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new york the first 5O Shobo - ji years contents

Chapter 1 The Road to New York Zendo Shobo-ji 4

Chapter 2 Roshi Memorial 18

Chapter 3 An Interview with Shinge Roshi 20

Chapter 4 New York Zendo Shobo-ji Reflections 36 The Road to New York Zendo Shobo-ji later to result in Soen Roshi’s frequent Eido Roshi I had been told that it trips to America with his friend and was important for an organization of This chapter uses passages from old fellow teacher Yasutani Roshi. In 1964, a religious and educational nature letters, newsletters, and other historical after accompanying his teachers Soen to have tax-exempt status. However, documents to sketch the story of the and Yasutani on several “ tours” when I consulted a lawyer, his estimate birth of the Studies Society and of the U.S., Eido Roshi (then Tai-san) of the costs sounded enormous. Even the transformation, occurring from the came to live permanently in New so, despite my discouragement, I was end of 1967 through the beginning York. In 1965 he became president of very eager for such an organization of 1969, of an old carriage house on The and its goal to be established. Quite by chance I East 67th Street into New York Zendo became to establish a living tradition recalled the existence of The Zen Studies Shobo-ji. All language from the of Zen Buddhist practice in America. Society, which had been incorporated historical documents is reproduced From The Newsletter of the Zen to help Dr. Suzuki’s work while he was verbatim; writers are identified at the Studies Society, Fall 1989 teaching at . My start of the passages if known (many friend Dr. Bernard Phillips was one articles in the newsletters are unsigned). of its board members, and so I got in touch with him. In one sense Shobo-ji (Temple of True ) is the flower of Dharma activity In March, at the suggestion of Dr. Phillips, on two continents over the course of a I went to see George Yamaoka, a lawyer century. Through the concern of Soyen Western intellectuals. representing Cornelius Crane, the Roshi, who came to America in also wrote books, but his focus was from president and founder of The Zen Stud- 1893 to attend the World Parliament the first on practice, and to this end he ies Society, Inc. Bernard was the vice- of Religions, attention began to focus on accepted a small number of students. president and Mr. Yamaoka was secre- the possibility of transmitting Zen Bud- tary of the Society, which had been dhism to the West. Two of his students, In 1956 The Zen Studies Society was incorporated in1956 by Mr. Crane. The D.T. Suzuki and Nyogen Senzaki, seemed incorporated to aid D.T. Suzuki in his purpose of the Society, as described in best suited to take up this challenge in efforts to introduce Zen to the its bylaws, was to introduce the cultural, the early years. Using his superior intel- West. Some twenty years before, the educational and spiritual aspects of Zen lectual gifts and understanding of Western poems of an obscure Japanese had Buddhism to the West. After Dr. Suzuki’s culture to their fullest, Dr. D.T. Suzuki attracted the attention of Nyogen Senzaki return to , and Mr. Crane’s death published the most comprehensive who had then been living for many years in 1962, The Zen Studies Society became collection of books and essays on Zen in . The close relationship to date, thus establishing Zen Buddhism which grew between Nyogen Senzaki Photo this page: D.T. Suzuki. Opposite page: left, Soen as a legitimate field of inquiry among and the poet was Shaku; right, Eido Shimano Roshi.

4. inactive, although it remained a legal from operating in those areas. Also, a they knew at once it would become entity. The Zen Studies Society at that brownstone, being constructed primarily NY Zendo Shobo-ji—Temple of True time had no Zendo, no property and for living quarters, would not provide Dharma. It bore two signs on its shabby no real activity to speak of. It was an the space we needed for a Zendo. exterior. Both said “Garage.” Once a organization without any tangible entity: place for horses and carriages, it would a Sunyata organization. In fact, there is We gave up that idea and began become home to the greater vehicle no organization which is not Sunyata, searching for a loft. Here the problem of Zen Buddhism. The build- but this one was particularly Void. was not space, but location. Most lofts ing was well suited to its new purpose, There was no president, there were no are in noisy business and industrial for the long space where horses had funds, no power drive, no anything— areas. We gave up on that idea too. stamped and cars had fumed lent itself true Sunyata! Mr. Yamaoka seemed very to a zendo: two lines of cushions happy to have me as a board member. After seeing many buildings, we came to running down low platforms of . As soon as I signed, he resigned. There the conclusion that the only solution There was a messy yard in back that was nothing for him to turn over to would be to find a carriage house. The could become a Japanese rock . me and there was nothing to take over. turned away for lack of room, and no plan was to buy and renovate such a Upstairs was space for meeting rooms, This dramatic transaction was one of money was available to move to larger building, but even though my friend’s a Dharma hall, kitchen and bedrooms— the most unforgettable lessons for me. quarters. At this juncture, help—help in contribution had been very generous, we just enough, not more. abundance—came form a knew that it might not be enough. Never- From The Newsletter of the Dr. Phillips and myself, Sylvan Busch and friend of the Dharma. He promised the theless, we went to look at about five Zen Studies Society, Fall 1989 several others from among the original Zen Studies Society an extraordinarily carriage houses in Manhattan. None was New York group were The Zen Studies generous sum of money with which to the right size or in the right location. Society—a penniless organization, purchase a building of its own. Then, on December 24, 1967, we had an Eido Roshi To design an appropriate but now filled with great aspiration. From The Newsletter of the appointment at 3 pm with a real estate zendo for Americans was a challenging, From Namu Dai Bosa, “Part Three: Zen Studies Society, Fall 1989 broker to see a carriage house on East 67 but useful experience. The first question The Way to Dai Bosatsu,” Street, between Second and Third Avenues. was whether we should follow Rinzai by Eido Shimano Roshi As soon as we saw it, we felt, “This is it!” style Zen or Soto tradition. We decided Eido Roshi Suddenly the pattern of our From Namu Dai Bosa, “Part Three: to follow neither, but to construct one Until January 1, 1969 (the date of life had changed. Now a “firm, permanent The Way to Dai Bosatsu,” which would be appropriate to both. the first “sitting” at New York Zendo Zendo in the city” seemed possible. We by Eido Shimano Roshi However, the architect did not know Shobo-ji), the New York had began to look for a place. First we thought anything about either Rinzai or Soto. been sitting at the apartment leased of a brownstone house, but brownstones When in the final month of 1967 the In fact he had never even seen a zendo, to the young Zen Tai-san on are usually located in residential areas. Reverend Eido Tai Shimano and fellow which is of course quite normal in West End Avenue. Space was woefully Zoning regulations prohibit an institution members of the building search com- America. It would therefore be a very limited. Sometimes people were such as The Zen Studies Society, Inc., mittee came upon the 3-story building, challenging job for him too. After many,

6. many meetings and consultations, we picture frames, now removed, leave ghost were able to come to an agreement, shadows on the walls. The place is dry, and in May we submitted our architec- dusty, and waiting for new use. tural plan to The Building Department From The Newsletter of the Zen Studies of . Society, Fall/Winter 1998

It took more than a month to get an alteration permit. One of the interesting Eido Roshi The transformation of a things that happened was that the Build- carriage house to a zendo needed much ing Department at first refused to approve more than a physical renovation. We our plan because they felt that a “Tea could still feel the spirit of an exhausted Room” on the second floor was inappro- horse and its old carriage. There were priate since we were not applying for a “Ah, konichiwa!” My last name sounds many negative vibrations. But because restaurant permit. Actually, “Tea Room” like “hello, good day” in Japanese. these too have Buddha-nature, the means to me, , Japanese I see it as an auspicious beginning. The spiritual transformation was possible. Ceremonial Tea Room. This was a good project is a zendo in a carriage house From Namu Dai Bosa, experience since all of the misunder- on Manhattan’s East Side. And I get to be “Part Three: The Way to Dai Bosatsu,” standing between man and man or man known as Mr. Konichiwa. by Eido Shimano Roshi and action are from the different inter- pretations of one word. When I translate Tai-san (as Eido Roshi was then known) something from an Oriental language lets it be known that the place will be a into English quite often I discover that combination of east and west. We visit the what I mean is not exactly what English- West Side Zendo and learn what a tatami speaking people mean. The matter of the is, what a sesshin involves. We survey the “Tea Room” is a good example. carriage house; an empty garage with a From a letter to donors and Sangha high ceiling on the ground floor, a back- members dated January 1, 1969 yard, a second floor, and upstairs rooms that make up the third story. Piles of Vanity Fair and Life magazines with dates Architect Yar Kunycia When, in 1967, ending before the second world war and Vito Tricarico introduces me to Sylvan Busch and Tai-san in the drafting area of Tricarico Associates on Fifty-second This page: above, the carriage house; right, Yar Kunycia outside carriage house. Opposite page: The Chashitsu “tea Street, Tai-san breaks out into laughter, room,” actually the dokusan room on the second floor.

8. Aiho Yasuko Shimano On the building to bring it from the street to airport via Japan Air Lines. This Buddha third day of the third month [of 1968] the garden. The smaller stones on the brought us good fortune and I believe it at three o’clock in the afternoon, right were from Bill’s house. will support the new zendo. we held a purification ceremony, From The Newsletter of the Zen Studies From a letter to donors and Sangha incense and chanting “Enmei Society, Winter 1992 members dated January 1, 1969 Jukku Kannon Gyo” thirty-three times with intense nen. “Let True On June 25, the renovation work to trans- Soen Roshi, the abbot of Ryutaki-ji, where Dharma Continue.” The building had form the old garage into a Zen temple Tai-san had done much of his training, been vacant for many began. We were so excited went to what he called “the hidden part” years and needed and went every day to see of the enormous altar in the Dharma Hall lots of work. In the what was going on. One of his hilltop temple. He remembered rundown backyard day a worker who was seeing there among various stored objects were two . They knocking down walls with a a gently smiling Buddha, standing about reminded us of the hammer said to me proudly, four feet high. No one knew how it had twin sala trees under “Do you know? We are come to Ryutaki-ji, or whether it was which Shakyamuni renovating this building into Chinese or Korean. Buddha entered a beautiful Zen Buddhist From The Newsletter of the Zen Studies . It Temple,” as if I were just a Society, Fall 1989 seemed a wonder- passerby. I wasn’t sure he ful place for deep knew what a Zen temple This smiling wooden Buddha is neither practice and was, but nonetheless, Shakyamuni Buddha, Amitaba Buddha, Roshi thought it I was so pleased that the Kwanyin Bodhisattva nor any other would be fitting to workmen felt such pride particular Buddha or Bodhisattva. Soen create a Zen stone and joy about the project. Nakagawa Roshi gave it the name garden there. He and From The Newsletter of Endless Dimension Universal Life Bill started to search of the Zen Studies Buddha, and its hidden spiritual power for an appropriate Society, Winter 1992 inspires us deeply. It is a gift from stone. One day when Ryutaku-ji of Japan to the they went to Pennsylvania, where New York Zendo for its opening. Bill was a vice president with Eido Roshi On July 16th, our standing, From a card distributed by Zen Studies Bethlehem Steel Corporation, they wooden, 700 year old Buddha (Endless Society (circa 1968) found the large rock which is in the Dimension Universal Life Buddha), presented by Soen Nakagawa Roshi This page: Bill Johnstone at door of NYZ with garden now. It weighs four tons and Tai-san at the opening ceremony. Opposite: a truck had to drive through the empty to the New York Zendo, arrived at JFK Endless Dimension Universal Life Buddha.

10. The characters on this sign board [below] insignificant. At 10 am the ceremony was opened. Soen Roshi, Yasutani Roshi, were written by Soen Nakagawa Roshi began with a bamboo flute melody. Sasaki Roshi, Maezumi Roshi came. for the New York Zendo and were After the chanting was over, Soen From an interview with Eido Roshi carved by his friend, Mr. Shin Segawa of Roshi offered two . by David Chadwick. From Crooked Mishima City, Japan. Although they are From Namu Dai Bosa, “Part Three: Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching unclear on the photograph, it has three The Way to Dai Bosatsu,” of Shunryu Suzuki. seals: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, by Eido Shimano Roshi the three treasures of Buddhism. The wood is neither oak, camphor nor pine. It is a nameless wood which has been Aiho Yasuko Shimano At last we had waiting for fifty years at the home of the opening ceremony. Buddha, Dharma Mr. Sato in to be used in some and Sangha were gathered together. meaningful way. It will be hung over the Shunryu Suzuki Roshi sent a beautiful main entrance (to the zendo). stone from Tassajara by airmail. Among ceremony and he was almost—not so From a card distributed by the Zen the many gifts for the opening were sure—it was possible that he would Studies Society (circa 1968) calligraphies by Soen Roshi and Yasutani come. I was hoping that he would Roshi and a yellow incense box from show up, but instead a huge rock came my sister in Japan. I wore a “tomesode” from Tassajara. We went to Kennedy Eido Roshi On September 15, 1968, , a traditional celebration dress. Airport and picked it up. Brother David Steindl-Rast, over two hundred people gathered for Eido Roshi was 36 years old and I was 33. a Catholic Benedictine Monk the dedication and official opening of From The Newsletter of the Zen Studies DC: Yeah, it was a big box. It weighed September 15 was a silent, sunny Sunday the New York Zendo Shobo-ji (Temple of Society, Winter 1992 650 pounds or so. I remember Suzuki morning in New York. The remodeling of True Dharma). Our joy and the beauty Roshi finding it in the creek and Paul the zendo building was not complete, of the autumn day made the incom- ER: I sent an invitation to him [Shunryu Disco building a box for it and we put but far advanced, and the dirty backyard pleteness of the renovations seem almost Suzuki Roshi] to attend the opening it on the truck at Tassajara. of a few weeks ago had been transformed into a beautiful little garden. Chairs ER: It came by air mail so I interpreted were set up in the zendo for about 130 it to be Suzuki Roshi’s manifestation, people. One knew more or less every- and I treated it as though it was Suzuki body, and there was a certain feeling of Roshi. This was when my first zendo belonging together.

This page: left, sign board with Soen Roshi’s calligraphy; While we were silently waiting, one above, Soen Roshi’s haiku for the official opening. Opposite could catch glimpses of the garden page: above, Tassajara rock on tatami; right, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Photo courtesy of . whenever the -screen behind

12. the altar opened a little. When the York. Suzuki Roshi and the West Coast His voice sounded ancient but powerful, preparation bell rang—it was a recent Sangha were represented by a beautiful and the last word naka (in the midst of) gift and this was its first official use— rock they had sent. It arrived the day came out with the thrust of a bud in early another bell answered it and was in before the opening and at first we wanted spring or with the impact of a meteorite. turn answered by a bell that seemed to place it on a cushion amidst the a great distance away. This dialogue visiting . It ended up near the altar Then everyone began chanting the Heart of bells opened up whole eons and and looked wonderfully alive and fresh and all the priests offered incense, enormous depths of space. from the water that had been poured Yasutani Roshi bowed three times to the over it. The moss was as green as if it ground, and Soen Roshi pronounced To the sound of a bamboo flute the four had come right out of Tassajara Creek. the dedication, starting with The Buddha guest priests entered: Joshu Sasaki Roshi of Endless Dimension Universal Life. of Los Angeles, Rev. Hakuyu Maezumi of Soen Roshi, who had been fasting in Next the ashes of Nyogen Senzaki Los Angeles, Rev. Kan of the Buddhist preparation for this event since the begin- were enshrined permanently on the Academy in New York, and Rev. Boris ning of the month, came in radiating altar. During the dedication the playful Erwitt of the Buddhist Fellowship in New something which is hard to describe—that and singing voices of children came “after the bath” feeling which we all know, in from the street. There was no sound comes closest to it. He offered ceremonial of cars in Midtown Manhattan on this tea to the Buddha in perfect co- Sunday morning; only these joyful with the sound of the bamboo flute and shouts in the distance, a background of with marvelously powerful gestures. spring-like promise.

Then Tai-san went out (like an arrow in After the dedication Henri Leighton slow motion) to bring in Yasutani Roshi. introduced Tai-san as the “man who The Roshi approached the altar, offered dreams for others and whose dreams incense and recited the following poem: come true” and Tai-san in a muted lion’s voice gave a sermon. He thanked Three-story brick building all who had made this day possible; changed into a Zendo. he outlined the history leading up to this Let us now continue the true Dharma. event, from the time fifteen years ago that he became Soen Roshi’s pupil, Who knows the real meaning and later was sent to , then came of today’s dedication?

A new flower opened in the midst This page: Yasutani Roshi. Opposite page: Yasutani Roshi’s of New York. calligraphy of his poem recited at the ceremony.

