Water Wheel Being one with all Buddhas, I turn the water wheel of compassion. —Gate of Sweet Nectar Zen Center of Los Angeles / Buddha Essence Temple Vol. 10 No. 4 2551 Buddhist Era JULY/AUGUST 2009 No Such Thing By Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao In his The Second Book of the Tao, author and translator Stephen Mitchell relays this account: Great Dragon Mountain founder As he was eating by the side of the road, Lieh-tzu saw an Maezumi Roshi old skull. He pulled it out of the weeds, contemplated it, and would often speak said, “Only you and I know that there is no such thing as of birth-and-death death and no such thing as life.” from three perspec- tives: 1) of being Mitchell’s commentary: born and dying, 2) of spiritual awaken- The philosopher Lieh-tzu has stopped for lunch on his ing, and 3) of the Garden Kanzeon’s “no fear” mudra. journey from here to there. He sits down by the side of the birth-and-death of road, opens his knapsack, takes out a few rice balls and a each moment. Each piece of dried fish. It’s a leisurely meal. He has nowhere in nen, a now-mind moment, brings into stark relief the real- particular to go. ity that is our life. You may tell yourself that you are living such-and-such a life, but can you see that you are being Suddenly he notices an old skull. He pulls it out of the lived—that this reality is you yourself? Birth and death are weeds for a tête-à-tête. He has no ideas about whoever used not happening to you; it is you. to inhabit it, no pity, no urge to do an “Alas, poor Yorick.” The skull is his colleague. It may look a bit What words shall we use to speak of this reality? hollow, but it knows exactly what he knows. When Master Daowu paid a condolence call with his attendant Jianyuan, the attendant hit the coffin three “You too,” Lieh-tzu says, “have no mind to contend with. times and asked, “Alive or dead?” Daowu replied, “I You don’t tell yourself lies about pain multiplied beyond one won’t say alive; I won’t say dead.” The attendant says, body. You realize that death is a noun without a plural. “Why won’t you say?” The kindly Master Daowu said Only one person ever dies.” again, “I won’t say. I won’t say.” (Continued on page 2) “If that,” says the skull, a master of understatement. INSIDE Lately, I have been engaging in conversations with the so-called skulls that have appeared among the weeds 3 End of Life Essentials of my life. The deaths of Sangha members—most 4 Remembering the Ancient Cause by Sensei recently of Teido Cartee—have brought to the forefront Merle Kodo Boyd what the Zen Ancients called “the grave matter of birth- 6 Programs and-death.” No matter how much we know this reality of 9 Rites of Passage our existence, there is a jolting quality about it. 10 Welcome to Deb Faith-Mind Thoresen, Grounds Steward 11 Sangha Appreciation Roshi Egyoku is Abbot and Head Teacher of ZCLA. NO SUCH THING (Continued from page 1) What words can be used to speak the immediacy of each moment, of each nen? The word nen is made up of two kanji characters. The top character is ima or “now” and the bottom character is shin or “heart-mind.” Now—heart-mind. Clarify it! Both philosopher Lieh-tzu and Master Daowu knew intimately this birth-and-death nature. On their way back to the monastery after paying their respects to the bereaved family, attendant Jianyuan insisted on an answer to “alive or dead?” saying to Daowu, “If you don’t tell me, I’ll hit you!” How beautiful—he is desper- ate to know! Compassionate Master Daowu says, again, “Hit me, if you want, but I won’t say, I won’t say.” So Jianyuan hit him. Can you trust yourself to truly wrestle with the grave Teido Cartee (1942-2009) in loving memory. matter of birth-and-death—trust that you can hold this skull and penetrate this reality? Do you know that no one can take care of this grave matter for you? Only you room became permeated with the energy of Sho Sai can know for yourself this reality of “no such thing as Buddha. The hospital personnel waited until we were birth and death,” of “I won’t say,” of “the birth and done, about 45 minutes. An iPhone was put on speaker, death of each moment.” Explaining is not experiencing. so that Teido’s brother on the East Coast could be Tell me, is there someone you would like to beat up over present for the chanting. this grave matter? Both Sensei