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The Zen Studies Society, Inc T HE Z EN S TUDIES S OCIETY WINTER/SPRING 2005 Contents Rinzai Roku Eido T. Shimano Roshi . .2 Bodhidharma’s Mind-Pacifying Roko Ni-Osho Sherry Chayat . ..6 Fuketsu and The Mind Seal of The Patriarchs Zenrin . .10 Takuhatsu Fujin Zenni . .13 Zen Studies Society News & Roshi’s Travels . .19 Dia Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji News . .17 New York Zendo Shobo-ji News . .18 Published twice annually by The Zen Studies Society, Inc. Eido T. Shimano Roshi, Abbot. Offices: New York Zendo.Shobo-ji 223 East 67th Street New York, NY 10021-6087 Tel (212) 861-3333 Fax 628-6968 [email protected] Dai Bosatsu Zendo. Kongo-ji 223 Beecher Lake Road Livingston Manor, NY 12758-6000 Tel (845) 439-4566 Fax 439-3119 [email protected] Editor: Seigan Ed Glassing; News: Aiho-san Yasuko Shimano, Seigan, Fujin Zenni, Soryu Silvia Dambrauskas; Graphic Design: Banko Randy Phillips; Editorial Assistant and Proofreading: Myochi Nancy O'Hara; Eido Roshi's Teisho Transcription: Karen Remmler;Teisho Editing: Seigan, Myochi and Jishin Karen Bartlett; Denko Osho's Dharma talk Transcription and Editing: Jishin; Cover Photo by Goho Stephen Rossi, Photo of Eido Roshi on page 2 and Zenrin Chido by Dairi Larry Marcrum; Photo on page 9 of Roko Ni-Osho by Dave Fisher;Top left photo of Eido Roshi on page 25 by Franziska Scheidegger; Bottom right photo of misty DBZ bridge on page 25 by Somon Terrence Truta; all other photo's by Seigan Ed Glassing We ask that no part of this newsletter be reproduced without permission of the publisher. ©2005 The Zen Studies Society, Inc. WINTER / SPRING 2005 1 Teisho on The Rinzai Roku Chapter XIX Exposed Skeleton” in Basho’s The passion, cannot always be predicted by con- Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other ventional morality. by Eido Shimano Roshi aesthetic beauty,and play.This ‘play’ aspect is Travel Sketches, translated by Nobuyuki The child whom Basho met on the RINZAI ROKU one of the significant characteristics of Yuasa road reminds me of two great teachers KANBEN: Cross-Examinations, chapter Rinzai Zen Buddhism. who are connected to our tradition: XIX translated by Eido Shimano Let me tell you a story similar to Yamamoto Gempo Roshi and the Venerable The other day I mentioned the seven- Basho’s. Some fifteen years ago, after estab- Nyogen Senzaki. They were both aban- teenth century haiku poet Basho and the lishing a monastery in the Catskills and a doned children. Nevertheless, these out- now-famous pilgrimage he took when he temple in Manhattan, I took a sabbatical for standing men were able to overcome their was forty-one years old. With desperation one year. A friend of mine, Tani Kogetsu difficulties and become not only great Zen and a deeply inquisitive attitude, Basho trav- Roshi of Shogen-ji, invited me to come and teachers but also wonderful human beings. eled throughout Japan in search of ‘some- live in Gifu Prefecture in Japan, where I What they have given us is still vividly alive, thing’. He recorded various scenes, wrote taught at Shogen College and had a different and their influence is still felt, even though about his experiences, and composed lifestyle for a year.That summer, I needed to they are no longer here. The great Zen poems along the way. I would like to read a come back to Dai Bosatsu Zendo for a Master Bassui, too, was an abandoned child. section from his travel journal in connec- summer five-day sesshin for American stu- He is the one who asked the well-known Rinzai Roku tion with the . dents.Tani Roshi asked me:“May I bring my koan:“What is This?” students and friends? Can we do a joint As I was plodding along the river Fuji, sesshin?” I welcomed that offer. Thus, they Brother Bernard, who is sitting with us I saw a small child, hardly three years of came. now here at DBZ, is also related to this sub- age, crying pitifully on the bank, obvious- ject. He has been a Catholic Brother for ly abandoned by his parents. They must The last day of the sesshin was August over fifty years and has spent three Kessei’s have thought that this child was unable 7th. That morning, with great grief, Tani here and one Kessei at Mount Baldy in to ride through the stormy waters of life Roshi told me that his only sister had California. I don’t know whether he deliber- which flow as wild as the rapid river passed away that day. She was his only living ately chose Rinzai places or if it was the itself, and that he was destined to have a relative, and she had cancer.Their father had life even shorter