14. This zendo is to be a Right away he let it fly and followed place dedicated to the it for a long time with his eyes— practice of this attitude, smiling. If this gesture was a beautiful to earnest and intense anticipation of his death, it is also a practice. non-verbal expression of what Yasutani Roshi may have meant when he Next Mr. W. H. Johnstone said: “Who knows the real meaning spoke as friend, advisor of today’s dedication?” and helper of the Zen From “Dedication of Zen Studies Studies Society. On Society Zendo” from a description the background of the of the ceremony sent by Brother fleetingness of time he David: Wind Bell 68-3-4: cuke.com. brought out the signifi- cance of today’s event as cutting across time. He referred to the his- to New York in 1962, became an Ameri- tory of this building, this Buddha statue, can citizen, and started the first and and this five hundred year old second . This is the third. He said: which still says everything it has to say in This zendo belongs to no one in particu- one word. Then Henri Leighton spoke a lar, to no sect, neither Soto nor Rinzai. few concluding words of thanks as a It is dedicated to Buddhism and just that. member of the Board of Directors and a It is not a hall of tranquility, but a furnace- representative of the Sangha. All guests room in which we work with all our received gift packages containing incense, might on the combustion of our egoistic printed cloth, a little book of daily , delusions. We vow to save all things— and a calligraphy by Soen Roshi; also a all things. Save means, negatively, not to copy of Yasutani Roshi’s poem. waste (for instance water, energy, time). Positively it means to affirm the value of , to whom the New that which one saves, the absolute value York Zendo owes so much, had come of all things—of dust, of suffering even. in for the ceremony. A few days later Our life is a chain of millions of moments he suffered a fatal [heart attack]. The and the meaning of each moment is that day before he died he went across the This page: left, the invitation to the opening; right, Tai-san we offer ourselves and so fulfill our vows. street to buy a balloon in the park. with Chester Carlson at the opening.

16. Eido Roshi! Your was drastically transformed on February 19, 2018, but your indefatigable spirit pervades beyond space and time. The light of your brilliant Nen will continue, radiating lifetime after lifetime.

49-Day Memorial For 85 years you traveled, conveying This Dharma from Guiding Words and Verse for East to West. You realized your teacher’s vision of a Great Bodhisattva training monastery at this very place, moving mountains. Kongo Soken Muishitsu VERSE: Last O-Bon at Dai Bosatsu Zendo, you offered incense at Eido Tai Zenzu Dai Osho the of Soen Nakagawa Roshi and Nyogen Senzaki Dreaming the impossible dream in Sangha Meadow; this winter, in Japan, your heart gave You rooted Zen in American soil Dai Bosatsu Zendo, April 8, 2018 forth its final yet ever-resounding beat. by Shingeshitsu Roko Sherry Chayat, Abbot Now freed of the founder’s yoke Now your formless Dharma body has joined Soen Roshi’s Nothing left but your endless vow! and Nyogen Senzaki’s. Thus three spiritual pioneers in the transmission of Zen Buddhism to America are in eternal Kwatz! communion with each other, with us, and with all beings in this Great .

At the end of your Introduction to Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa, you wrote, “My karmic bond with him is such that regardless of human emotions, it cannot be separated. It is an everlasting, intermingled bond.” Then you quoted Daito Kokushi:

“Parted from each other for millions of eons Yet not even for a second separated.”

How these words resonate for us all. Let True Dharma Continue!

18. An Interview with

Shinge Sherry Chayat Vassar I discovered D.T. Suzuki’s three- Roshi, Abbot of the volume Essays on Zen Buddhism. I really wanted to go to Japan, because I thought Zen Studies Society that’s what I’d have to do to continue.

You were sitting with the Zen Studies Then I met Lou [Nordstrom], my first Society almost from the very beginning. husband, in New York—he was getting How did you first become involved his PhD at Columbia. We decided to with the organization? get married, and I asked, “Could we have a Zen ceremony?”—I’d never been I started sitting on my own when I was in a zendo in my life—and he said, quite young. I had no idea that there “Of course,” not knowing what he was was a name for it. Then, when I was in agreeing to, either. We were living on possible to have a Zen wedding cer- eighth grade, I came across a passage Riverside Drive at 87th and knew about emony?” And he just looked at us. Then in a world culture textbook about Zen the Buddhist Academy on Riverside he said, “Hmm, come in and have tea.” Buddhism. It described the practice Drive. We walked up there, but they were So he made us tea, and we talked, and I of zazen, and I thought, “I do that!” Then, having a judo competition that day, and guess he must have felt that we had some of course, I wanted to learn everything I somehow it just wasn’t what we were sincerity that went beyond just wanting could. I read ’ The Way of Zen, looking for. So we went home and looked to get married, that we were interested in which came out in 1957, around that under “Z” in the phone book, and sure practice. He said that the date we sug- same time. I found Zen Flesh, Zen Bones enough, the Zen Studies Society was a gested, September 2, was very auspicious, when I was a freshman at Vassar, and that few blocks away, on 81st Street and West because Haku’un Yasutani Roshi would was a seminal moment. In the library at End Avenue. We walked over there to see be there. Yasutani Roshi had been com- if someone might be willing to perform ing from Japan to the from our wedding. This was in August of 1967. 1962 on. In fact, on his first trip, it was Tai-san who was his attendant monk, We knocked on the door, and you have and who was and translator for to imagine what we looked like: I was teisho and dokusan at for various wearing a miniskirt, with long black hair sitting groups in Honolulu, Los Angeles, nearly down to my knees, and Lou was Pennsylvania, and New York City. Yasutani this long, tall, skinny guy with a blond Roshi also taught for a time at the New afro, kind of like Bob Dylan. So there we School for Social Research. Sure enough, were, and a young monk came to the when Lou and I arrived at the zendo that door, Tai-san, who later became Eido September day, it was Yasutani Roshi who Roshi, and we asked him, “Would it be performed the ceremony. About twelve

20. friends came and we stood in a circle. He was quiet, introspective, gentle, yet drive back home, and that was our life words to us and encouraging us. He was Daughters of Wisdom had a We had had a serious talk with them his eyes were as piercing as those of a for the next few years. We went three there often from that point on, and center there used by many groups. beforehand: “We are going to a Zen hawk. One could tell that he was extraor- evenings a week. And every seat in the would stay at New York Zendo. temple. Please, no drugs!” This was dinarily brilliant. When we started going zendo would be taken. We met such impressive people Lenore 1967, at the height of it all. The cere- to the zendo regularly, his teishos were That was a wonderful time. There was Tawney, for example, the fiber artist. mony was beautiful. There was some being translated by Tai-san. We didn’t un- Then Soen Roshi started coming from a very powerful sense of being Zen chanting; Yasutani Roshi derstand anything; they Japan. His first trip to the States had pioneers. People who had, like myself, said something in Japa- were long, and the transla- been in 1949, to spend several months practiced on our own and had done a nese, and Tai-san trans- tion made them even lon- with Nyogen Senzaki on the West Coast. lot of reading, and had certainly gotten lated, and we were ger—so those were The following year he became abbot familiar with “beat Zen,” were now married. kind of unendurable. But of Ryutaku-ji; he returned to America a discovering that there was a disciplined they were important to us, few times to lead sesshin. Once Tai-san practice that we could immerse We started sitting there because we wanted to established Shobo-ji, Soen Roshi came ourselves in. Sesshins were packed. At from that point on. The learn about Zen, and we more frequently. night we just used the whole library— zendo consisted of two were learning: not about what’s now called the Dharma Hall adjoining rooms in an Zen, but by doing zazen. in Poughquag, a small village near I remember the first night he came to the was the library then; it was wonderful, apartment Tai-san had Poughkeepsie. A very rural area. And zendo. We were all sitting there, waiting the whole wall was books—and we all rented that had an extra Tai-san was a very charm- one Sunday we were sitting out on the for them to arrive from the airport. brought sleeping bags, and we’d sleep room where Yasutani ing young monk, and he deck, and I was looking at the Real Everybody was very excited—Soen Roshi practically elbow to elbow, 40 or more Roshi would stay when- had a friendly, earnest, Estate section of , was coming! And they didn’t come...they of us. There was no issue about men ever he came over from and accommodating way and there was a front-page story about didn’t come...the zazen went on longer and women being separated; wherever Japan. Then Lou got a with Westerners, yet a renovated carriage house that had and longer. Except for chanting, we sat you could find a spot, you’d lie down. Fulbright fellowship. He never deviating from opened as a zendo. Maybe it was facing the wall in those days. You know, The whole floor would be occupied. was working on Jean-Paul what we could feel was published for the one-year anniversary you’re sitting there facing the wall think- This was a time when people were Sartre’s book Saint Genet for his PhD, the real deal. He presented the practice of the opening, I don’t know. But it was ing, “I’m going to die here!” Nothing was first starting to engage in various body and was happy to comply with my directly; people who had never encoun- a very long, impressive article. I said, happening. And then finally the double movement practices, like and request to go to so that I could do tered it before could find something of “Lou, this is the same group that was in doors were opened, and in came the ’s sensory awareness plein-air painting in the South of France. significance for their lives. the West Side zendo we went to! Look, Roshi with Tai-san. Soen Roshi walked to techniques. And so participants would We sailed in the late summer of ‘68. read this article. We have to go!” the altar and offered incense and bows, be doing all these different things How did you make your way and that was the first time we heard his before zazen, or during the breaks. What were your first impressions of back to New York Zendo after So we started going down to practice at amazing voice, that deep voice from Somebody would be trying to take Yasutani Roshi and Eido Roshi? you returned from France? the newly opened New York Zendo the center of a mountain, saying a few a nap, and someone else would Shobo-ji. Lou was teaching at Columbia, be doing downward dog over that Yasutani Roshi was a very frail old priest When we came back to New York in I was writing for Art News, and we would Opposite page: Roshi at first person! For longer sesshins we’d zendo on West 81st Street, left; Tai-san, right. with translucent ears that stuck out. 1969 we were living in a converted barn go to the zendo in the evenings and then This page: Soen Nakagawa Roshi. go to Litchfield, Connecticut—the

22. 21 Rebekah Harkness. Peter were important books com- Were people thinking of Zen as being and Deborah Matthiessen. ing out: Shunryu Suzuki‘s a Japanese tradition they were inheriting, World-renowned figures Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind specifically? I’m wondering how it was in the arts and music and became a classic; everyone conceptualized by Americans. World writing were sitting with us. read it. We all read The War II was more of an immediate Some of them are buried Three Pillars of Zen, and memory at that time. up in Sangha Meadow at Durkheim’s Hara, and Dai Bosatsu now. Well- Herrigel’s Zen and the Art Well, there were people like Robert known Buddhist practitio- of Archery. It was almost Aitken who’d been in Japanese prisoner- ners and teachers would as though we were in an of-war camps. When Americans started visit, like and underground of sorts. You coming back in the ‘50s after the Trungpa . know, these were not books occupation, there was a love-hate that many people outside relationship with Japan. The love part The Sangha was very close. the zendo were reading. had to do with the culture, and the We’d have little routines. We would go down to the hate part had to do with the militarism, There was a luncheonette Eighth Street Bookshop or the nationalism, the brutality. nearby, and many of us the Strand and find the latest would go and get a little thing that had come out on For some people, being drawn to the bite or some tea before Buddhism. There weren’t practice and to the cultural and aesthetic sitting. After sitting there many. So again, it was a dimensions was all of a piece...not for was a Greek restaurant we’d some- feeling of being involved with something everyone, but certainly for me. I grew up times go to. And we put on art shows, almost secret, almost like a political with a love of , particularly Japan. oh, terrific Zen art shows with calli- movement, only it was a spiritual move- My stepfather, who had served in the graphy by Soen Roshi and Eido Roshi ment that no one really knew about. War in the Pacific, was an artist, and was and Gempo Roshi for sale and many Very different from today. deeply affected by Japanese culture. He wonderful ceramics, fiber works, cut off the legs of our furniture—all of our photographs, and paintings by Sangha We were very innocent in a way, you furniture was on the ground! I used to members. One member owned the know, even though it was the era of Greer Gallery; we had exhibitions of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. We were This page: “Dream” by Eido Roshi. Opposite page: After a Zen arts there and also at the zendo innocent about the practice, and just so Litchfield sesshin, around 1972. Middle row: center, Tai-san, for a number of years. taken with it, really. Everybody was in Soen Roshi, shakuhachi master Watazumi Doso. In front of them: Ray Crivello, Daiko Chuck Carpenter, Chigetsu Ruth love with zazen, with Soen Roshi, with Lilienthal. Front row: fourth from right, Aiho-san, Roko The community aspect was rich and Tai-san. Of course things have a way of Sherry Chayat (now Shinge Roshi), Shoro Lou Nordstrom mutually encouraging, and the teachers changing, and becoming not so innocent. (now Mitsunen Roshi), and behind him, Maurine Freedgood (later Roshi). In front of pine at left, Jonen themselves were so inspiring. And there But it was really a wonderful time. Sheila Curtis, Ishin Peter Matthiessen (later Muryo Roshi).

24. listen to one radio station that had the forms in D.T. Suzuki’s books On the and there I was like a little mouse. So I international music—there was a Chinese Training of a Zen Buddhist Monk and offered her an apricot, and that was the program and a Japanese program—on a An Introduction to Zen. The English start of a really wonderful friendship. little Hi-Fi that he’d built for me. I was translations of the sutras that we chanted just riveted. It was as though I was (and still do) also were by D.T. Suzuki. Then, after her husband’s creative work in coming back to a long forgotten home the toy industry took them to Boston, she when I listened to that music. But I think In addition to Eido didn’t really come for most of us it was the sitting itself, Roshi and Soen down to New York more than the cultural tradition. Roshi, you also much any more. She studied for years with was asked to teach at Were the forms—the rituals, the Maurine Stuart. What the Cambridge services—at Shobo-ji the same as was her role in your Buddhist Association they are now? life and training? in a beautiful building on Sparks Street. By No, they were much less formal then. Oh, she was such an then Lou and I had You have to remember that none of important person to moved to Syracuse, us had any training. Tai-san had been me! When I met her where he was teach- trained at Ryutaku-ji, of course. Soen she was Maureen ing Huston Smith’s Roshi definitely felt that Americans Freedgood, and she classes in the Syra- should not be burdened with too much was still married to cuse University formality. He himself was so happy here, Ozzie Freedgood. Religion Department because he didn’t have be hindered and They were living in while Huston was constrained the way he felt in Japan. The New York at the time. on a one-year sabbati- Japanese Buddhist establishment was She was a pianist cal. Later, we were kind of suffocating for him, I gather. who had studied with Nadia Boulanger divorced, and I married my second in Paris; she was a beautiful, stately, husband, Andy Hassinger, and our son, The services did become more formal- tall woman with auburn hair. Our first Jesse, was born in 1981. ized over time. Tai-san taught us how to encounter was at a sesshin at Shobo-ji. , how to ring the gong and strike the I was sitting in the women’s dressing I would visit Maurine frequently. After mokugyo and the han, and every now room under all the robes, eating— Soen Roshi’s death, she came and did and then a monk would come over from furtively—a piece of apricot. You know sesshins with us from ‘85 on at the Zen Ryutaku-ji to help. Soen Roshi taught us how it is—I was feeling as though I was Center of Syracuse, and she and Jesse fell the beautiful Atta Dipa verse that we going to faint if I didn’t get something in love. I have many pictures of them chant at the beginning of our morning to eat before morning service. And she service after his trip to . We studied came and peeked under the robes, This page: Maurine Stuart.

