei From Zazen, 2013 56 Lone Zen, by Bill Kigen Delaney From Fear and Fearlessness, 1992 60 Cars and Trucks too, by Sybil Seisui Rosen From Teachings of the Insentient, 1998 62 Being Born, by Annie Redman From Mystic Earth, 2002 66 Adolescent Buddhism, by Rachel Yuho Rider From Spirituality and Education, 2001 70 The Precepts in the World, by Sangha Members From Morality in the World, 2012 78 All the Way to Heaven, by Amy Shoko Brown From Death and Renewal, 1993 86 The Unspoken Thing, by Bonnie Myotai Treace, Sensei From Practicing the Edge, 2001 94 Facets of the Jewel, interview, by Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei & Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, Sensei with Danica Shoan Ankele From Mother of All Buddhas, 2016 102 In the Footsteps of the Buddha, by Sangha Members Reflections from the 2018 sangha pilgrimage to India. 114 Mountains and Rivers Order News News and Happenings, Book Review, Affiliate Directory 126 Resources and Services Photo Credits—Inside Back Cover 4 All the Ancestors Are Like This by Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi The True Dharma Eye, Case 101 Nanyue’s “Its Not Like Something” Main Case Zen master of Nanyue went to study with the Sixth Ancestor, Huineng. The Sixth Ancestor said: “Where are you from?” Nanyue said, “I came from National Teacher Huian.” The Sixth Ancestor said, “What is it that has come like this?” Nanyue could not answer. He attended on the master for eight years and worked on this question. One day he said to the Huineng, “Now I understand it. When I frst came to study with you, you asked me, ‘What is it that has come like this?’ The Sixth Ancestor said, “How do you understand it?” Nanyue said, “To say it’s like something misses it.” Huineng said, “Does it depend upon practice and enlightenment?” Nanyue said, “It’s not that there is no practice and enlightenment. It’s just that we should not be defled by them.” The Sixth Ancestor said, “Just this non-deflement is what buddhas have maintained and transmitted. You are like this. I am like this. All the ancestors in India were like this.” Verse Blue sky, bright sun there is no distinguishing east from west. Yet acting in accord with the imperative still requires dispensing medicine when the sickness appears. 5 n my early training when Daido Roshi to bring us closer to that which we call “truth” spoke about buddha ancestors, they and “reality” yet cannot be expressed by Iseemed like dim, remote characters who words. Because it is not truth, we speak of had a distant role in what I felt was the it as truth. In practice, this means we need most important discovery of my life, the to continually release our mind from words Buddhist Path. I understood that these were and concepts and from any fxedness that we enlightened masters that had transmitted the might give them. teachings across generations, but they were Master Dogen said: not yet a living reality for me. Because the Actualizing buddha ancestors means to bring dharma is vast and deep and we each have them forth and look at them in veneration. It’s our own karmic streams, there can be aspects not limited to Buddhas of the past, present of dharma practice that don’t initially speak and future; but it is going beyond Buddhas to us. As long as we stay open and allow for all who are going beyond themselves. It’s taking possibilities, this can change. As I continued of those who have maintained the face and to study and train, something began to eye of Buddha ancestors formally bowing come to life. I began to see and experience a and meeting them. They have manifested the virtue of the Buddha ancestors they have dwelt connection between my path and the many in it and they have actualized it in the body. people and currents that came before me. This may or may not change over the years, This is such a marvelous passage. We but as long as we stay open and allow for the could study this our whole lives. These few possibilities, the doors are always there. This words beautifully express how what we are is how our experience of the dharma can doing is connected to everything before and become larger and more multifaceted, more everything to come. It brings us right to this nuanced, more beautiful. And really what moment and makes it clear that practice is the this means is that our own sense of ourselves manifestation of virtue. There is dwelling in and our world becomes more multifaceted, that virtue, manifesting it, bringing it forth nuanced and beautiful. and actualizing it in the body. Everything we Some questions require careful study so that do, really, is this. we can understand their signifcance. The basis for the question that Huineng asks in When I was a musician I would spend hours this koan, “What is it that has come like this?” and hours practicing, rehearsing for a appears very early on in the development of performance. Practice, practice, practice, Zen. Tathagata, the one “thus come” and the and then fnally I would perform. All of that one “thus gone,” is an epithet for the Buddha: preparation for a few moments of live music. the one who comes and goes in suchness, as But Buddhist practice is the whole thing, the reality of all things, thus. practice-live. One undivided moment. One When we speak about truth and reality practice-realization. The way we bring forth they can suggest something that is fxed, some the wisdom of the buddhas is by manifesting sort of absolute. The Truth. The Reality. It’s wisdom in our thoughts, words and actions. important to remember, again and again, that The way we bring forth great compassion is words are like placeholders, an approximation, by being compassionate now. We take up and maintain the face and eye of the buddhas by everything that we can know, touch, taste, being the very face and eye, that body and feel, think, experience. The absolute is that mind, by bringing forth the bodhicitta that which has no body, no characteristic, no time every sincere practitioner since the time and space. Each abides in its own dharma of the Buddha brings forth. What did the state. You are like this. I am like this. Buddha practice? He practiced meditation. He practiced walking. He practiced eating For eight years Nanyue worked on this and lying down.