Daishin and I felt that Teido had passed After beating up Master Daowu, attendant Jianyuan during the chanting. When the ritual was done, awash in left the monastery, the question possessing him like a red the energy field of Sho Sai Buddha, the nurse entered to hot iron ball. Many years later after the death of Daowu, administer morphine, the respiratory therapist discon- Jianyuan goes to Master Shishuang’s monastery and was nected the ventilator, and soon the doctor spoke the found walking back and forth in a room with a rake, as “time of death.” Teido went “like a lamb,” like the though raking the ground. Shishuang asked, “What are gentle giant that he was. The changes moving through- you doing?” Jianyuan said, “I am looking for the bones out his body filled my eyes. Now a corpse is here, where of my old master.” is the person? Look! Look! Whenever he would repeat Jianyuan’s response, Nen, nen. Just being—no thoughts. Not forming Maezumi Roshi would burst into tears. Tell me, what words, not forming thoughts. As Maezumi Roshi would was he crying about? often say, “there is no need to”—no need to add anything to the totality of nen, of “now heart-mind.” In death, not Recently, Sensei Shingetsu telephoned on a Monday an ounce of anything is lost; just as in birth, not an ounce afternoon to tell me that our beloved Sangha member of anything is added. So I ask you again, “alive or dead?” Teido Cartee was brain dead at Cedars Sinai Hospital. Lieh-tzu says, “No such thing.” What is this unborn and This news came, as our liturgy says, “like thunder echo- undying nature of nen? ing across the boundless sky.” As it happened, I was completing an errand close to the hospital, so I was able A few days later, I went to Teido’s home to collect to arrive there shortly. Nen. Teido had suffered a his priest robes, okesa, and oryoki (eating bowls). Sitting massive stroke in a restaurant parking lot. on his sofa, where I had sat so many times before as he and I would share a cup of his specially brewed coffee, I Together with a close friend of Teido’s, her son, her felt bathed in the mystery of his not being there. The fact Buddhist teacher, and Sensei Daishin, we sat with Teido. that he no longer needed all these things, or even needed Nen, nen. Birth-and-death moved through us — the to attend to all the papers organized on the dining table. phone calls to his loved ones who were not present, Where did he go? I felt filled by him—Teido was now holding the phone to Teido’s ears so they could say everywhere and nowhere. Although we will no longer see whatever needed to be said. Then we stood around (Continued on page 3) Teido and chanted the Shosaishu 108 times. The hospital - 2 - (Continued from page 2) allowing for the unpredictable ways that grief moves through people. How many people awaken at times like the form that we called Teido, there is nothing separating this? us now. Although attendant Jianyuan could not understand Death has a peculiar unifying finality, moving Master Daowu’s teaching at the time, he later awakened. through us as one movement. Lieh-tzu says to the skull, One day he heard chanting of the Lotus Sutra chapter on “you and I know that there is only one death, not many Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. “For one deaths.” And the skull says, “if even that.” Nen, nen— who seeks salvation as a monk, Avalokitesvara appears as one seamless fabric worn by each and every one of us. a monk and expounds the dharma.” Look! Right here, What is it? I open my arms wide and say to you, “This right now—there is nowhere that anything is hidden. The unborn, undying reality, how can it be anything but the bones of the old master are before us, expounding the golden bones of the old master?” dharma! In a few days, several of Teido’s close Dharma In the 1960’s, Teido took the vows of a Zen friends will gather with me to ritually bathe him and dress Buddhist priest from Bishop Sumi of Zenshuji, becoming him in his priest robes. We will place him in a humble one of the first Americans to ordain and to practice with cardboard box. On the following morning, we will go to then Maezumi Sensei. Forty years later in 2007, he the crematorium, hold a service over this body of renewed the priest vows with me at Great Dragon buddha, cover him with flowers, and bear witness as fire Mountain.