26. sitting together on the porch swing after you know? So it turned out it was Do- I think we continued going three times sesshin ended. Several of us would also kuro, a senior disciple of Joshu Sasaki a week all during the period from ‘69 go to sesshins at the Cambridge Buddhist Roshi, who was then running the prac- through ‘74, when we became residents Association (CBA). So our friendship tice there. And I did indeed give a talk, at Dai Bosatsu Zendo, living in Joraku-an, turned into more of a teacher-student and from that point on Dokuro and I the Beecher House. From ‘74 on we’d relationship, and I was ordained by her continued our friendship. It turned out go down to New York City maybe two or in ‘85. For her, that his wife, Shuko three times a summer and a couple of ordination meant that Rubin, had also times during the winter, and we’d stay at your heart was fully studied with Mau- Shobo-ji or stay with a friend and sit pervaded by the rine. Then, after there. But Dai Bosatsu Zendo was the Dharma; there was I was installed as focus of our practice until we moved to very little emphasis abbot of the Zen Syracuse in 1976. on form. After her Studies Society and passing in 1990, I was Joshu Sasaki Roshi How would you describe the ways invited to return to retired from teach- that Shobo-ji has changed from when Dai Bosatsu Zendo. I ing, Dokuro and it first started? was ordained by Eido I agreed he would Roshi in ‘91. At that continue his training Well, the beginning was a wonderful point, I felt the need at Dai Bosatsu. As time, as I’ve said. We just had such an for real training in the he kept coming for enthusiastic attraction to the Dharma Rinzai , and I sesshin and dokusan and to the practice itself, without all the was struck anew by with me and giving weight of centuries. It was pure. There his brilliance as a Dharma talks, I was this pure wish to learn , . began to see that because we’d already experienced he would be an something...don’t forget, many of us had I met Dokuro Osho ideal successor. already been through the whole LSD [Roland Jaeckel] And indeed, at a psychopharma-whatever. It was a period through the Cambridge Buddhist Associa- ceremony on November 25, 2017, of experimentation. We had read The tion at Sparks Street. This was in the winter at Dai Bosatsu Zendo, he became my Doors of Perception, by . of 2010. Our son was doing graduate first Dharma heir. We already had experienced the mind work in film in Boston, and we wanted that abides nowhere; we just didn’t have to visit him. I told Andy, “Maybe we can Did you have much involvement with the to give us the context check out who’s in charge at CBA, and Shobo-ji between those early years for it. We were doing it on our own. perhaps we can stay there overnight, and and when you became Abbot of Zen I’ll give a talk”—you sing for your supper, Studies Society in 2011? Left: Dokuro Osho. 28. And some people were really getting a thing that would wear off in the next two one hoped for. Vietnam vets were coming So there was a real need to find a Unfortunately, our Sangha, like many little messed up because of their indi- days, or something that would become back addicted to heroin. I remember very discipline, to find a structure that didn’t others, went through a period of vidualistic experimentation. We needed an unhealthy way of life over time? vividly sitting at the West End Bar, right depend on substances or doctrines that disappointment and disillusionment. to find a trustworthy container for that outside Columbia University’s gates. Lou others might put in place politically, Eido Roshi was so charismatic; his bright wide-open, spacious mind, something Things had really gotten dark in America was writing and brainstorming with friends that didn’t depend on the reactivity that light made for some deep shadows. In that would allow us to focus in a way after we returned from France in 1969. about the book he was working on there, was so prevalent during that time. We the fall of 1975 women began speaking that could lead to true realization, not a There was so much tumult. There were and I was reading the Tibetan Book of wanted to experience for ourselves, as of seriously inappropriate behavior they passing drug-induced experience. We revolutions on campuses—at Columbia, the Dead. As we sat there, somebody was the Zen saying goes, “whether the had experienced, and many Sangha already had tasted the Oneness that was where Lou was teaching, he held knifed to death right in front of us over water is cool or warm.” And there were members left. It was a very sad time at the heart of everything. But how “liberated classes” in our apartment. a “nickel bag,” a $5 bag of heroin. many people who had been involved for all of us. Soen Roshi was absolutely could we come to it in a way that wasn’t There was a clear change occurring, and in risky behaviors, so they were willing Roko Sherry Chayat second row, third from left; crushed by what he was hearing, and going to result in a bad trip, or some- not always in the idealistic sense every- Shoro Lou Nordstrom, back row, far right. to go out on a limb...go to sesshin, he went into a long solitary retreat. do things that required courage. There I vividly remember sitting in the car were so many people hungry for spiritual outside Shobo-ji early in ‘76. Lou and experience, having come to it in all I had decided to leave. Soen Roshi kinds of weird ways, and they really came running out and gave us a shikishi wanted to go deeper. (a square panel with calligraphy) upon which he had drawn the figure of Fortunately, we had incredible guides, and big letters in English, all of those pioneering Zen masters and “Wait!” But we couldn’t. We just felt Tibetan . No matter what we had to leave at that point. people have written about their faults, they themselves were the purveyors of We ended up in Syracuse later that True Dharma. There’s plenty of dirt to be year, with Lou teaching Huston Smith’s scooped up on almost all of them...but classes, and leading a small Zen they had something that was so real, and group that had started at the university. we could feel it. Their own authentic, From what I gathered, membership realized nature was clear, and we at Shobo-ji fluctuated during the next wanted that. That was why we became decade; old-timers left, newcomers their students. We believed in it. We arrived. Then again, during the trau- believed in the possibility that we, too, matic period after a new revelation in could awaken. It was not rhetoric, it 2010, more people left both New York was not theory, it was not conceptual. Zendo and Dai Bosatsu Zendo. It was It was something that we knew we had heartbreaking. There were a number of to be a part of in an experiential way. students who continued their practice

30. elsewhere with Eido Osho and I in which students can completely give Roshi after his formal alternate leading themselves over to the Dharma and retirement at the end sesshins. There’s discover real truth. I do think things are of 2010. more of the old going in the right direction now, and interconnection I see this fiftieth anniversary as a real What was that between DBZ turning point, bringing renewed vigor transition period like and NYZ, with and enthusiasm. for Shobo-ji? interns who have spent time But I’m aware that it’s a different era It was a very difficult at the monastery from when we started. We’re surrounded time. Eido Roshi’s becoming prac- by all sorts of meditation groups. There wife, Aiho-san Yasuko titioners at Shobo- are many places to sit nowadays: yoga Shimano, had been ji, and people centers, martial arts dojos, “Zen” spas. the director for nearly from New York Do they have the veracity, do they thirty years; she attending sesshins have the authenticity of what is offered retired, too, at the at DBZ. at Shobo-ji? Maybe not. But do people end of 2010. Shoteki care? No. And there’s the commodity Chris Phelan became Excellent new factor these days. There’s an app on interim director. practitioners your phone. You can say, okay, I’m Splitting my time between Dai Bosatsu have come to both zendos since 2010, going to set it for 20 minutes, and Zendo and the , but I really miss all those wonderful I’ll be enlightened—or at least I’ll feel with occasional trips to New York Sangha members who left. You know, some for a while. Zendo to lead sesshin, I couldn’t spend when you walk into the zendo and you as much time as I would have wished see half the row empty on either side, What you would perceive to be the at Shobo-ji. I appointed Hokuto Dan there’s a sense of diminishment. most enduring quality of New York Diffin a Dharma Teacher and spiritual However, what is heartening is the Zendo Shobo-ji through time? director, and he came down from wonderful group of mature Zen practi- Rhode to lead all-day sits and tioners who have continued through The nen from the wise and compassion- events. I invited visiting Zen teachers, thick and thin. Their faith and loyalty ate teachings of enlightened masters including Junryu Vardi Roshi, to help to Shobo-ji are truly inspiring. and the students who have realized guide the practice. We’ve had excellent their true nature fills the building. It has head monastics in residence who were I’ve done my best to revive and regener- always been a hothouse for spiritual trained at Dai Bosatsu, Tenrai Fred ate the Sangha. My emphasis has been maturation. People have gained insight Forsythe, Zuiho Matthew Perez, and now to encourage a strong, consistent prac- here into what it means to be human, Koge Louise Bayer. These days, Dokuro tice and to create a trustworthy space what it means to dedicate oneself to a

32. purpose that goes beyond and energy. We have to be one’s own small self; to live keen and attentive, offering the by the Four Great Vows. Rinzai Zen tradition in ways This is what endures, no that are appropriate now, in matter what the vicissitudes this very difficult moment for of the era may bring. all of life on this planet. After all, the difficult moments of What are your hopes and the past—all the great chal- dreams for the next 50 lenges—are what gave us the years of New York Zendo fortitude and determination to Shobo-ji? continue; as Soen Roshi often put it, to “march on bravely.” We must continue to Honoring the legacy of our provide this kind of pioneering teachers, listening demanding practice to deeply to the questions posed people who are yearning by our own time, let us offer for something real, and ourselves with all our hearts make it clear that what to This True Dharma. we offer is not “Zen lite.” That people can really sink their teeth into this practice, and engage only to us old-timers, but to young people However innumerable all beings are, in a present-day discipline with a rich who are hungry for spiritual experience, I vow to save them all. history. The forms one learns are there for profound truth, just as we were. How so that one can do the often-risky work to support that, how to cultivate it, how However inexhaustible delusions are, of inner transformation. There may be to encourage people with that hunger in I vow to extinguish them all. creative innovations, but they are rooted appropriate ways, with skillful means— in a tradition that has been proven to that’s our responsibility. work, again and again. However immeasurable Dharma After all, that was what our teachers did teachings are, I vow to master them all. Honoring the intertwining of creativity during the 1960s and ‘70s. They thought and tradition is important as we go deeply, “What’s appropriate for these However endless the Buddha’s Way is, forward. The energy that we had in the young Americans? What do they need I vow to follow it. beginning was wide open, powerful, in order to become fully engaged in the never stagnant. We have to continue practice? How can we best offer it?” in ways that will mean something not We need the same openness, insight, Marttin Luther King Sesshin, 2018. 34. New York Zendo Shobo-ji Reflections Phillips, who was Chairman of the Reli- difficult. Despite the intense pain concentrate my entire efforts on the After returning to Canada in 1967 to during this period. However, a serious gion Department and my academic from an athletic back injury, the retreat practice. During my fourth retreat work at a homeless shelter I subse- rift between Kapleau and Yasutani took This chapter features essays that have been mentor at Temple University as well as the was life changing. Having survived I experienced a touch of kensho quently joined in Roches- place during the second retreat that submitted by both early and contempo- co-founder of the Zen Studies Society. my first retreat, I soon attended another that was verified by Yasutani Roshi. ter and became his head monastic for the resulted in Yasutani severing his rela- rary members of the Zen Studies Society I attended my first seven-day retreat seven-day retreat held on an estate This experience became a touch- next five years. Yasutani Roshi came to tionship with Kapleau. When Kapleau Sangha, some of whom were students with Yasutani Roshi, who had been near New York City. stone for me for years to come. Rochester for two seven-day retreats showed me a letter from Yasutani that of Soen Roshi and Yasutani Roshi before recommended by Bernard’s friend Philip New York Zendo Shobo-ji was established. Kapleau, author of The Three Pillars In the fall of that same year I attended a These essays are interspersed with pas- of Zen. The retreat was held at Pendle series of talks on Zen given by Yasutani sages that have been taken from books Hill in the Philadelphia area. Roshi at Temple University, and my and historical documents such as news- sister and I helped edit a book based letters, interviews, and letters. Sitting cross-legged for the first time on them. With the encouragement of in my life was, to say the least, very Yasutani Roshi, I attended several more seven-day retreats over the course of the next two years, as well as a number Seijun Karen Rizvi of (one-day retreats)—all this while attending Temple University and Did you hear it? The firstMu that working part-time. shook the sky over 67th Street? I was very drawn to Yasutani Roshi and Can you see it? The walls trembling became his student and formally took with fifty years ofMu ? the precepts with him. He inspired me with his energy in dokusan meet- One shout cuts like a polished diamond. ings and his gentle encouragement to The universe calls and answers itself. keep my focus on my . The intense discipline of maintaining my posture I breathe in and the bow of my body hour after hour convinced me that draws all intention into a single arrow. Mu! this practice was of great importance despite the excruciating demands on my body. The pain forced me to Zen Studies Society Recollections Hugh Curran I joined the Zen Studies Society in 1965 Above: “Mu!” by Eido Roshi; Opposite page: Pendle Hill, 1963 (Bernard Phillips, middle row, third from left; Hugh with the encouragement of Dr. Bernard Curran, back row, fourth from left, behind Yasutani Roshi).

36. made the break formal I faced a dilem- name of Kagan), to visit friends and see with Yasutani Roshi’s served as the basis of academic courses I : stay on as his head monastic or Suzuki Roshi at the San Francisco Zen (now Sanbo Zen) group, which included teach. My later encounter with a Chinese leave? After much -searching I Center. Our funds were limited, so we had Roshi, with whom we Ch’an teacher greatly expanded my decided to stay, although it was with to sleep on the side of the road during our spent some time. Kapleau’s attempts at a interest in the devotional and ethical many misgivings. eight-week pilgrimage. Suzuki Roshi’s rapprochement with Yasutani Roshi were aspects of Zen and Ch’an. talks at San Francisco Zen not successful. There was another side of While at Rochester I took Center were difficult to Yasutani that I gradually became aware The that I embraced on the responsibility of comprehend because of of—a fierce militarism which seemed to included the fundamental principle that supervising twenty young the language barrier, but I be a nationalistic form of Zen that I found all living beings are to be saved, not just monastics and many came to know him much personally repugnant. Such views did humans. Having repeated the precepts volunteers as we rebuilt better over time, coming to not represent the essential nature of the and vows many times, a gradual absorp- the Center after a disas- admire him for his fortitude Buddhism that inspired me. We also tion has taken place and penetrated to a trous fire. Periodically I and his gentle requests travelled to Hosshin-ji monastery, where deeper level of , making this would visit New York City that Kapleau had trained for several years understanding consistent with my ecologi- and Philadelphia, and in and San Francisco Zen with Harada Sogaku Roshi, and stayed cal studies. I consider myself fortunate to this way maintained Center develop a closer several days in a nearby temple with have had my initial experiences of these contact with Zen friends relationship. He visited us Tangen-San (later Harada-Tangen Roshi). basic principles instilled in me at Zen from the Zen Studies at the Rochester Zen Center Studies Society retreats and zazenkai. Society, including Bernard with Dick Baker in 1968, I considered rejoining the Zen Studies Phillips, Shirley Tassen- and in 1971 I went to see Society in 1974 and contacted Eido Roshi, court, Lenore Straus, Deborah Moscowitz, him as a representative of the Rochester who invited me to Dai Bosatsu Zendo Yasutani Roshi’s True Nature and Stuart Lachs. Several of us—includ- Zen Center just prior to his death. I had a and showed us a building on its grounds Korin Sylvan Busch ing Lenore, Deborah, Stuart, and myself, personal interview with him and, only a where we could live. However, upon all former students of Yasutani—met up few days later, attended his funeral. Toward reflection I realized that I needed some Our first sesshin was extremely disciplined again by fortuitous circumstances in the the end of 1972, I resigned from Rochester time away after my nine years’ immersion in the Rinzai style. The students were mid-70s at Moon Spring Hermitage (now Zen Center because I’d recently gotten in Zen. I wrote to Eido Roshi accordingly not young but they were committed and Morgan Bay Zendo) on coastal Maine married and had the responsibility of and received an understanding letter from deeply serious. They were people like and became students of Walter Nowick. raising a son and earning a living. him acknowledging my decision. myself who were very enthusiastic about Zen Buddhism. This sesshin was a strong About ten years earlier (in 1965), I had In 1970 Philip Kapleau had invited me to The Great Vows, especially the first: experience for me and coming out of it made an impetuous decision to hitch- go with him for a three-month pilgrimage to “resolve to become enlightened for took several days. You asked once if I could hike to San Francisco with another friend to India and Japan, a journey that proved the sake of all sentient beings”, have recall some revealing stories about the Zen from the Zen Studies Society’s early days, to be of considerable significance for helped shape the direction of my life Dick Cohn (Dick later took his family me. We stayed in and visited and provided an ethical foundation that This page: Yasutani Roshi. Opposite: Tai-san.

38. down to give talks at Temple once a week. He was accompanied by a deeply earnest 33-year-old monk, Tai-san, who translated and was later to become Eido Roshi.

Yasutani Roshi was a physically frail- looking 80-year-old with an anything but frail spirit. What he said made more and more sense to me, and want- ing to experience zazen first hand, I began taking the bus up to New York every Thursday after class for two sittings, and then catching a late bus back to Philadelphia to attend class the next day. After a couple of months of this, and two weeks before finals, I was deeply honored when Yasutani Roshi asked if I wanted to deepen my commitment by taking the precepts. masters I have encountered. One thing that Memories of the Zendo at 81st So I spent the night on a friend’s couch I vividly remember was at Pendle Hill. and West End Avenue and went out to buy a new maroon Richard Kagan shirt the next morning before the cer- It was during a rest period. I was sitting emony. I ended up staying in New outside, and out of the corner of my eye I Before Shobo-ji, the zendo was at the York and never went back to finish the saw something fluttering. It was Yasutani corner of 81st Street and West End semester. Six days a week I was at the Roshi’s robe, and he was moving with great Avenue. I started coming in the fall of zendo. What an extraordinary expe- haste with his arms outstretched and open 1965 (some months after it opened) rience that was—an experience that wide. When he got across the lawn, he while a student at Temple University in would affect the rest of my life. lovingly embraced a big and stayed Philadelphia. Bernard Phillips, one of there for a while as I sat entranced.... the founders of the Zen Studies Society, From an interview in The Newsletter was the head of the Philosophy and This page: Sesshin at Pumpkin Hollow, 1966. of the Zen Studies Society, Religion Department at Temple and had Richard Kagan, fifth from right; Sylvan Busch, ninth from right. Opposite page: Tai-san, Issue No. 4, 1986. arranged for Yasutani Roshi to come Yasutani Roshi and an unidentified monk, 1965.

40. Tai-san had started the zendo and led Three years later the zendo moved to its hot and humid summer evenings we had it as Yasutani Roshi came and went. He current location on the East Side. I was to keep the windows open, in spite of was the most inspiring individual I’d there at the opening ceremony, yet a the street noises. Every few minutes, the ever met—a model of single-mindedness part of me, a very dear part of my spirit, same sound sequence repeated itself: first and commitment. He spoke with full will always linger in the memory of the deafening noise of the air-brakes that attention, carefully enunciating every the old zendo on West End Avenue. NYC buses used in the 1960s; next came word. Every movement was clear and I can still smell fluid and flowed out of a spring of the incense. awareness. Nothing was accidental.

