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WHY DID THEY COME? Chinese and Japanese Zen Melon, Peaches from Their Practices Is the Same

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WHY DID THEY COME? Chinese and Japanese Zen Melon, Peaches from Their Practices Is the Same February 2008 Vol. 5 No. 1 In the presence of Ming Hai, headed south to the village of the 39-year-old abbot of Master Huike, Bodhidharma’s Cypress Grove, who wel- only student and China’s comed us warmly in English, Second Patriarch. Nowhere we strongly sensed a trans- were we more enthusiastically parency of space and time. welcomed. The villagers lined We were the monks of old sit- the pathways, old men sitting ting as sangha before the mas- in doorways, young men ter being encouraged to pay standing with bicycles, adoles- Still attention to each moment of cent girls grouped together our life; to see Zhaozhou’s with their arms around each heart, and have tea; and to other, women and men hold- . look at the cypress in the ing babies while curious chil- News from Still Mind Zendo courtyard. For Ming Hai, an dren peeked from behind their “open mind and self-faith” are legs, and the resident monk the core of Chan (Zen). In gave us a formal welcome. those moments it seemed so Out of the abundance of their clear that the essence of poverty they served us water- WHY DID THEY COME? Chinese and Japanese Zen melon, peaches from their practices is the same. At trees, and tea. Flanked in a Two Pilgrims in China breakfast Ming Hai admon- spontaneous procession we By Julia McEvoy & Peggy Grote ished us to eat every grain of climbed a dirt path to stand in rice because farmers had reverence before three epic- worked so hard to bring us sized statues of the Buddha – this rice. Daily from the win- Amathaba, Shakyamuni, and We got on the bus. We got off cypress tree in the courtyard.” dows of our tour bus we saw Medicine Buddha. We were the bus. We could neither We stood gazing at a descen- people, wearing woven cone treated as lost brothers and read nor speak the language. dent of that tree, in that court- hats for shade, working the sisters who had come back We didn’t always know what yard, and did not forget the fields by hand. We took Ming home. Instant replay of our it was we were eating. We question. Hai’s words into our hearts. digital photos was never so were 6,800 miles from home. For three mornings we rose to We were grateful and ate enjoyed as when the children We were in China: Zen stu- darkness at 4:30. The clear every grain of rice. peered into the tiny screens dents eager to experience the voice of a monk, from high in Second Ancestor’s Village: and recognized themselves. roots of our practice and to the drum tower, chanted a From Bailin in the north we (Continues on Pg.3) encounter our early masters. sutra. We silently walked the Starting and ending in Beijing, stone road as monks of old for 11 days we would visit walked, to reach the immense celebrated sites, some only Buddha Hall, which glowed recently rediscovered, on a orange from within against the tour that our guide Andy faint blue light of dawn. For Ferguson dubbed the “sesshin- 90 minutes we chanted and on-wheels.” Without language bowed in a traditional we listened attentively to Buddhist service, with 120 faces, gestures and deeds. We monks, nuns and Chinese lay came to observe and found visitors. We were the only ourselves observed. We took Westerners. We ate breakfast photos of strangers and found in silence at long tables with ourselves being photographed the women on one side of the as strangers. Amazing China, hall facing the men on the where past, present and future other. can be seen at once, woven At Cypress Grove stands a together like strands of a doorway leading to the monks’ silken braid; where 1.3 billion private quarters. The calligra- people, in 56 different nation- phy overhead reads in alities, live. Chinese: “The Gateless Gate.” Cypress Grove Monastery in In this compound Master Bailin, seat of Zen Master Wumen (Jpn: Mumon) assem- Zhaozhou (Japanese:Joshu): bled 36 koans with commen- Here, 1700 years ago, tary. We photographed each Nanquan (Jpn:Nansen) asked, other, secretly hoping for “Why did Bodhidharma come immediate transmission and to A descendent of “the cypress tree in the courtyard” taken at from the West?” and his stu- return to SMZ as koan Cypress Grove Monastery in Bailin by Julia McEvoy. dent Zhaozhou replied, “The geniuses! SWEEPING THE ZENDO MEMBER NEWS By David Mintz Mayumi Ishino traveled in southeast Asia from February to May. She On this warm July morning I hear no sound but my own activity and birdsong. It is Still hiked into