than that of the morn- “irresistible will of heaven” which brought passed away a long time before, and their him to DBZ and Mount Baldy. These were Mayoku (Magu) came to see the Master. ing dew.The child looked to me as frag- mother cared for them strictly and with the only two Rinzai Zen monasteries in the Spreading his bowing mat, he asked,“Which is ile as the flowers of bush-clover that loving-kindness until she too died more United States.At nearly seventy-five now, he the true face of the twelve-faced Kanzeon scatter at the slightest stir of the autumn than thirty years ago, on August 7th. Just sits more than anyone else here, he works Bodhisattva?” The Master stepped down from wind, and it was so pitiful that I gave him before Tani Kogetsu Roshi left Japan for more than anyone else here, and he has the rope-bottomed chair. With one hand he what little food I had with me. New York, the doctor told him, “It’s crazy never given us any trouble. He is truly a picked up the bowing mat; with the other hand for you to go to New York,leaving your only wonderful human being. Through his grace he seized Mayoku and asked, “Where has the The ancient poet sister behind who is dying in two weeks.” and his gentle yet strong practice, he has twelve-faced Kanzeon gone?” Mayoku twisted Who pitied monkeys for their cries, Of course, he did not tell me this until she influenced our community immensely.He himself free and tried to sit on the chair. The What would he say, if he saw passed away. I have a feeling that he visited will be leaving us shortly to return to Africa Master picked up his staff and hit him. Mayoku This child crying in the autumn wind? her at the hospital the day he left for New where he will continue his mission. Many of grabbed it too, and both holding it, they went How is it indeed that this child had York and said to her: “Whether I stay near you do not know, however, that he too, like into the Master’s quarters. been reduced to this state of utter mis- your bed or not, your life is only two more Gempo Roshi, Nyogen Senzaki, and Master ery? Was it because of his mother who weeks, but the Zen which has been trans- Bassui was abandoned as a baby! They have A psychologist told me about someone ignored him, or because of his father mitted to America may have a firmer foun- all taken this seeming misfortune and trans- who wrote an interesting book. In this book who abandoned him? Alas, it seemed to dation and deeper roots by my going there formed it into fortune. there is a chapter which mentions three me that this child’s undeserved suffering with my students.” important points of psychological growth: has been caused by something far All of us experienced some kind of first, spirituality; second, art; and third, play. greater and more massive — by what So, that day we had a memorial service trauma in our childhood. It may not have In the “Kanben” (“Cross-Examinations”) one might call the irresistible will of for his sister, and during the chanting, two been as dramatic as abandonment, but all of Rinzai Roku part of the , particularly in con- heaven. If it is so, child, you must raise bats were flying around the ceiling. Kogetsu us have experienced some unforgettable, nection with today’s topic, the encounter of your voice to heaven, and I must pass on, Roshi said,“They are my mother and my sis- uncomfortable, un-erasable event which has Mayoku and Master Rinzai, these three leaving you behind. ter.” These stories of Basho and Kogetsu left a trace in our hearts. So, we must not themes stand out clearly: spiritual insight, — from “The Records of a Weather- Roshi show us that loving-kindness, or com- view this seventeenth century Japanese 2 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ZEN STUDIES SOCIETY WINTER / SPRING 2005 3 child who was abandoned by the River Fuji was reading one of his books translated face? Is it you, or is it me? Am I the real ence, no separation anymore. They have as someone who has “nothing to do with into Japanese, something really struck me. Kanzeon or are you the real Kanzeon?” become completely one. me.” This child is just another aspect of our- Please allow me to extemporaneously selves. translate into English this short paragraph: The Master stepped down from the rope-bot- Getting back to the Basho and Kogetsu tomed chair.With one hand he picked up the Roshi story. Their attitude is only one way “Alas, it seems to me that this child’s” What is the meaning of life? It is bowing mat; with the other hand he seized of looking at things.
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