The zendo at that time was a lovely The New Zendo first-floor arrangement of fair-sized Brother David rooms. As I remember, you came in from Steindl-Rast, 81st Street through a black door and Catholic Bene- went down a narrow hall where the dictine Monk shoe rack was. Then, walking through another door past two auxiliary rooms, I met Eido Roshi you’d come to an austere meditation (then Tai-san) in room where the thick smell of incense the fall of 1965, carried away the tensions of the city demonstrated with and allowed our minds to settle. him against the Students sat facing the wall, Soto style. Vietnam War at the Bowing to the Buddha, I would ap- University of Michigan, and practiced at ridiculous snatches of conversation, as proach my cushion and try to fold my the Zen Studies Society from 1966 to passengers getting off the bus were legs into some semblance of a lotus 1970. It was a huge step up when Bill passing by our windows: “ …my husband posture. After two sittings, Yasutani Roshi and Milly Johnstone made it possible, in likes them fried...when was the last time would give a and say the 1968, for Tai-san (as he was called at …I’d have kicked him out….” And, most extraordinary things. “I don’t give that time) and the Sangha to move from finally, the noise of the doors closing an you anything. I only take away.” Or, West 81st Street to the New York Zendo the bus starting again. Yasutani Roshi’s replying to the question “Does God on East 67th Street. comment was, “Learn to practice here exist?” (and, I assume, not wanting to and you’ll be able to practice anywhere.” fall into a dualistic trap), he simply Until then, we had been sitting in a waved his fan and said “not important!” basement with windows opening onto Above: walking through Rockefeller Center. How simple! How profound! the sidewalk next to a bus stop. On Opposite page: Soen Roshi.

42. Good Happening From time to time, as I walk along the …Wearing the same robe at the same Zen Studies Society, Inc. held Sunday, that these groups have disbanded; Gyoun Manuel Greer street, take the subway, or wait at a doctor’s time—yes, I hope you enjoy yours as January 4th, 1970. they are still meeting regularly office, I remember the “good happening” much as I enjoy mine. for zazen practice. Members of the I was introduced to the spiritual in 1953. moment and I immediately become From a letter to Sangha members Up until now, the Society consisted Washington and Philadelphia After many lectures and readings, in the one-pointed. The experience is certainly dated July 1st, 1968 of three Zen groups located in groups may individually become early 60s I decided to work directly on not as deep, but I go immediately into New York, Washington, D.C., and students of The New York Zendo of myself. I joined the Zen Studies Society. meditation. Also very important, I have a Philadelphia. However, due to frag- The Zen Studies Society, Inc… were held on the Upper picture of Soen Nakagawa Roshi on my A Self-Perpetuating Organization mentation, and to simplify legal mat- According to the Society’s by-laws, West Side by Eido Roshi. The Society dining table. Every time I look at the ters, the Board of Directors decided it is a self-perpetuating organization. later moved to 67th Street. picture, I remember “good happening.” Tai-san and Sylvan Busch summarized to dissolve its institutional relationship From a letter titled the changes decided upon at the with the groups in Washington, D.C. Zendo Planning Meeting, On a Tuesday, at my second retreat at Board of Directors meeting of The and Philadelphia. This does not mean January 5th, 1970 Dai Bosatsu Zendo, the Roshi during Light as a Cobweb dokusan was Soen Nakagawa Roshi. I Milly Johnstone told him about a wonderful experience I’d had during meditation. All he said Dear Student, was “Good happening.” One Saturday in June. The hottest on record. We had finished several hours of an “All Day Sitting” the robe is simple. It flows and it goes. …. I was wearing a flimsy robe made of Breathes with the body into nothing. linen thread. As light as a cobweb. It …I have located 300 yards of the exact seems that for some time Tai-san has material. This is being contributed by been watching what we wear. Evidently friends. 42 Zen robes can be ready by he’s been wishing we’d all look alike September 12th, delivered as each is with our differences. Realizing that some prepared. The sleeves and skirt unity of design would help harmonize will be left unfinished for each of us to with the neutral tones of the new zendo, hem. We will need to provide our own filling its solid structure with airy ease. slips, long and full, the color about the same as the robe. Ecru. The price This linen, hand-loomed in Ireland, is in of each robe is $17.50. the spirit of Zen. Yielding and luminous. Anonymous and natural. The style of Above: Milly Johnstone in 1979.

44. Resonant Gong I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. knew that this was an opportunity not ever since, its sound has brought Eido Roshi Daitoku-ji! How could it be possible that to be missed. I thought, “If I don’t take to innumerable people the feeling this venerable gong had left there, crossed some action, this great treasure of of profundity and tranquility. But To conduct a sesshin or zazen meeting, the Pacific Ocean and had now come to Daitoku-ji may not be used in the best equally important was my discovery certain instruments are essential: a bell, this store in San Francisco! Looking at the way.” Next morning, I went back to that if one becomes desperate, and if clappers, and a mokugyo and gong subdued golden color and dignified yet the store and met with the manager and one sincerely, honestly and bravely for chanting. The New York Zendo serene shape, and listening to the deep told him where I lived, what I did, the confronts an obstacle, there is a way had only a tiny inkin, and two pieces sound that seemed to issue from the center significance of this particular gong, and to overcome it. of wood for makeshift clappers. I was of the earth, I felt as though my feet were the effectiveness of its sound for zazen. From Namu Dai Bosa, “Part Three: looking for a gong with a nailed to the spot. I asked I also told him about our financial The Way to Dai Bosatsu” good sound. In the the manager, “How much situation. Looking at my face, he sug- summer of 1966, in order is it?” “One thousand gested that I pay $250 as a deposit. Then to meet Yasutani Roshi, dollars,” he answered. It he would send the gong on to New York I flew to the West Coast. was an incredible sum of City. I promised I would send the rest of While there I went to a money—not expensive the money within three months. large antique shop in San for this gong, but I could Francisco. At the very not afford it. Yet I could I was so joyful and grateful; I knew entrance was a huge not give it up. that for the manager I was merely a gong. It was so enormous stranger. But perhaps the gong itself that an American shopper I was sure it would not be wanted to be in a zendo instead of standing there asked, “Is sold to someone that an antique store. My excitement this a Japanese bathtub?” day or the next; never- erased all thought of the New York The size was gigantic, theless, I asked the Zendo’s August rent. When the gong but the shape and color manager to please hold it arrived at the New York Zendo, the were equally impressive. until the following day, students were immensely moved Transformation I asked the manager to and he agreed. I had by its deep sound. It must have been Architect Yar Kunycia bring the striker. Calming $250. It was just enough the first time in their lives that they my excitement, I struck the gong. The for one month’s rent for the New York had heard such a sound. When I On Sunday, October 5 [1969], The sound was overwhelming! The inscription Zendo. In fact, that was all the money in explained the financial problem, they New York Times publishes a headline around the outer edge was even more The Zen Studies Society account. all responded so quickly that within article in the Real Estate section: “Garage impressive: It stated that the gong had been a month, I recall, we were able to Here Converted to Zen Studies Center” made in 1555 for Daitoku-ji, — I sat throughout that night, thinking raise fifteen hundred dollars. I imme- giving the cost of the carriage house as one of the most important Rinzai Zen about the gong. To buy or not to buy? I diately paid what we owed. The temples in Japan. knew we couldn’t afford it. Yet I also discovery of the gong was important; Above: Architect’s drawing of the zendo.

46. $100,000, and the construction costs as he also went through a radical spiritual Through the decades he tinkered with another $100,000. transformation and began to give away many inventions and applied for many much of his fortune, a process which the patents; none, however, was more That same year, the New York State Chester Carlson Foundation continued important than his invention of the Association of Architects awards the after his early demise. At his funeral photocopier, which the Xerox Company project an honorable mention for he was quoted as saying, “I want to die made famous and which made Chester “transforming the Japanese idiom a poor man.” Carlson wealthy beyond all his dreams. and feeling, within the context of Of his most impor- American materials and methods and In 1906 Chester tant discovery he reconciling the heavy elements of Carlson was born said, “With the the carriage house with the delicacy into a family problem so sharply of Japanese tradition.” struggling defined, the solution From The Newsletter of the Zen Studies economically. came almost as an Society, Fall/Winter 1998 His father was ‘intuitive flash’”. disabled, and his mother was the His discovery of Chester Carlson and American Zen sole supporter. photoconductivity Soun Joe Dowling Chester began to (using a flash of light help her at an to allow an image Among so many significant events, early age, and to emerge) and its 2018 marks the fiftieth anniversary of after her death he brilliant application the death of the inventor/businessman/ was the primary with the “Xerox” philanthropist Chester Carlson, whose breadwinner from high school on. For (Greek for ‘dry printing’) machine is generosity to the Zen Studies Society years he worked at all sorts of odd jobs a monumental achievement in modern made possible the founding of both at odd hours to pay the rent and put business history. Chester Carlson’s New York Zendo and Dai Bosatsu himself through school. Carlson started influence ripples far and deep. Zendo. He died on September 19th, at a local junior college and later 1968, at the age of 62. Carlson’s attended Technical College. However, having all that money made improbable rags-to-riches story should Along the way he adopted a motivational him uncomfortable, and in the years be known. Not only did he rise from belief that proved incredibly prescient: before his death he set out to give it very modest circumstances to become “The idea of making an invention ap- away to a wide variety of progressive one of the most wealthy and successful pealed to me as one of the few available causes, mostly through anonymous businessmen of his day, but as he means to accomplish a change in one’s reached the pinnacle of his ambitions, economic status.” Chester and Dorris Carlson, summer 1967.

48. donations. They included the United location, Carlson wrote that he was It’s uncanny but true; it was meant to performed an unprecedented dedication Negro College Fund, various Civil enclosing “a further contribution from happen, as some might profess. How tea ceremony for our new zendo on Rights and integrated housing causes, Shanti Foundation to the Zen Studies could it be otherwise? October 13, 1968. Hence, it was named the New York City Civil Liberties Union, Society, Inc., in the amount of $50,000.” “Hatenko” by Soen Roshi, which may the Center for the Study of Democratic His support was foundational. Without be translated as “Unprecedented” or Institutions, the University of Rochester, it the carriage house on East 67th Street Unprecedented Incredible Way “Incredible.” Many unprecedented and and the Rochester Institute of Technol- could not have been purchased, and incredible events have been occurring ogy as well as many other educational our zendo—one of the most beautiful During Sunday zazen meeting, March since this bowl was given to New York and non-profit institutions. Over the in the city—would not exist. 1st, Mr. Soshin Hayasaki, a Japanese Zendo, such as the establishment of decades the Chester Carlson Foundation Tea Master form the Urasenke School a permanent zendo in New York City, the has made an astounding $150 million As a longtime member of New York (accompanied by Mr. W.H. Johnstone exchange program and this recent five- dollars in donations to worthy causes. Zendo Shobo-ji, I give deep bows of and three teachers for the New York day sesshin. The tea ceremony was not gratitude for the generosity of Chester Tea Society), offered a ceremonial tea to only skillfully performed and deeply One of these causes for Chester and Carlson. By allowing the seeds of Zen to the Endless Dimension Universal Life moving, it was a most unprecedented his wife, Dorris, was Zen Buddhism. take deep roots in America, his dona- Buddha using a special tea bowl. This tea and incredible Way. The fortune generated by the phenom- tions have changed many lives. His life bowl was first used when Mr. Soshitsu From Report of the New York Zendo, enal success of Xerox and the photo- story also makes me marvel at his Sen, 15th-Generation Grand Tea Master, No. 3—March 1970 copier (“the biggest thing in imaging inherent Zen virtues of commitment and since the coming of photography itself,” endurance, persistence and ingenuity. as Dr. Clark Batelle noted) provided Carlson’s is a very American story; his Zazen is the Most Dynamic Thing important resources to allow the early arc is pure Horatio Alger, and his ac- You Can Do seeds of Zen in America to be planted. complishments are truly the fulfillment Issho Randy Place He and his family had relationships of an impossible dream! with many significant meditation teach- “Zen is new,” Eido Roshi remarked during ers such as Thomas Merton, Shunryu On September 15, 1968, two days our first conversation following an early Suzuki Roshi, Philip Kapleau and others. before Chester Carlson’s letter to Sylvan morning sitting at New York Zendo In addition to the Zen Studies Society, Busch enclosing “a further contribution” Shobo-ji. “Not many people know about and the of $50,000, New York Zendo Shobo-ji it,” he said. That was forty-seven years Rochester Zen Center benefitted from officially opened its doors, with the ago. And I count myself among the very the Carlsons’ generosity. Carlsons in attendance. On September fortunate who learned and benefitted 19, Chester Carlson died of a heart greatly from the wonderful teachings In a letter of September 15, 1968, to attack. So attending the event, writing and zazen practice methods received ZSS Board member Sylvan Busch at the letter and signing the check were from both Eido Tai Shimano Roshi and the Society’s earlier West End Avenue among his last official actions. his teacher, Soen Nakagawa Roshi.

50. Before knowing about the zendo, I That’s where I discovered a potpourri Back at the Quest Bookshop I inquired was at the top of my game as a young of spiritual works by , about how to enter this world of Zen broadcast sales executive. Nevertheless Christmas Humphries, a couple of and was directed to New York Zendo. I experienced emotional unrest and Indian swamis, and, finally, my first dissatisfaction with my personal life. Zen book: The World of Zen by Nancy It was a Tuesday afternoon when I stood Something was missing. Christian Wilson Ross, a novelist and early Zen outside its door with a puzzled look worship failed to provide the spiritual practitioner in America. on my face, hearing for the first time the answers I sought, and I recall praying unfamiliar sounds of chanting accompa- one day for God to “cleanse my soul,” While reading her book at home on a nied by bells and coming from although I hadn’t a clue about what beautiful spring morning, this short Zen inside. Bruce Rickenbacker, the doorman needed to be cleaned or why. Besides, poem caught my eye and enlightened for that sitting, answered my knock, I had also become dissatisfied and me as to why I’d been reluctant to listened to my inquiry, and told me to stressed in a then-successful career. attend church: read The Three Pillars of Zen, the popular introductory book in those days. “Then While my Higher Power didn’t dispatch Inside, the sermon is dull and stale come back any Thursday evening for a an angel to attend the soul request, But, oh, outside a nightingale. beginners’ meeting,” he said. that state of unrest signaled that my spiritual ladder might have been placed After reading The Three Pillars of Zen against the wrong tree. All the while, while practicing for brief periods of I didn’t realize that the old saying— zazen at home, I returned to the zendo “When the student is ready, the master on a Thursday evening before Easter. will appear”—was already in operation Inside, I enjoyed the most wonderful and slowly leading me to New York spiritual experience I had known. This, Zendo’s door. too, has been etched in memory.

What a marvelous trip! It began at lunch On the zendo’s second floor, Marcia with a customer. All he talked about was Finehandler taught our beginning group “,” a word I hadn’t heard. He how to sit, then led us downstairs recommended some books on the topic for the first sitting. After the sound of by his favorite spiritual writer, where the gong faded, we heard the deep, I began to find answers that opened my calm voice of Soen Roshi assuring us, mind to new ways of thinking. Then a “You are well protected here. Every- friend told me about New York’s Quest one has problems during the day, but Bookshop, founded by his parents. zazen is the time to abandon them.”

52. Soen’s words helped us to calm down Sitting zazen also helped to solve the can transcend experience with zazen.” and focus on “just counting.” Towards the career dilemma I mentioned earlier. Sitting enabled me to do just that. end of that twenty-minute sit a feeling of It became clear that the next step was happiness welled up from inside me as I to return to my previous work as a And whenever I hosted TV shows or did stifled the urge to giggle. Never had I felt performer on radio and TV. As Eido an all-day commercial shoot, I stuffed such powerful joy. Soen’s teisho talking Roshi put it during a Wednesday eve- a sitting cushion inside the garment bag about Jesus and Easter further enhanced ning sitting, “What we are and what that I carried and sat zazen in dressing this awesome experience and I felt we want to be will come closer as we rooms between takes and during lunch overjoyed knowing that this new world of do more zazen.” breaks. I felt refreshed and energized all Zen was going to be the path I’d follow. day as a result and enjoyed more energy Because I hadn’t performed in years, I and spontaneity during performances. In September 1971 I was accepted as asked Eido Roshi if he became nervous Sitting made my work considerably more a preparatory student. I was grateful before a radio or TV appearance. “No,” effective and enjoyable. to be sitting at the feet of our teacher, he replied. “I’m on TV and radio daily Eido Roshi, who gave us instructions when I do zazen.” The Roshi went on Then I met Ellie, my soul mate, who each Friday evening about sitting to explain that in many cases, “you became the love of my life and my wife. and chanting while encouraging us to On October 10, 1973, we were married also attend weekend sittings at New at New York Zendo. Sheila Curtis and Don York Zendo plus week-long sessions Douglas were our maid of honor and best in Litchfield Connecticut and, later, at man as Eido Roshi conducted our beautiful Dai Bosatsu Zendo. wedding ceremony during a Wednesday evening sitting, “in front of the Three Taking Roshi’s advice dramatically Treasures—Buddha, Dharma, Sangha.” changed my life for the better right away. While sitting with the Sangha as I often think about how my life started much as possible I received many lovely to change so nicely when I began to sit revelations and experiences. To men- at New York Zendo. The reason why it tion just one: while experiencing severe became enriched was explained by Eido pain in the knees during a sitting at Roshi when he told Sangha members, Litchfield, I realized that my physical “If you’re wondering what you’re doing pain was a heck of a lot better than here inside the zendo when your friends the emotional pain suffered before becoming a zendo member; the pain This page: Soen Roshi. Opposite page: Eido Roshi itself disappeared shortly afterward. leading service.