rural mountain villages in Mind’s week-long sesshin at Seven Meadows Farm. My job is to sweep the zendo thor- Laos and Burma, then traveled to oughly each morning during our formal samu period, and as needed over the course of Indonesia for an international per- the day. formance art festival (Java) and to give a workshop to young artists The barn where we sit commands respect; it has stood for (Bali). See photos from her trip at well over a century. The zabutons lie in rows along the http://tinyurl.com/3y7zrt. sides of the room. Along the front of the mats are black burlap runners, perhaps 16 inches wide, to protect our feet Alain Mentha and Jennifer Strong from splinters. The floorboards look original –coarse and were married on July 14 in a ceremo- uneven, gray with age. Each push of the broom raises ny officiated by Sensei Gregory. The another cloud of ancient dust, making the dustmask a neces- precepts were incorporated into their sity. One might as well try to sweep clean the surface of the wedding vows. In addition, Alain ran moon: let go the quest for perfection. I collect little piles of the New York City marathon in 4 dirt, dust and sometimes bat droppings, brush them into a hours and 5 minutes on November 4. plastic dustpan. Walk outside into the sunlight, empty the Photo by Mark Rubin He had trained for 4 months, running dustpan in the grass nearby. 25-45 miles a week, and plans to run the Cincinnati marathon next. Having covered the bare surface and left it cleaner than before, I pick up the corn broom. The broomstick’s light blue paint is worn and peeled. Its sound is sweeter, more sibilant Geoff Brewer and than the heavy scraping of the pushbroom. I go from mat to mat, sweeping each clean of his wife, Regan, had lint. I sweep the burlap, holding it in place with my feet because it is not fastened down. their first child, When I sweep before dawn it’s too dark to see what I am doing, but it doesn’t matter. Henry Alexander, on August 13. Henry At first, paying attention to the task is fairly easy. As the routine grows familiar, this is happy, healthy, cooing and smiling. becomes more challenging. Mindful or no, I am fortunate to have been assigned this job. There can be no greater honor than to sweep these mats. Tom Carney qualified for the “88 Club” at the Yonkers Swim Club. David Mintz is a member of SMZ. This means he has swum a mile a day, 6 days a week, for a year. Tom says it’s “really a big deal for me, considering that my 71st birthday ZEN CHAPLAINS was in September!” On October 12, at Gracie Mansion, Sensei Janet attended a breakfast In September, Peggy Grote and Ronde Bradley enrolled in the Buddhist Chaplaincy gathering of Buddhist leaders from Training Program at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. The year-long the greater New York City area. program offers an introduction to spiritual care skills from a Buddhist perspective. Mayor Michael Bloomberg organized Graduates go on to become chaplains in hospitals, hospices or jails, or spiritual coun- the breakfast, a first for the city, selors for the sick and dying in other settings. based on an idea from a young police “Finding chaplains in hospitals is a lot more difficult than the average person may real- officer at the NYPD’s Office of ize,” Peggy says. “So when this came to my attention I was delighted to respond.” Community Relations who is a Ronde enrolled in the program “because I believed it would give me a better grounding Buddhist. The Dalai Lama, in town in palliative care for my hospice volunteering and give me another way of practicing for the weekend, was a surprise Zen.” guest. There are 34 students in this year’s class. The core faculty includes Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, abbot of Village Zendo in Manhattan. Instruction takes place on one Saturday In September, Christian Toth earned per month, as well as through guest lectures and field trips. his second degree in kung-fu from “On the field day in November, I rode with the police in Chelsea, sat in on arraignment Alan Lee’s Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su court, and attended a lecture by a New York Police Department chaplain,” Ronde Association. The test to obtain this recalls. She is doing her “internship” at Beacon Hospice in Boston, while Peggy is degree takes 7 hours to complete, interning at Beth Israel Hospital as a volunteer chaplain. consisting of a 3-hour written exam “Both Ronde and I have gained so much insight into our Zen practice and the precepts, and a 4-hour physical exam. which are intertwined into all teachings of compassion,” Peggy says.
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