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SZC Newsletter February 2013.Pub February 2013 Volume 2, Issue 1 SOJI ZEN CENTER NEWSLETTER Tokudo and the Deepening of Commitment by Daniel Honki Kristie Soji Zen Center student John it is the priests who celebrate practicing whole-heartedly for Ango Gruber became a nov- the ceremonies that often ac- 4 years at Soji Zen Center. He Inside this issue: ice priest during a Tokudo company Zen practice. lives with his wife and two Tokudo and the Deep- ceremony that Shuzen “The liturgy is one of the things sons and makes his living as a ening of Commitment 1 Sensei, Soji’s teacher and that draw me to Zen as op- high school science teacher. Great Determination vice abbot, performed on De- posed to other meditative prac- Novice priests still keep their and Commitment 2 cember 28, 2012. tices.” Ango said in an interview heads shaved, as an outward Commitment and 3 The ceremony took place at conducted a month after the sign of their commitment. They Impermanence the St. Raphaela Center on ceremony. He added that he also practice while wearing a Reflections on Fusatsu the third day of Soji’s year- has a deep appreciation for kesa, a robe meant to repre- and Commitment 3 end sesshin. Ango, in the how the Zen liturgy is designed sent the robe the Buddha Upcoming Newsletters presence of his family and to encourage the quality of wore. Overview and Schedule 4 more than 20 Soji students, mindfulness that is intrinsic to Ango said that, during his time vowed to deepen his commit- Zen practice. so far as a priest, the act of ment to the maintenance of The name of the ceremony by putting on the kesa has been the sangha and the Buddhist which one becomes a priest is one of the things that have precepts. “Tokudo.” This Japanese word most affected his approach to A Note from “(Becoming a priest) felt very can be translated as “leaving the practice. Shuzen Sensei natural in a way,” Ango said. home.” In the past, novice “There’s something symbolic “It’s not something I aspired to priests would leave their fami- about putting on the kesa – … a number of people in the lies and unlink themselves from every time I put it on, I feel like sangha asked me if I’d con- the business of their old lives. I’m serving in a different way,” “Freedom is found sider it. When some folks In modern American Zen, this he said. “There is a mindful- in commitment. asked, it felt to me like it sense of “leaving home” can be ness that comes out of the would be a way to increase less literal, especially for house- physical garments. It’s a small Once you commit – my service to the sangha and holder practitioners – leaving physical thing in a way, but it’s you don’t have to to my teacher.” home is understood to mean something that really feels like think about it In Zen, novice priests have a cultivating a deep commitment a difference. It feels like taking to nonattachment. Ango, a on the vows, taking on the again.” special role in the upkeep of the practice center. One of householder Buddhist who responsibility to manifest the the most apparent ways this started informal practice twenty- teachings.” (continued on can be seen is in the liturgy – seven years ago, has been Page 3) Page 2 Great Determination and Commitment by Annalisa Rakugo Castaldo Zen teaches that the three essentials for and worries can be shucked off; there emptiness and become enlightened? enlightenment are great faith, great doubt is only the practice. There are guide- Or is it like exercise or a vitamin pill— and great determination. Talks about lines for everything, from when to sit in something we do to make our lives a these three essentials tend to focus on the zazen to how to go through a doorway. bit better? interplay of the first two elements—faith This may be exhausting or stifling, but There’s nothing wrong with sitting for and doubt. First, the Zen student must the rules provide an external support relaxation or peace of mind of course. have faith in the Buddha’s teaching and in system that moves the student But I think we sell ourselves and our her essential Buddha nature—whole, per- smoothly from one practice session to practice short if we don’t have the fect, and complete. Second, each student the next, without distraction. great determination not just in sitting, must continually question reality in order Compare that to the life of the modern but in ourselves and the realization to see the truth of emptiness. Pairing the lay person. The alarm goes off at that we are whole, perfect and com- apparent opposites of “faith” and “doubt” is 5am—do I sit for 30 minutes, or work plete. We need to not just have great a familiar Zen tactic: doubt is faith just as out, or check email, or tend to any of a faith and great doubt, but to really form is emptiness. hundred tasks, or just fall back asleep have the determination to change our The commentaries have less to say about for ten minutes? Evening rolls lives, to carry our practice off the cush- “great determination”; most seem to as- around—go to Soji or cook, clean, ion and into our jobs and relationships sume its meaning is obvious, but I do not spend time with a partner or children, and day to day existence. It’s hard to find it so at all. The phrase is sometimes prepare for work the next day or just commit to showing up day after day, translated as “great courage” or “great collapse on the couch in front of the week after week, but it’s even harder persistence” but it does not seem to mean TV? Each and every sitting is a triumph to commit to the radical change Bud- simply bravery or tenacity. If great faith of renewed determination, renewed dhism offers. Harder, but worthwhile— and great doubt are the relative and abso- commitment. There are so many dis- because great determination can offer lute experiences of practice, how does tractions it can seem impossible to us not just 30 minutes of peace or the great determination fit in? What exactly prioritize something as apparently non- answer to a koan, but an entirely new are we, as Zen students, supposed to be productive as sitting still with closed way of relating to the world and our- determined about? I have found two layers eyes. selves. or levels within the idea of determination: But there is more to it than that. The commitment to the practice and commit- promise of Buddhism is that anyone ment to the self. can wake up. But do we really believe In a monastery or on sesshin, determina- that? Sometimes, enlightenment can tion is almost unnecessary. Having made seem like a lofty and unreachable goal, the big leap of commitment (and here it’s something that monks achieve after perhaps useful to remember that “commit” sitting six month silent retreats. Not us, can mean “to place in a prison or a mental with our to do lists and our jobs and institution” as well as “entrust or charge”), our busy lives. Even if we are sitting the Zen student can relax into the struc- regularly, are we doing it with the great ture provided. All outside responsibilities determination to actually experience PagePage 3 3 Commitment and Impermanence by Barbara Meimyoku Fishman If your experience with commitment is anything like mine, your sense of commitment rides on the waves of impermanence. At the crest of the wave, when energy is concentrated, commitment is exhilarating, even fierce. At the bottom of the trough it can feel like a heavy weight. Realizing that this is impermanence, whether the issue at hand is commitment or anything else, offers some degree of equanimity. At least we know we’re on a roller coaster. Best of all is to ride the waves of impermanence with an eye for the moment of stillness that lies within. Brief as the moment is, within it is true commitment. The highs and lows dissolve, as does doubt. Reflections on Fusatsu and Commitment by Michael Daitoku Palumbaro During the Jukai Ceremony each of us made a commitment to live our lives informed by the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts, and at the end of every ceremony we take the 4 Great Vows again and again. These precepts and vows require a great deal of commitment on our part in order to fulfill them on a daily basis during the course of our everyday lives. There are times when my mind is far away from those vows and precepts, and that's why I love the Fusatsu Ceremony. At the very beginning we chant the Gatha of Atonement, which helps me drop any guilt I may have about "missing the mark." The ceremony also gives me the encouragement to re-commit myself to living in a manner that doesn't hurt others and doesn't hurt me. Once again, Fusatu ends with the 4 Great Vows, which are the vows of the Bodhisattva, and we'll keep chanting them until all beings are saved. Tokudo (continued from Page 1 Ango is one of the students Shuzen Sensei has entrusted to give fre- Haiku Corner quent Dharma talks to the Soji sang- ha. One of Ango’s themes has been the benefit an individual’s commit- Those who see worldly life as an ment to sitting in meditation can obstacle to Dharma have on the entire universe.
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