54. are watching TV, understand that zazen First Ordination Temple of True Dharma is the most dynamic thing you can do to decide life’s purpose.” On September 15th, Soen Roshi and This calligraphy [below], written by Tai-san, Tai-san led the ceremony to celebrate the is read Sho Bo Ji and literally means “Temple I’m forever grateful to my teachers Soen 3rd anniversary of the New York Zendo of True Dharma.” This is the poetical Nakagawa and Eido Tai Shimano Roshi in the 67th Street building. The occasion name which Soen Roshi gave to us on for establishing Zen in America and was especially marked by the ordination the evening of our Second Anniversary for leading their students of the Dharma of the first New York Sangha American celebration, September 15, 1970. into this wonderful world of Zen. monk, Reizan Daiko (Chuck Carpenter). From The Sangha Report, September 1970 As a monk, Chuck is now to be called Daiko. Daiko means “Dharma Carpenter” All-Night Zazen and Reizan means “Spiritual Mountain.” From The Sangha News, October 1971 After having spent several inspiring weeks with us, Soen Roshi left New York on September 21st… As everyone by now True Man Without Rank knows, Soen Roshi agreed to become Eido Roshi Abbot of New York Zendo (Sho Bo Ji) and will visit us annually. Tai-san, of course, On the fourth anniversary of the New will remain director. The Roshi plans to York Zendo Shobo-ji, Shinzan Shiki, visit here in March at which time he will the ceremony for the installation of a hold Sesshin. There will be two Summer new abbot, was held at the New York Sesshins, which will be conducted by Zendo. Despite my green condition, him.…In addition, from December 4th, I was forced by the Dharma to accept Friday, until December 8th, Tuesday, we the robe and bowl of Mitta Kutsu are planning to have Rohatsu Sesshin here (“The Cave of the Paramitas”) Soen in this zendo to commemorate Buddha’s Roshi as a symbol of the transmission enlightenment. There will be the traditional of the Rinzai Zen lineage. According all-night zazen on the last evening. to tradition, the Roshi selected a From The Sangha Report, October 1970 name for his Dharma heir: Mui Shitsu (“True Man Without Rank”). This page: “True Man Without Rank” by Soen Roshi. From Namu Dai Bosa, “Part Opposite page: left, “Temple of True Dharma,” by Tai-san; Three: The Way to Dai Bosatsu,” right, Eido Roshi and Soen Roshi at Eido Roshi’s transmission and installation, 1972. by Eido Shimano Roshi

56. A Poem and Sequel York.” After the haiku had been read Forever, Forever, Forever Ryushin Evelyn Talbot aloud and voted upon, everyone identi- Yasutani Roshi fied…his or her own poem (which had I joined the New York Zendo in 1974 and been anonymous until that point). Two On Wednesday morning, March 27th, Eido Roshi was my root teacher until 1980. that received a large number of votes Eido Roshi led a one-year memorial I experienced many ups and downs during were Chigetsu Ruth Lilienthal’s: service for Yasutani Roshi. In his my studies with him. During dokusan we dedication, he said, sometimes created poems together. Six sparrrows bathing During sesshins at Dai Bosatsu Zendo, In dirty street water White Cloud comes and goes many poems were experienced. Diamonds fly in ten directions! Yet, white cloud does not move at all.

One written in 1979: And Brian Rosenstein’s: At the end, he translated Soen Roshi’s haiku, which he had read at the funeral Misty waters Head in the Clouds service the previous year: a beam of light— I forget to watch my step— every which way. City of Dogs! The sound of awakening gong In early spring dawn The sequel, composed in 2017: From Dharma Seasons: The Zen Studies Forever, forever, forever. Society Quarterly, Spring 1974 Still waters Afterward, everyone listened to a taped illuminating teisho by Yasutani Roshi, translated by THIS! Eido Roshi many years ago. From Dharma Seasons: The Zen Studies Society Quarterly, Spring 1974 Haiku in the City

On Wednesday morning, March 6, a group A Nyogen Senzaki Evening of students participated in a traditional haiku ”match”—the first such event ever On Friday, March 20, we had an unprec- to take place at the New York Zendo and edented Nyogen Senzaki Evening. Mrs. perhaps at any American Zen center. Shubin Tanahashi, who had taken care of Soen Roshi and Eido Roshi led the meet- him for many years in Los Angeles, sat ing. The participants had previously with us and then told us many fascinating composed haiku on the theme “New This page: “Way” by Eido Roshi.

58. details about Senzaki’s life in America. then ushered into a large room and zazen, and led us in our first sitting. Her talk, translated by Aiho, was inter- told to sit on the floor on round black The bells rang out and silence descend- spersed with stories and recollections by cushions, and wait. Wait for what? ed. No one moved. Time seemed to go Soen Roshi and comments by Eido Roshi, No one knew. We crossed our legs awk- on and on forever. Could this be it?, I and the evening was truly a memorable wardly, straightened our backs, and wondered. Finally, the sitting ended and one, ending with an informal tea upstairs. waited. And, even though we were thankfully we got up from our cushions. From Dharma Seasons: told to keep our eyes down, out of the Now it was time to join other, more The Zen Studies Society Quarterly, corner of our eyes, we peeked at experienced students, who were sitting Spring 1974 each other. downstairs in the Vinny Piazza— main zendo. Daijo—was Finding The New York Zendo there, Harold, The silence Eshin Brenda Shoshanna Sara Birnbaum, downstairs was Kuju, two electric. All were On a cool, lovely Thursday evening in Catholic nuns, doing kinhin; autumn, along with other new students, and a few some were in I lined up outside the zendo. With others. Oddly robes, some excited anticipation, we all waited for enough, were not. Our the doors to open. Who knew what this particular brand new group would happen then? group kept of students returning for joined the back At exactly 6:15, not a minute sooner or years, became of the line and later, the doors opened and the line inseparable. followed along. started to move. The doors stayed open Walking through for forty-five minutes and closed at Finally, it was the zendo I precisely 7 o’clock. If you arrived at 7 o’clock. Bells rang, and the evening was transported to ancient Japan. The 7:01 the doors remained closed. No began. A slender Japanese monk stood intense silence, simplicity, fragrance, matter what you did then, you couldn’t up and told us he was here to give us and beauty were overwhelming. After get in. Time mattered here. instruction. kinhin was over, wooden clappers were struck indicating time for the second If it was your first time, you were directed “This is an incredible night. It’s your sitting to begin. upstairs to the second floor. As you first time sitting in the zendo,” he said climbed the steep stairway, the exquisite so softly we could barely hear him. A deep, resounding gong was struck. smell of incense followed you. You were Then he carefully showed us how to do The sound entered every pore of my

60. body. In the silence that followed, new “It was strange, it was weird, it hurt more. I had come to Shobo-ji toward new me was not going anywhere. And that thoughts arose. Who are these people? terribly,” I replied, utterly disconcerted. the end of a career in the advertising was followed by many years of maturation Who am I? Why am I here? How did business. During my career I experi- and subsequent study to comprehend what this happen? The thoughts arose cease- My husband was startled. “Well, you tried enced a gradually emerging misunder- had taken place. lessly. In spite of this, the second sitting it, anyway,” he said. “Now forget it, let it standing of who I was. My ego had slowly was easier. It was different sitting down- go. You don’t have to go back again.” but surely developed to such a toxic All of that happened more than forty years stairs in the main zendo, supported point that I was on the verge of ending it ago. The experienced saved and changed by others who sat powerfully beside But this was not something that all. The truth was I was unaware there my life for the better, and Shobo-ji was you without wavering. At the end of could be let go. Not knowing what was such a thing as an ego and was for where it all began under the care of Eido that sitting, a few announcements were to think, I went to sleep, restless. sure ignorant of anything beyond. Roshi, whom I consider a savior of sorts. made about the upcoming week’s At four o’clock the next morning, I owe him my life. Of course, I am aware schedule and we were all thanked for suddenly, as if electrocuted, I sat bolt Consequently, Shobo-ji was like an of the difficulties that later occurred, but our attendance. upright in bed. My God, my God, emotional emergency room for me which who am I to judge the very person who what happened? I couldn’t wait to then evolved to an extended stay in the main brought me out of the bowels of hell Then Tai-san, who had been sitting at get back to the zendo again. hospital of Dai Bosatsu Zendo under the and introduced me to a self I never the front of the line, took a few steps care of Eido Roshi. During that time I went suspected existed? to the center. Dressed in black monk’s Years passed, shocks happened, joy, through an initial hell of working through robes, charismatic and bold, he looked sorrow, disappointments. But no matter forty years of traumas that had brought as if he’d stepped out of another century. what, for so many years I kept returning. me to a state of complete despair. To be Seven Splendid Chrysanthemums His voice, powerful and deep, seemed I had to find out for myself. wholly transparent, that phase was awful, to come from the bottom of the earth. but it was essential for ridding myself of the One hundred people gathered at New The sound of the gong demons that stood in the way of coming York Zendo on the evening of September “We will be serving informal tea Forever, to terms with my true, immaculate identity. 15th to celebrate the 7th birthday of the upstairs now,” he said. “If you have In the spring dawn. East 67th Street zendo. Seven splendid time, please join us. You are all —Soen Roshi When at long last this new awareness chrysanthemums, sent by Daiko Chuck welcome at the zendo whenever suddenly came upon me, I was confused Carpenter, were placed at the altar, which you care to return.” but felt as though the toxic part had died was decorated with calligraphy and Transformation and was replaced with a sense of self that Buddha children of all sizes and forms I started to tremble. At last my teacher John Jones was wonderful, whole, and joyous. In spite carved from Dai Bosatsu wood by Soen was here. of this new sense I was disoriented and Roshi’s friend, the sculptor Nakano San. Shobo-ji was a critical gateway for me mystified, not realizing that unlike that When I returned home later, my husband at a point in time when I was transition- vacillating ego, this new sense of myself The ceremony opened to the sound couldn’t wait to hear the news. “Did you ing from a broken way of living to a was stable and unwavering. It took me of the bamboo flute. After a period of like it? Was it all you hoped for?” dawning that transformed my life forever- quite some time to understand that this zazen Eido Roshi recited a verse:

62. True Dharma is ageless It was March 19, 1975, the day I met U.S. and Europe; I taught in more than Yet the Temple of True Dharma is seven and was introduced to Eido Roshi. 27 countries. years old That day was the 68th birthday of Soen are countless Nakagawa Roshi, who was a mentor On January 2, 1977, Bonnie and I Yet one hundred lucky Bodhisattvas are to Eido Roshi. One of my shiatsu were married at Shobo-ji. Eido Roshi here right now students, Harry McCormick, asked me officiated and conducted a beautiful Today is September 15 to come and give an old Japanese man ceremony for us and our friends, who —Golden Wind blows and blows an Ohashiatsu treatment as a birthday chanted with us to celebrate our union. May True Dharma gift. We went to New York Zendo Later, I asked Eido Roshi to allow me continue forever Shobo-ji. A younger monk came out to start a summer program for our May all Bodhisattvas be lucky ones and welcomed me saying “I’m Eido students at Dai Bosatsu Zendo, which Roshi. Welcome, Mr. Ohashi.” That was had been built a couple of years From Dharma Seasons: The Zen my first time to meet him. Then I gave a before. He accepted our request. Our Studies Society Quarterly, Fall 1975 treatment to Soen Roshi, who didn’t utter first Ohashi Institute Program at Dai any words, and I didn’t ask anything. Bosatsu Zendo started in July 1979, and continued every year for more Gassho to Eido Roshi! After this experience, I started visit- than twenty years. From practically all Ohashi ing Eido Roshi many times and asking over the world, from many different for his advice. One day I asked him, nationalities and from all corners of life, On April 24, 2018, my son Kazuhiro and “How did you establish two temples people came to attend. This ten-day I left New York Shobo-ji on East 67th on such a big scale?” He replied, program was a profound and meaningful Street in New York in the early morning “Ohashi—I just sit.” Then I asked, “Just experience for the all the people who by school bus. We were on our way sit?” He said, “In order to ‘sit’, I need a participated. Former students still thank with some 40 other people to the funeral temple, but without sitting the temple me for putting them in touch with Zen and memorial services for Kongo Soken doesn’t come—because I cannot do Immediately, I followed Eido Roshi’s , and specifically, Mui Shitsu Eido Tai Zenzu Dai Osho, what I need to do. If you don’t do advice. That evening I started teaching New York Zendo Shobo-ji and Dai also known as Eido Roshi. what you need to do, nothing comes without any students, without knowing Bosatsu Zendo. to you.” He continued, “Do whatever anything I was teaching, without any As the bus was heading for Dai Bosatsu you want to do now. Don’t ask how to plans, without any place to teach. I believe more than 1,000 people Zendo in the Catskill Mountains, all do what you want or what you want Eventually, I achieved the founding of came to Dai Bosatsu Zendo through of my wonderful experiences and to do in the future. Do what you want my school, with many branches in the our program over the years. Eido Roshi encounters, my endless blessed and to do now, right now. I just started gave us speeches about Zen, and all

happy memories with Eido Shimano sitting, then the way I should make the This page: Eido Roshi. Opposite page: Ohashi and Bonnie the residents helped our program run Roshi came to me. temples came to me.” on their wedding day, 1977. smoothly. Without this summer program

64. at Dai Bosatsu, I don’t think Ohashiatsu tives of the Japanese community, as as being of lasting importance, but architecture, I was sensitive to my would have prospered as much as it did. well as officers of our Sangha, I should rather an event few people are even surroundings. At Shobo-ji I felt that like to express our great sense of honor aware of: the transmission of Buddha I was inside a fully realized work of All the memories of Eido Roshi and our and deepest gratitude to your Holiness Dharma from East to West. Today’s art. Moreover, it was as if here the experience of Dai Bosatsu Zendo came for this visit. visit of His Holiness, the fourteenth ancient Japanese culture had been back to me when the bus arrived. My Dalai , is one concrete event transplanted into New York City, with- deepest gratitude will continue to go to Some time ago, I read inspiring words of this transmission which will be out any compromises. The sparse- Eido Roshi forever. by the late British historian, Arnold long remembered.” ness, the perfect proportions, the beauty Toynbee. He predicted that future From The Zen Studies Society of natural materials, the wild energy historians, when looking back on the Newsletter, Fall/Winter 1979 of calligraphies, the grace of flower Dharma Travels from 20th century, will consider of major arrangements, the subtle scent of East to West significance not events currently viewed incense—I was inhabiting a Kurosawa My First Encounter or Mizoguchi film. On September 8, 1979, His Holiness, the with Shobo-ji fourteenth , visited the Zen Daishin Paweł Wojtasik I was told to put on a robe and sit in Studies Society. He talked with about a circle of newcomers on the second one hundred invited guests, including It happened back in May of 1982. At floor, and a senior student with a deep the Japanese Consul General, Ambassa- that time I was a student of Chogyam voice told us how to meditate and dor Takahashi. His Holiness and twelve Trungpa Rinpoche. I had also been how to behave in the zendo. He was attendants were served a classical studying Chinese calligraphy at China somewhat rigid and dogmatic, I felt, Japanese luncheon. His Holiness had a Institute in New York. At the calligraphy compared to Trungpa’s approach, private interview with Mrs. Dorris class, a woman told me about an which was gentler. But I was willing Carlson, and met with some two hun- amazing Zen temple on the Upper to try it. We went downstairs and dred and fifty Tibetans who were seeing East Side. She convinced me to visit meditated for a while facing the wall, and paying homage to their king and New York Zendo Shobo-ji one Thurs- or rather the backs of those who leader after twenty years of separation. day, on the public night, when begin- were facing the wall. There were two ners were welcome. Upon entering, rows of people on each side. At some We were deeply honored to host this I was immediately struck by the point a senior student gave a talk. occasion. Eido Shimano Roshi, Abbot impeccable of the place. I don’t remember what he said, but I of the Zen Studies Society, introduced It was the perfect environment in remember he took a 10-dollar bill and His Holiness: which to practice meditation, I thought. burnt it in front of us. Everyone was Being a painter and having studied amazed! (It was equivalent to $25 in “On behalf of the Buddhist leaders of 2018 dollars). The gesture embedded the New York area and the representa- His Holiness the . itself in my memory.

66. The atmosphere of the zendo was that my initial Shobo-ji experience before the doors closed and enter the rigorous. There was a sense of striving pointed me in the right direction. Thirty- deep, dark, quiet oasis of Shobo-ji. I’d towards something very desirable, very six years later, I still attend sesshin at quickly go upstairs to put on the one beautiful and exotic, yet very distant and Shobo-ji. The place (and the practice it robe that fit me. Other memories include hard to reach—one would need to do embodies) is inexhaustible. Katsuro and Aiho greeting the arrivals, a battle to attain it. Battle quiet early morning snowfall in the with oneself—it was some- , and many wonderful Satur- what terrifying. Still, Memories of Shobo-ji day mornings with service and zazen I signed up for the weekend Katherine Senshin Griffith followed by tea and treats and temple sesshin beginning the next cleaning. I loved that morning service. day. During sesshin the I first heard the word Each time we did it was an amazing meditation was extremely “zazen” from Tim Miller, journey of the spirit that I miss to this day. painful, but there was a whose performance art lot of energy coursing piece I was in during the I appreciated the Friday night classes, through the room, and summer of 1984. It sounded often led by Saman Sodo, as well as I was able to make it to the like a practice that would the ones taught by the renowned end. The beauty and be good for me. Two and a Buddhist scholar Dr. Joan Stambaugh. elegance of the surround- half years later, I looked up Both invaluable, but revealing the ings carried me through the “Zen” in the White Pages of distinction between academic Buddhism ordeal. Doing dokusan with the phone book and found and embodied Zen. Eido Roshi was a revelation. It was a mix the Zen Studies Society. As it turned out, of intimacy and terror—to live in late this was the same place where Tim had We sat extra sits during Rohatsu week 20th-century New York City, and sud- sat. After taking my first class in February in solidarity with the monastery. denly to find oneself face-to-face with a of 1987, I practiced there through 2000, I loved the vegetable creatures Aiho Buddha/—the experience was when I moved to Los Angeles. I am now made to place on the altars during intensely real and surreal at the same the Program Steward at the Zen Center the Segaki service. I appreciated the time. He was totally with me and of Los Angeles (ZCLA), was made a Thursday night Dharma talks and I had to respond to that. I found it Dharma-Holder this Spring and am on the chance to get to know my fellow incredible that a new student could see the ZCLA Teacher’s Circle. practitioners. I gave my first public the Zen Master individually almost from talk on practice at Shobo-ji on the topic the start. Two weeks later I was off to I have many fond memories of practicing of Zen and humor. Dai Bosatsu Zendo to do my first seven- at New York Zendo Shobo-ji: Amidst day sesshin. I was desperate to free a very busy Manhattan life, I remember I did almost every weekend sesshin and myself from myself and was convinced rushing from all parts of town to arrive all-day sit for many years. I remember

68. those consistently delicious meals, books, and he has often been at the Issa’s poem sums up what seems to sleeping on the yellow carpet upstairs, door of the zendo during that time. He be a “que sera, sera” attitude, with a and how the noise of the bus stopping (a.k.a. Anthony McKiernan) has regularly tolerance for whatever will be and a outside could sound an awful lot like attended and been an officer during general acceptance of others along the the dokusan bell. I also did several the Thursday and Friday night sits for way. There is no rush, it seems to say; sesshins at Dai Bosatsu Zendo, but it decades, as well as assisting Aiho we’re in this together. is the ones at Shobo-ji that were the Shimano as and over many most formative. years, generally arranging things, and Katsuro is an expert observer on Shobo-ji’s seeing that things go smoothly for every- public night, which is on Thursdays. That My exposure to Zen and the Dharma at one while at the zendo. He usually is is when an individual passes from being Shobo-ji infused my life and has stayed the first person people meet at our interested in meditation to actually going with me to this day. I do zazen before beautiful New York Zendo, now enjoy- to get training at a zendo. Most people every performance. My writing is informed ing its fiftieth anniversary. don’t come back. In some way zazen by the endless Dharma vista. And my day practice is not what the majority expects. job is working for a Zen center! Years ago Katsuro gave the regularly However, among those of us who did and scheduled Dharma talk one Thursday do come back, you can be sure one of the Every year, when we at ZCLA visit evening, during which he quoted a reasons is the man at the door. Nyogen Senzaki’s grave, I recall with haiku by Issa that expresses a lot with gratitude my experience and formative very little. The title is “the snail.” years in Zen at Shobo-ji. Shobo-ji Turns 20 Climbing Slowly On September 15, 1988 New York The Man at the Door Very slowly. Zendo Shobo-ji celebrated its 20th Soun Joe Dowling Anniversary on East 67th Street. The weekend prior to that The founder once said, some fifty members and “Katsuro is the guardian guests attended a 20th angel of Shobo-ji,” and he Anniversary Weekend was right. A member of Sesshin where the zazen New York Zendo for more was rich and deep, having than forty years, Katsuro’s become ripe over two name is one of the most decades of continuous frequently recorded in the practice in one place. zendo’s regular sign-in Then as now our minds

70. were set to the challenges at hand, orientation sessions are offered for but of course we could not help but newcomers. On Fridays, a Buddhist feel gratitude for the effort and enthusi- studies course is offered. The Sunday asm of earlier years. It is with this morning service is a continuation spirit that Shobo-ji 20th Anniversary of this country’s custom of Sunday Issue is dedicated to the memory of morning church services. People with Milly Johnstone; member, friend, a variety of backgrounds come to study and patron of New York Zendo and here. Some began their studies with the Zen Studies Society. Soen Nakagawa Roshi over fifteen years From The Journal of the Zen Studies ago, while others know nothing at all Society, Fall 1989 about Zen. Ten or so students carry out the operation of the temple. Eido Roshi provides guidance during workshops Zen in America and weekend sesshins during the yearly Essan Shoei Nakai, a visiting two-month training periods. On some monk from Japan weekends, as many as fifty students gather here. When appropriate, the first Here I would like to introduce New floor zendo is used as a Dharma Hall or York Zendo Shobo-ji. It occupies a dining hall. It is astonishing to see with three-story building in Manhattan. what efficiency the students conduct The zendo is on the first floor. There these transitions. is a in the back, and when I look into it, I almost forget The students who gather here study Zen that I am in New York City. On the while holding down full-time jobs. I am second floor there is the Dharma Hall profoundly touched by the dedication where students can gather, and the of these people who commute daily Zen temples. And one can see the living quarters are on the third floor. from their working places while also foundation for American Zen here Two residents take care of the zendo. carrying out their responsibilities at as well. In contrast to the elaborate setting home. One thing that has also surprised of Dai Bosatsu, this is a convenient me is the absence of Japanese people. In the temples in America, there is metropolitan gathering place for many Very few attend zazen practice. Perhaps much more openness and an abun- to learn and practice zazen in the this is a reflection of Japan’s lack of dance of opportunity for people to mornings and evenings and to chant interest in religion. I have found at sit in sesshin. There are in America Buddhist sutras together. On Thursdays, Shobo-ji the future direction for Japan’s and Europe students who begin their

72. days with zazen and work practice and about Eastern , but rather over- old. As Confucius said, “At the age of continue their training into the night. exhausted from Western Capitalism! 15 I began study. At the age of 30 It will be a while before Buddha’s That’s the difference. I became independent…” So, Shobo-ji teachings will be fully understood and From an interview with Eido Roshi, is an independent, mature zendo incorporated into the lives of Westerners, The Newsletter of the Zen Studies with youthful, vigorous power. but one must realize that it has not even Society, Spring 1996 been a century since Buddhism arrived On March 3, 1968 at 3PM, available here. The teachings will grow. Here in Sangha gathered in the old dirty garage America, at Dai Bosatsu Zendo and at The Eternal Will located at 223 East 67th Street. We Shobo-ji, the Dharma wheel revolves Aiho Yasuko Shimano placed the gong at the center, burned every day. incense and chanted Enmei Jukku From The Journal of the Zen Studies On September 15, 1998, Roshi and I Kannon Gyo 33 times with intense nen Society, Winter/Spring 1988, Issue 8 were extremely happy to attend the 30th to “Let True Dharma Continue.” anniversary celebration of New York Zendo Shobo-ji. As a living witness, On June 25th, 1968 the renovation Then and Now I wrote the articles for the Zen Studies began. A worker was knocking out a Society Newsletter from 1991–1994 entitled “The Way to Shobo-ji.” It was my Student: What is the main difference This page: 30th Anniversary. Opposite page: between the students who came thirty-five personal reminiscence. When I wrote “Inexhaustibility” by Soen Roshi. years ago and those who come today? these articles, Shobo-ji was about to celebrate its ER: I came to this country in the beginning 25th anniversary. I felt as of the Golden 60s. That’s not only thirty- though I was looking at five years ago, but a really unique, specific my own face in the mirror. period in the history of the U.S.—the 60s—really glorious 60s! There was During the past three confusion, as well as an interest for decades innumerable Eastern things. People who came to Zen events occurred. Some of in those days were perhaps over-excited them were like climbing about Eastern mysticism. And people a steep mountain. Some who come to Zen nowadays, especially of them were like crossing at Shobo-ji, are those who are really tired a river where the bridge of working on Wall Street for example. was broken. Nevertheless, They are not necessarily over-excited Shobo-ji became 30 years

74. wall with a hammer, while drinking My was nothing but, “Let True but to walk together with THIS. Thus we photos hung on the wall outside the not attend for months and sometimes Although she had helpers, various a can of Budweiser beer and said, Dharma Continue. Please encourage can cross rivers and mountains. With dining room at Dai Bosatsu Zendo. years at a time. I would return to jishas—Katsuro was always in atten- “This building will become a Buddhist and guide us all. May Shobo-ji be THIS we have no choice, but to return to The photographs illustrated the Shobo-ji for evening sits, always grateful dance in those years—this was Aiho’s temple…” When he said that I felt protected ever, ever and forever.” I our original HOME where THIS radiates transformation of the carriage house on and relieved to enter the calm aura domain, while Eido Roshi attended to the voice from SOMETHING coming will continue to sit and sit during the shining alone under the name, “True East 67th Street into the zendo and of the zendo, to encounter the familiar the practice at Dai Bosatsu Zendo. through the workman, which gave remainder of my present incarnation. Dharma—Shobo!” resident quarters of Shobo-ji. But there smell of the incense, the stillness of It was she who presided over the daily Roshi and me encouragement and From The Newsletter of the Zen Studies was one photograph of Eido Roshi and this consecrated space, the sense of running of the city zendo, through conviction. At that moment nobody This is my ETERNAL WILL, my lifelong Society, Fall/Winter 1998 Aiho standing side-by-side in the street calm and the centered feeling of relief thick and thin, when neither rain nor on this earth thought that this ugly devotion and doubtless commitment for at the entrance of Shobo-ji that caused and contentment once I took my seat snow nor gloom of night kept her from garage would ever become a beautiful, my beloved Shobo-ji. me to stop. Eido Roshi faces the on the . Shobo-ji. Not the easiest job. elegant and breathtaking zendo. The Tea Kettle camera, a younger and more robust Endless is my vow, Denshin Bruce Ackland Roshi than the later-years Roshi I knew. I am proud of it, as a mother is proud of Boundless autumn sky, Alongside him, Aiho waits in a full her own son. I’m grateful for my karma Blue heaped upon blue The tea kettle. It rattled back and forth. kimono, her hair tucked up, an obi to be involved with this historic creation —Soen Roshi Furious—spouting steam and spitting around her waist, sandals on her feet, as and its transformation and growth the into the evening air. I changed into if she had been teleported from Japan past 30 years. As one of the Dharma We are all on our pilgrimage, which has my robe and went downstairs. Aiho-san and plunked onto East 67th Street; a students I sat and sat. I prayed and prayed. no end. Luckily we have no alternative sat in the vestibule facing the zendo foreigner in a strange land. There was as she directed members to their seats: something about the expression on her “Facing wall.” face, and the formal, traditional Japanese kimono that she wore, that “I turned the tea kettle off, Aiho-San,” caused me to wonder and imagine what I whispered. She jerked her head towards she had given up to come to America, me. Had I interrupted her zazen? fifteen or so years after a world war As upset as the hot kettle upstairs, she devastated her country, and begin a hissed, “What?” different life in a city halfway around the world from her native land. During my years attending evening sits at Shobo-ji, my relationship with Aiho During the 1990s and early 2000s, was cordial always, but never warm. She when I was going to evening sits and often confused me with Daishin. Or weekend sesshin at Shobo-ji I was Daiden. It didn’t bother me. It was just (and, I confess, still am) a reluctant the way it was. At the 30th anniversary Bodhisattva. Meaning that I attended of Shobo-ji, a series of black-and-white sits on a regular basis and then did

76. 77. Yet she persevered. I remember one announces, “MA KA HAN NYA HA man in elaborate Zen robes. I did not pregnant with our son (now 16), time, when she had just returned RA MI TA SHIN GYO…,” and the speak with him then. I remember sitting weekly at New from a trip to Japan, she remarked on chant begins. What has stayed with me York Zendo, even attending weekend how timid and hesitant other women, through the years: no matter where I Karma is interesting. I sat with the sesshins until I was so pregnant that am, or who is the jikijitsu or the ino, Sangha as often as I could for years, deep bowing become impossible. I when MA KA HAN NYA HA RA MI but somehow spoke with almost chanted Kanzeon with energy and TA SHIN GYO is chanted, it is no one. Aiho-san was always warm sincerity—for my child not yet born, and Aiho-san’s voice leading the sutra that and welcoming—and in dokusan, for the world in which he would be I always hear. I spoke with Eido Roshi—but that living. I remember different people at was it. Since I was living and working the zendo had different guesses as to quite far downtown, almost at the whether the baby was a boy or a girl. True Love—Mu Shin— opposite side of Manhattan island, One day Aiho-san asked me when the Complete getting to New York Zendo involved baby was due. I told her, and she said, Anne Vitell a long, difficult subway commute. “Every day is a good day.” On a good week I came twice: on I began sitting at New York Zendo in Wednesday, when evening sitting New York Zendo is fifty years old 1991. I had already begun Zen practice, included Kanzeon chanting, and on this year, and so am I, actually. but circumstances were such that I Saturday, for morning service and Sometimes events seem to happen on was not able find a correct connection sitting. On Saturdays there was a tea the thinnest thread of chance, but then her friends and family in Japan, had with a teacher and a group, so I was afterward for the group. As it turns afterward, it seems they were meant been about going out and about their still a bit lost. I came to Shobo-ji out, I met my future husband at one to be—and therefore completely correct. business in the city. Whereas she, after because of a small ad placed in The of these teas, in 1995. There was an Roshi used to talk about “with the living in New York for some years, was New York Times about a Zen art sale— instant and deep connection. For readiness of time.” I feel this about perfectly able to take off on her own. that was interesting. (Apparently, this me, it still feels as if the connection was the inter-twining of my life karma with She wasn’t Carrie Bradshaw, but New was the last large art sale the New there before we met face to face. the Dharma energy of New York York had worked a bit of magic on her York Zendo ever held.) I went. Mostly Zendo and Dai Bosatsu. These days over the decades. I remember the welcoming energy of Our lives and practices intersected. we are still very occupied with family the place. There was grace and beauty We have been practicing together concerns, and we live far from the When I think of Shobo-ji the image of and authenticity. I do not remember ever since, sometimes in more city and mountain zendos. We sit here, Aiho-san as jikijitsu at each evening the art specifically, although I did connection with the group, and just two of us, in our small zendo. sit rises in my mind’s eye. She leads purchase a translation of the Rinzai sometimes less. I feel we are linked to And I believe that maybe, somehow, the Sangha for the . Sitting Roku at that time. Eido Roshi was there, each other, and to Shobo-ji and Dai beyond form, time, and space, our on her special bench at the head of chatting with various people. He was Bosatsu, through something that connection with Shobo-ji and Dai the row of cushions by the altar, she obviously the master, an older Asian transcends this lifetime. When I was Bosatsu continues.

78. New Year’s Eve at Shobo-ji celebration concluded with in the garden. In his formal September 11th, 2001 Joan Weinstein a party on the second floor. dedication verse he recited: Special thanks to Aiho-san Aiho I have celebrated many New Years’ Eves for making traditional Unexpected summer rain at Shobo-ji, chanting and taking turns toshikoshi soba noodles, a Purifies both Jizo On the fateful Tuesday we all will symbol of the bridge between striking the gong 108 times. Each cere- Bodhisattva and new remember, Aiho-san felt strongly that mony has been special in its own way. the old and new years, and we must keep the zendo open for the monument, karumame, black beans, afternoon sit and continue the regular I will never forget the turn of the a symbol of good health for But they have never been schedule despite the uncertain time. millennium. We sat silently in darkness the coming year. defiled, Many came to do zazen strongly and and just before midnight, through From The Newsletter of the Since prior to Heaven and silently on that day and throughout the the wall, we could hear the neighbors’ Zen Studies Society, Winter/ Earth. months ahead. Our deep sitting not only party next door counting down: Spring 2004 Be that as it may, helped ourselves, but also eased the 10...9...8…Happy New Year! I glanced With our Universal Nen pain of those who died in this tragedy. up and saw a woman who I did Let us chant the Jizo not know sitting across from me in Nen! Blooming Flowers the zendo. Our eyes met. We smiled. : Buddhist Compassion Happy New Year. On the morning of July 8 a On ka ka kabi sam ma ei beautiful stone monument sowa ka! Rev. Daiho Hirose, a Japanese Obaku and a new Jizo statue were monk, hearing of the events of Manhattan Monkey unveiled and dedicated at New In spite of the weather, many 9/11 asked his congregation, friends, York Zendo. Inscribed on the Sangha members and eight other monks and nuns to write one copy On New Year’s Eve eighty people stone is the poem Nen Zureba, guests from Japan attended. of the Heart Sutra. With great intensity attended Oshogatsu service. Two strong Hana Hiraku composed by Myoyo Tanaka donated both and with zazen energy each person sits were followed by a Dharma talk Shinmin Sakamura Sensei. the stones. Fujin and Subaru hand-wrote the Heart Sutra. Hossan given by Eido Roshi. In his talk Roshi The English translation carved gave the Jizo statue standing collected over 850 calligraphies, and mentioned that it was not necessary on the back reads “Nen! previously in the garden. sent them all to Eido Roshi in the hope to know the meaning of “Enmei Jukku Blooming flowers.” This It will return to Dai Bosatsu that their saturated “nen” would be Kannon Gyo” but to totally “combust” monument is the compliment Zendo to the memorial able to appease the suffering caused by yourself in chanting. This combustion to a larger version enshrined at for William H. Johnstone 9/11. Half of these sutras were taken is the true meaning of the three famous Dai Bosatsu Zendo for the 25th in Sangha meadow. to Dai Bosatsu Zendo and half are monkeys covering their eyes, ears Anniversary. In the pouring From The Newsletter of rain Eido Roshi conducted a the Zen Studies Society, and tongue. With strong chanting and Opposite page: “Every Day is a Good Day” by ringing the main gong 108 times, the Kaigen eye-opening ceremony Fall 2001 Kogetsu Roshi. This page: Eido Roshi

80. enshrined in the altar at Shobo-ji. We said, “in comparison with the old days, so too, now in America, Shobo-ji was acknowledge Roko Sherry Chayat would like to thank Hossan personally where there were no bells and gongs to born 35 years ago, Dai Bosatsu 28 years (then Roko ni-Osho) as a Roshi in the and all those individuals who took ring, people sat on pillows instead of , ago and all these events were meant to Hakuin-Torei-Soen lineage of Rinzai Zen the time and energy to hand write the and it was necessary to sew cushions by happen.” She concluded her talk, “As Time Buddhism, the first American woman to Heart Sutra. Your concern was a gentle hand. Nowadays all these essentials are a Goes By,” with whatever should happen, receive transmission in the Rinzai lineage. encouragement of calm and peace and a given. All that we must work on now is True Dharma will absolutely continue; As a symbol of the acknowledgement, testament to Buddhist compassion. faith in practice and a gentle-hearted and what is essential is ‘Sunao’ spirit.” Eido Roshi gave her the name of spirit. This attitude of humility and tender- From The Newsletter of the Zen Studies Shingeshitsu, “Heart/Mind Flowering.” heartedness, with less and less ego, is Society, Winter/Spring 2004 Taken from The Newsletter of the Zen Ihai called “Sunao” in Japanese. With ‘sunao’ Studies Society, Winter/Spring 2009, heart and mind, our Zen practice will and Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji: 40th To always remember the victims of surely bloom; this is the fruit of our zazen Thousand-armed, Thousand-eyed Anniversary (a Commemorative Book) the tragedy, Eido Roshi asked Mrs. and a time to truly enjoy life. As Shakya- Bodhisattvas Yanagisawa to make a special Ihai muni lived in India 2500 years ago and (memorial plaque) dedicated to spread the Dharma to India, China, Japan; This spring, Eido Roshi donated two statues Ginko in the Garden all deceased victims of 9/11. Mrs. of Senju Kannon, the thousand-armed, Yanagisawa hand painted the plaque thousand-eyed Kanzeon to New York In the Spring of 2007, visitors to New herself, writing one side in Japanese and Zendo Shobo-ji. Kanzeon in this form York Zendo included the cultural group on the other in English. These Ihai will represents the Bodhisattva’s multitudinous Rinrikai, a Japanese cultural group based forever stay at both zendos. powers to save all sentient beings. Both in NYC, that was treated to a special From The Newsletter of the Zen Studies statues now flank the main altar Buddha of Dharma talk by Eido Roshi, and twenty- Society, Summer/Fall 2002 Infinite Light and Life. two Rinzai Zen Okuri-san (temple wives), From The Newsletter of the Zen Studies who performed a special “Goeka” chant- Society, Winter/Spring 2006 ing service, as well as several of Eido As Time Goes By—35 Years Roshi’s relatives, classmates and friends from Japan. Eido Roshi turned seventy-five. It has been 35 years since the opening of Heart/Mind Flowering New York Zendo Shobo-ji on September Two young trees were planted in the 15, 1968. NYZ commemorated its 35th 2008 was a significant year for the Zen garden. One, a ginko tree, was donated by Anniversary with a weekend sesshin and a Studies Society. Not only was the 40th Fujin Attale Formhals, and the other, a small full zendo. In a Thursday night Dharma talk anniversary of New York Zendo Shobo-ji Japanese maple, was donated by Seigan Ed on December 4, 2003 Aiho-san reminisced celebrated, but on October 12, a Shitsugo Glassing in memory of his mother. about the early days of the zendo with (room/name) Ceremony was conducted at From The Newsletter of the Zen Studies many interesting and funny stories. She the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji to Society, Winter/Spring 2007

82. 83. Shobo-ji Turns 40 who have woven a strand in Shobo-ji’s Just Breathe mandala web. He also expressed his Kokan James Borowiec New York Zendo Shobo-ji celebrated gratitude to the Dharma for actualizing its 40th anniversary with a special his Impossible Dream of an authentic The new students arrive at the beginners’ four-day sesshin that concluded with a Rinzai Zen in the class at Shobo-ji. They have a diversity that ceremony held on Sunday, September middle of New York City. reflects the world. Some in high school, 14th. Over fifty Sangha members others with white hair from a long life. participated in the retreat, including As our sesshin concluded, fifty guests Their backgrounds include most religions Roko ni-Osho [Shinge Roshi], Genjo joined the Sangha in a celebration under the sun, or no religion at all. But a Osho, and representatives form Dai to mark the founding of our city commonality of the students is a search for Bosatsu Zendo, the Zen Center of temple. Roko ni-Osho acted as Master something missing. What can I do to stop Syracuse, Chobo-ji, Endless Mountain of Ceremonies and introduced special being so stressed all the time? Why do Zendo, Brooklyn Aikikai, Hollow Bones guest speaker Dr. Tenzin Robert my relationships keep failing? Why am I Zendo, and Wild Goose Zendo. Thurman, Professor of not happier? They search for answers and at Columbia University. Dr. Thurman relief from their perceived incompleteness. Each day, Eido Roshi told incredible gave a lively talk about Dharma in stories about the opening of New York the West, after which Ryugan Robert After the students arrive, simple zazen Zendo Shobo-ji, and about the efforts Savoca Sensei, Yuho Carl Baldini instruction is provided in the Dharma of Soen Roshi, Chester and Dorris and students from Brooklyn Aikikai Hall. Keep your back straight. Watch Carlson, Aiho-san Yasuko Shimano, led a misogi purification ceremony in your inhalation and exhalation. Count and the many known and unknown the main zendo. Next, Sangha member your exhalations. Be still. Although deceased Dharma brothers and sisters Dr. -in Lionel Party introduced brief instructions on prostrations and and performed a harpsichord concert, kinhin are included, we focus on featuring pieces by Domenico awareness of breath. Scarlatti, J.S. Bach, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Francois Couperin. When I first started teaching the begin- Eido Roshi was asked to give closing ners’ class about twenty-five years remarks, and he spoke about how ago, I initially provided more detailed important it is for each of us to have a information on the practice. More things vow and a dream—to march on no to remember, and more things to forget. matter how difficult—and to trust in After leading the class for a couple of the Dharma. From The Newsletter of the Zen Studies This page: Eido and Shinge Roshi. Society, Winter/Spring 2009 Opposite page: 40th Anniversary

84. years, I learned that most people can search for “meditation All things we do in life in robes and and bound-up hair. a meeting place between two worlds as the most reliable mind mirror, only retain so much information. in NYC” returns over require the simple act of Thank you Roshi, Aiho-san, Carlsons. by submersing the life-ways of Dai reflecting my state. There’s no fooling More words do not mean more under- 10 million results. breathing. Everything to Thank you, Dharma sisters and brothers. Bosatsu Zendo into a sea of street noise, her. If I made any “progress” at Dai standing. Like other aspects of life, Imagine that. While be discovered about From The Newsletter of the Zen car horns, and jackhammers. Standing Bosatsu Zendo, it would be con- do not overcomplicate things. Keep the huge number of ourselves and the world Studies Society, Fall/Winter 1998 as a testament to non-dualism, Shobo-ji tinually tested on the cushions at it simple. Just breathe. results suggests— starts with watching proclaims daily that there is no mean- Shobo-ji until it yielded some positive rightfully—that one our breath. So let’s just ingful distinction between Dai Bosatsu result in my life. How much have Many students find the act of zazen can meditate any- breathe. Ode to Shobo-ji Zendo and New York City. Inside her I seen and come to accept while more challenging than they expected. where in the city, Daigi Thomas Stabb doors, one actually feels this to be so. sitting at Shobo-ji? How many Newcomers often encounter discomfort it also means that we difficulties have dissipated in her (or perhaps even agony) during the can find ourselves Sit! What’s the use of any insight gained Over the years, every time I’d walk silence? If only her blank white first few times that they sit. New York instead enticed (or Jikei Jean Bankier on the mountaintop if it cannot be in off the street, Shobo-ji has served walls could speak! City also attracts the overcommitted possibly frightened) integrated into daily life in the city? individual who, misquoting Carroll’s by ads for “part “Sit!,” a man roared at Through the Looking-Glass, tries to meditation session, his dog on the sidewalk For the past fifteen years, Shobo-ji do six impossible things before break- part networking group outside; and several has served as the vital tissue con- fast. It can be difficult to find the for young creative members of the New York necting my busy life in the city time to just be still, to just watch the entrepreneurs.” We can Sangha obediently with my infrequent, but trans- breath, to just be HERE. But even get side-tracked into an straightened their spines. formational experiences at Dai with all the distractions of modern endless search for the very best Such can be the interplay between the Bosatsu Zendo. I must confess that, life, students occasionally find them- meditation practice without seeing street world and the New York Zendo. despite residing in New York City, selves at home at Shobo-ji with that it has always been right here. Clanging and rumbling fire engines. Mu. I have long considered Dai Bosatsu the quiet and the practice. This is a Tuneless passerby whistling. Mu. Road Zendo my spiritual home and that wonderful thing. The gift of being able to teach first-time enraged horns. Muuuuuu... participating in Anniversary Sesshin visitors to Shobo-ji is priceless. Students is the heart of my Zen practice. When I started my own practice at often ask thoughtful questions, and these …It is the everyday sittings that matter. That said, it’s been easy for me to Shobo-ji more than thirty years ago, queries can cause the instructor to look The stillness—even when the city roars. romanticize fast growth at Dai it wasn’t so easy to find a place to more closely at his or her own practice. The unsentimental scent of “Zen” incense. Bosatsu Zendo, but the slow and sit. People would use a book called Instruction for the student transforms The sudden sight of flowers reaching from steady growth I’ve found at Shobo- the Yellow Pages and scroll to the into instruction for oneself. The empha- the altar; of pebbles raked in advance of ji has been perhaps more helpful middle to locate “meditation,” or to sis on watching the breath is not only ripple; of black ink dashed across a for integrating Zen practice into my the back to find “Zen.” Only a hand- imparted to the student, but reinforced scroll. Of an elegant, energetic Aiho-san ordinary life. For me, New York ful of listings were found (they weren’t for the instructor. What else could one Zendo is as an oasis of deep silence called hits back then). Now a Google ask for but this? Opposite page: “Visionary Flowers in the Air” by Eido Roshi. amidst a maddening city. It creates

86. Finding Shobo-ji I started to return for weekends, and and laughter. Occasionally the reminders Choren Karin Drew gradually became aware that Zen Studies are less gentle: during the expansion of the Society had a second temple, one that was Second Avenue subway tunnel, our sits I have a good friend whom I’ve known located right in my own city. And so, two were punctuated by muffled explosions of for decades. From the time we met, he’d years after discovering Dai Bosatsu, I came dynamite that literally shook the building. sometimes mention a magical place called to Shobo-ji for the first time. During a recent all-day sit, we Dai Bosatsu Zendo, where he’d gone for had to strain a bit to hear the just one weekend many years before. So Shobo-ji is in the center of Dharma talk over the sounds when my father’s 70th birthday was Manhattan—possibly one of a Native American dance approaching and I decided that a week- of the least remote spots on ceremony being held next end in a Buddhist monastery would be a earth. But its rooms are door. (Fortunately for us, the perfect gift, I knew where we had to go. unexpectedly and almost zendo’s silence is absolute at strangely quiet. A heavy times as well.) To me—a longtime New Yorker—Dai stillness seems to radiate Bosatsu seemed impossibly remote. from its walls. And like Dai And re-entry into the world “We must have passed it,” my dad and Bosatsu, Shobo-ji has an from Shobo-ji happens I kept saying to each other as Beaverkill extraordinary, nearly fast. There’s no drive back Road wound endlessly upward, narrow- magical beauty: the elegant down the mountain, no ing from two lanes to one lane to a proportions of the zendo; buffer: you step out the door narrow dirt road with blind curves, no the narrow hallway illumi- directly into the chaos of shoulder, and an alarming drop-off to nated only by nightlights, Manhattan. During sesshin one side. When we finally arrived, the where people’s shadows you can leave during silence and the enormity of the land- dance on the walls during after-meal breaks and go scape amazed me. The monastery itself kinhin; the perfection of the tiny garden. to Starbucks. This sudden change of looked like an apparition, the soaring perspective can be disorienting. Once, lines of its Japanese roof rising improb- Both temples are ideal and inspiring places when I was exhausted from serving as ably from the dense Catskills woods. It for zazen. But in contrast to Dai Bosatsu’s jisha for a weekend sesshin, I splurged all seemed very exotic, and very far from seclusion, Shobo-ji is surrounded day and on a cab home to Brooklyn on Sunday home. But inside, I found that the night by a maelstrom of human activity. night. An ad for the makeup emporium stillness of the zendo and the sounds of Gentle reminders of the city’s presence are Sephora was playing on the screen in the chanting and the bells were things frequent. Sounds sometimes drift in, the back seat as I climbed in, and for I’d needed desperately without even especially in summer when the doors to the a moment the prancing, brightly made realizing the lack. I fell in love with the garden are open—distant horns and sirens, up models bewildered me completely; practice, and the place. the wheezing of the M67 bus, faint voices they seemed like alien beings.

88. However, this quickness of transition met wonderful people at Shobo-ji, My first time ever visiting the Dai years went by and then one day, as I can also help the calmness and clarity of kindred spirits who have become close Bosatsu mountain monastery was for sat in a sesshin at Shobo-ji, I suddenly mind that zazen can bring follow you and (I fully expect) lifelong friends. a Thanksgiving weekend celebration remembered that this had been an out into the city. I leave Shobo-ji less with my then-husband Paul Peterson on earlier dream of mine. Well, that dream hurried and preoccupied; I’m more It’s too easy to forget how extraordinarily a stormy wintry day in 1985. had become : “I am sitting on a patient with people who block traffic on lucky we are to have this place. Life in zafu in New York Zendo!” sidewalks or subway stairs. Everything New York is busy, and sometimes I don’t For several years after that, during my seems brighter and sharper. I’m more make it to Shobo-ji for weeks or even studies at the Ohashi Institute, I continued More years passed and I sat in medita- often startled by the beauty of ordinary months at a time. That’s not good, for going up to the Dai Bosatsu Zendo tion in the morning at home, or went to things: I vividly remember a blazing sky me or for the temple. We should all try monastery to study more advanced Shobo-ji and to Dai Bosatsu Zendo for reflected in the East River during one our best to remember that it needs us Ohashiatsu courses. There I met many weekends or week-long sesshins. I also summer twilight, the whiteness of a as much as we need it. new people and made friends from all very much enjoyed the weekends snowfall against a old brick warehouse over the world; I still have fond memories (work weekends) and the various celebra- alongside the BQE, countless other of our parties at the end of each class, tions throughout the years. I even attend- moments. Restoring the Buddha and specifically with tenzo (kitchen chef) ed a two-month-long kessei training, Togetsu Johanna Schwarzbeck Seppo Ed Ferry. It was in the kitchen and then participated in a Jukai ceremony In this way Shobo-ji has brought the where we all shared a lot of bonding in 2008. There, together with Gangyo practice of Zen home for me. It has There are several stories I would like through working and laughing together. Larry Gagler and Hojun Laura Jackson, helped me see my own everyday world to share…. I received my Dharma name, Togetsu. with new eyes, and taught me that it isn’t I learned the art of restoration and necessary to go sit on top of a mountain gilding when I was younger and still But what I really want to share is to clear your mind and sharpen your living in Austria—in the town of the story of the restoration of the perceptions. The temple has also given Salzburg—where I studied for three centerpiece of the Zendo at Shobo- me many other gifts over the years. It’s years in an apprenticeship program. My ji—the Buddha statue—which been a bridge connecting me to Dai boss there was engaged in practicing Eido Roshi commissioned me to Bosatsu: sitting regularly with a group at Zen meditation and regularly traveled to undertake that same year. Shobo-ji has helped keep my body and a monastery in Japan. I was introduced mind prepared for the rigors of the five- by him first to TM (Transcendental During the restoration, Eido Roshi came and seven-day sesshins I’ve attended at Meditation), and then to Zen meditation, to visit the statue and me at my home the monastery. In fact, I doubt I would at the young age of 16. and studio in New Paltz. He and his ever have mustered the courage to sign driver, a monk from the monastery, got up for my first seven-day sesshin if I It was there in Salzburg that the idea of out of the car. They both walked, under hadn’t first attended—and survived—a sitting and becoming involved with Zen the eyes of onlookers, wearing their few all-day sits at Shobo-ji. I’ve also meditation became formative. Many monastic Japanese garments, towards

90. my studio with its wide-open doors. leave something—a - the self-locking main consistently allowed me to use New There the Buddha statue stood on the ter bottle, notebook and door with her keys York Zendo for my Dharma sessions work-bench, ready to be seen. pen, hairbrush, scarf— inside. While she, in of Shin Buddhism (Jodo-Shinshu) and behind after every her bare feet, bor- Seiza (quiet sitting) meditation for Upon seeing the statue from a distance, session. It’s not inten- rowed a phone to call more than four years because I have Roshi stopped, brought his palms tional. Somehow the her boyfriend for no temple in New York. together and slowly bowed facing the quiet and concentration rescue, the rest of us Buddha. He had a big smile on his face make me more floaty decided to take It was March 2013 when I first visited seeing his beloved statue, and I had a than usual. It was this— Breath/Read/Write to New York Zendo with Kobayashi Gentoku big smile on my face witnessing his joy. my intrinsic floaty- Bedford Falls, the Roshi of Shokoku-ji Zen Monastery in ness—that made it seem bar across the street. Kyoto, Japan. I have consistently been that Zen was not for me We settled into the following the Shin Buddhist path for Breathe/Read/Write the first time I tried to back room there about thirty years, but once, in 2002, Lisa Freedman do zazen (having and proceeded to I entered the gate of Rinzai Zen at arrived with very little meditate, listen to a Shokoku-ji and experienced the severe New York Zendo Shobo-ji has become other meditation experi- poem to prompt our Rohatsu Sesshin in the monastery. Since a home for Breathe/Read/Write, the ence) up at Dai Bosatsu free-writing, write, then I have respected the Zen spirit and meditation and writing group I lead. Zendo. But I realize now—having led at and share. It worked! But we were practice very much. Breathe/Read/Write grew out of the least a dozen or so Breath/Read/Write grateful to be held again by Shobo-ji’s writing circles I started doing during sessions at Shobo-ji—that its clarity and sacred space the following month. For me too, the influence of D.T. Suzuki Healing and Wellness weekends at peace is slowly sinking in, cultivating in is enormous, especially his deep Dai Bosatsu Zendo a decade ago. I’m me more calm and a greater awareness of interpretation of Shin Buddhism. So I am grateful for Shobo-ji’s hospitality for my stuff and where it lands. Gratitude so happy and grateful to be able to have many reasons. First is the space itself, its Miki Nakura my Dharma sessions here at New York tranquil beauty: the embrace of all the The chance to do Breath/Read/Write Shin Buddhist minister of Higashi Zendo of the Zen Studies Society, which wood, of each room, each altar, the sessions at Shobo-ji is also teaching me Honganji, Kyoto and Jodo-Shinshu was established to support D.T. Suzuki meditation garden. I’m fortunate to have the benefits of finding a structure and Shin-Buddhist New York Sangha in his effort to introduce Zen to the West had the chance to guide companions sticking to it. This hit home one day when he lived in New York in 1950s. into meditation, free-writing, and when I arrived at the zendo and opened First of all, I always deeply thank the sharing in different parts of Shobo-ji, the door to find seven people in the New York Zendo Shobo-ji and the Zen There is no doubt that New York Zendo and to have breathed and written alone tiny entryway vestibule. The kind per- Studies Society from the bottom of my is a very important place for people to in its garden. son who had volunteered to open the heart, because they have generously and encounter zazen and to experience the I’m also grateful to Shobo-ji for the idea of doors for the Breath/Read/Write partici- true Zen spirit in order to realize real a container for Breathe/Read/Write. I pants and me had accidentally closed “Tai Enso” by Soen Roshi. peace and happiness.

92. sell four or five floors, and retain of the bind and provide a small reserve one or two for our own use. At that would enable us to make much the end of this phase, while needed repairs at Shobo-ji and upstate interviewing attorneys to help us at the monastery. structure a deal, one attorney asked if our neighbors’ windows Fortunately, our neighbors had wealth were “lot line” windows. We to spare, and by negotiating with learned that if we constructed a them, we were able to exchange some six-story building, the neighbor’s of their wealth for some of our light windows on the property line and air by selling them a “Light & Air would need to be replaced with Easement.” A common practice in New walls—which meant they would York Real Estate, the easement restricts not be able to use those rooms as Zen Studies Society from building any living space but only as an office higher than the existing 3-story temple or for storage. and allows our neighbors keep their Selling Light & Air: access to “Light & Air” and their views True Dharma Continues As Buddhists, we were reluctant to cause East, in perpetuity. Gangyo Larry Gagler harm to our neighbors by obstructing their windows with brick walls, and naturally It is ironic that, by selling “Light & Air” to In late 2015 we found ourselves in a dire our neighbors would not have been happy our neighbors, we not only were able to financial bind: we needed to raise funds to with that outcome either; but we were save Shobo-ji but could afford to replace cover an unanticipated expense result- in a bind, and it seemed inevitable. Even the roof and install new skylights, which ing from the troubles of 2010. Having if we chose to sell the entire building, the brought more “Light & Air” into Shobo-ji. no other options, the board was forced issues related to the lot line would inevi- True Dharma continues. to seriously entertain selling Shobo-ji. tably come up with the new owners. We had begun discussions with a broker when a dear friend, Patrick Nolan, The very next day we sent our architects The Lighthouse suggested we find a good real estate to the Department of Buildings to get the Hokuto Daniel Diffin consultant and explore other options. floor plans and prospectus for the neigh- alone. Dharma friendship and Dharma Thursday night Zen Intro turned into three from time to time, sharing Dharma friend- bor’s building and hired an attorney to Our translation of Atta Dipa begins: fellowship is essential. When I was a years at Dai Bosatsu Zendo and ordination. ship with our wonderful Sangha. The unique We conducted a six-month project help us figure out how best to monetize “you are the light.” But sometimes the confused young man, new to Zen, I The light of New York Zendo illuminated the beauty and flavor of this temple and the evaluating half a dozen options whereby the situation. We instructed our attor- light needs a lighthouse, and that light- heard about New York Zendo. One path for me, helping me to discover my own practice we engage in together there sur- we would partner with a developer to ney to negotiate with our neighbors and house, for me, has been New York light. And now, all these years later, I have passes any attempt to put it into words. construct a six-story building on the site, gave him a target that would get us out Zendo. We cannot do this practice 48th Anniversary sesshin. the opportunity to return to New York Zendo It is precious beyond measure.

94. 95. Growth and Vigor next step still lies ahead…”, which was Shinge Roshi included in the publication. Since then, humanity and I have taken many next We just completed Martin Luther King steps; without much effort, almost a Sesshin at New York Zendo, and what a quarter-century has passed, and today I sorely needed and much appreciated time find myself writing another commemo- it was. Some 30 of us sat in our renovated rative article, on the occasion of the 50th building and rejuvenated Sangha. There anniversary of the opening of New York was a sense of deep togetherness based Zendo Shobo-ji. on everyone’s intensive sitting and hard work. The atmosphere was open and In his last admonition to his disciples clear. We had sold a legal easement of air Kozen Daito used the words “Time flies and light to keep this beautiful building; like an arrow” (光陰矢の如し; koin no we received a Dharma easement of air gotoshi) to communicate the preciousness and light to continue on this endless Way. of the limited time that we have in our human existence. Our human lifespan is This is an exciting time of growth and vigor short, especially in comparison to the for the Zen Studies Society. Toward the end billions of years science tells us that it has of this year—on Saturday, November 25, taken for this universe to arrive at its 2017—we will have an event of major current state. From the point of of a consequence for our Rinzai Zen lineage: Zen practitioner, the linear measure of inka shomei. In this ceremony I will give Sange (懺悔; atonement): time cannot even capture the essence of a to my first spiritual On the Dedication of the Shobo-ji single moment. New York Zendo and the heir, Dokuro Jaeckel Osho, who trained for Garden Zendo as Koin-do many people who have passed through it, more than thirty years with Kyozan Joshu (光陰堂; Light and Darkness Hall) those who have practiced zazen, read Sasaki Roshi. Shunan Noritake Roshi, Kyo-On Dokuro Roland Jaeckel sutras and , and listened to teishos abbot of Reiun-in at Myoshin-ji in Kyoto, by many Zen masters, are the living will take part in the ceremony. Dokuro Shortly before I moved from Austria to testament to the timeless aspect of the will join us at DBZ more frequently from the United States in 1994, my first Zen practice of the Buddha. 2018 on, and in ensuing years, will teacher, Genro Seiun Osho, asked me to undertake more teaching responsibilities. write a contribution for a book com- Rinzai Zen came to America first Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji memorating the 15-year anniversary of in 1893, personified in Soen Shaku newsletter; From the Abbot– the Bodhidharma Zendo in Vienna. At January 2017 that time, I wrote an article entitled “The This page: Koin-do. Opposite page: Transmission, 2017.

96. Roshi, who participated in a Japanese established centers and taught Rinzai 1965, Martin Luther King was assassi- delegation to the Parliament of the Zen on the West Coast. nated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April World’s Religions in Chicago. Later, 4th, 1968, and Robert F. Kennedy was his students Nyogen Senzaki and D.T. New York Zendo Shobo-ji, the city home killed in Los Angeles on June 5th, 1968, Suzuki were among the first pioneers of the Zen Studies Society, and Cimarron just three miles away from the place that to bring the Rinzai tradition to practitio- Zen Center (later renamed to Rinzai-ji was to become Rinzai-ji. ners and scholars on Zen Center) in Los this continent, from Angeles both came into The term koin (光陰) in Japanese is often the point of view of existence in the same translated into English as “time.” When Zen master and year, 1968. It was a year we examine the individual characters Zen scholar, respec- of great significance, of the compound phrase, we learn that tively. Now, of and we must remind 光 (ko) means “light” and 陰 (in) means course, as Zen ourselves of the state of “shade,” or “shadow.” The characters practitioners the American nation together signify the activity of time, we know from our in 1968. The country where day and night alternate. Light is experience that Zen was at war in Vietnam, often used as a metaphor for the obvious is not “about” and within its own and easily comprehended, while dark- anything, that it is states, cities, and towns ness refers to the obscure, hidden, and just THIS. Over the other conflicts raged. occult. What we learn in our practice is course of the It was a time of demands that neither light nor darkness carry twentieth century for racial justice, demon- inherent value—they are just as they various Japanese strations, and political are: THIS and THUS. All judgments that teachers represent- assassinations. A year are attached to light and darkness ing the Rinzai before New York Zendo originate from the human vantage point tradition made their was founded, riots of an individual, of a society, a culture. way over the Pacific had engulfed Newark, Ocean to America. only eleven miles away When New York Zendo and Rinzai-ji Most significant to the Zen Studies as the crow flies, at times closing it were founded, a lot of what we might Society was Soen Nakagawa Roshi, down completely. January 1968 marked call “dark” events had recently oc- representing Rinzai Zen as it established the peak of the Vietnam War, with the curred, including violence, hatred, its home on the East Coast of the United North beginning the Tet offensive. A and warfare. The founding of the two States of America. Joshu Sasaki Roshi, string of political assassinations left an Zen centers was timely in helping us who arrived in Los Angeles in 1962, four agonizing trail: following those of John years after Nyogen Senzaki’s passing, F. Kennedy in 1963 and Malcolm X in This page: Nyogen Senzaki, seated, and Soen Nakagawa.

98. to cope with these , to build and at the level of an organism, we a foundation for the practice that the partake in its constant transformation. historical Buddha himself undertook: investigating the human condition and Being so deeply interrelated on a purely getting to the bottom of who it is who physical level, we can already imagine perceives, thinks, suffers, enjoys…. the enormous impact of the actions that we humans willfully take. With the When we practice Zen and undergo self-aware consciousness of a human the strict training that the Rinzai being comes the great responsibility School, our teachers, and their Dharma to use that innate will very carefully; ancestors have brought to us, we it has a devastating life-taking and can discover for ourselves the under- miraculous life-giving power. Over the lying conditionality of all existence. course of the history of the human Duality within the world of the 10,000 species, more and more sophisticated things comes into existence with the and complex systems of society have arising of a fixated, thinking, and evolved, as have art, music, science, discriminating self. At the same time, and, of course, religion. Zen practice Zen practice allows us to learn to asks us to look deeply in both direc- recognize and appreciate the inevitable tions—the contraction towards the return to the complete manifestation complete dissolution of a self, as well of oneness, zero. As human beings as the expansion of a full manifestation we have to become aware that our of a self that embraces everything. mere presence in this world of the Our insight into the functioning and 10,000 things comes at a price. In order experience of this Dharma activity leads to live and survive we require and con- us to the development of wisdom, the sume energy-producing fuel. The ability to see clearly. While this clarity transformation of that fuel also creates may be brilliant and bright, it is not byproducts that we return to the sufficient by itself. We need to apply it 10,000 things. Every breath we take in the human world, where the self- extracts oxygen from the atmosphere aware consciousness willfully acts. and in exchange gives back carbon The lotus flowers of an awakened mind dioxide. We are intricately and inse- grow, bloom, and bear fruit through the parably interconnected with every- thing that exists in this fantastic world, “Jo Nen Kanzeon Bosatsu” by Hakuin.

100. warmth of compas- environment, and through actions that enhance and sup­ sion, which melts the so many other ills port inclusion, diversity, justice, equality, ice-cold brilliance of that cause problems respect, and universal compassion. wisdom into the and strife in human manifestation of love. society. The best Twenty-four years ago I wrote about That said, we have synonym for these “the next step still lying ahead.” Since to acknowledge that rationalizations is then, additional time and practice have the richness of the delusions. In Zen made clear to me the importance we world of the 10,000 practice we learn need to give to the present step. Atten- things, or , is how to spot these tion, awareness, and open-heartedness solely based on the delusions as they in what we are doing right here and incompleteness of arise, and we now is essential. THIS is where light and each and every of work on not letting dark meet. Let us not get caught up these dharmas. No them grow roots on previous, current, and next, but give matter how much we and cause unneces- our full being to the realization and awaken, the conun- sary and unintend- actualization of our vow. And if we have drum of being human, ed harm. to talk or write about it, let it be in which some call the service of making this world a better original sin, lies in the Light and dark— place for all sentient beings. fact that we and our 光陰—both make consciousness are up the human born into a split and condition. Sange 50 More Years broken world of (懺悔) is the practice Tenrai Fred Forsythe opposites. We make of acknowledging mistakes; our exis- the harm we may Thank you New York Zendo Shobo-ji for tence is based upon have caused, as being an oasis in a troubled world. Who taking life and causing harm. Our individuals, as a community, as a spe- will have the courage to patiently accept discursive thinking comes up with all cies. The dedication of a place for such the zendo’s penetrating silence? Who kinds of rationalizations as to why it atonement at New York Zendo adds will have the cheer to make everyone in is all right to cause harm—these rational- this important aspect to our communal the Dharma Hall laugh? 50 years is a izations are the basis of world-views and individual practice. Let us be good start. Let’s do 50 more. that brought us , economic clear: atonement cannot erase the past.

exploitation, abuse of power, the com- What it must do is to strengthen our Opposite page: Martin Luther King Sesshin, 2018, modification of human life and the resolve and vows to contribute to society post-sesshin gathering..

102. Acknowledgements

Photos

Shinge Sherry Chayat Roshi Hugh Curran Carin Dreschler Choren Karin Drew Stephan Ferry Iver Fischman Gangyo Larry Gagler Zensho Martin Hara George Holton Richard Kagan Shigeru Tamur Daishin Paweł Wojtasik

Passages

Wind Bell, A publication of the San Francisco Zen Center.

Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki by David Chadwick. cuke.com. the zen studies society