▶ kyosei’s sound of the practice of science, it’s 2 a.m. and the baby is raindrops: A koan commentary the practice of zen: An crying. Do you know where your by Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede astrophysicist connects the dots practice is? AUTUMN 2019 | VOLUME XLI, NUMBER THREE editor ZEN BOWChris Pulleyn | [email protected] editorial consultant The mind of the Zen adept is taut—ready, like a drawn bow Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede | [email protected] COPY EDITOR Autumn 2019 | VolUme xli, nUmber three Cecily Fuhr | [email protected] audio transcriptionist Autumn was my favorite season when I 3 M SOUNDINGS Jennifer Kyker was a child. Although autumn meant the art director end of the long, unstructured, free-range Midnight rumblings and ramblings | Daryl Wakeley | [email protected] summer days of a 1950s childhood, it also Talking back to pesky thoughts | Q&A: proofreader John Pulleyn meant new beginnings. The crisp smell of How to answer questions about Zen | Definition of hara freshly sharpened pencils, the sound of Call for submissions the school bell tolling after its months-long All readers are encouraged to submit essays and silence, and the increasingly chilly evenings images at any time and on any topic related to Zen AdAm frAnk practice. Articles may be of any length. Suggestions and early mornings all added up to a for articles and artwork are also welcome, as are quickening of the senses and renewed Aliens, billiard balls, “found objects” such as quotations, haiku, and/ or excerpts from articles in other publications. energy for me. climate change, and the Submission guidelines may be found on the Zen Bow Many decades later, autumn has a blind spot of physics page of the Center’s website: www.rzc.org/library/ more nuanced effect. Having experienced zen-bow. For any and all questions and suggestions, “Everything emerges from the please email Chris Pulleyn at [email protected]. SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) from raw nature of experience.” An time to time, and being more aware of astrophysicist examines the subsCribing to Zen Bow the Buddhist trifecta of sickness, old age, intersection of science and Zen. ▶8 The subscription rate below reflects current postage and death, the renewed energy of fall is fees : 4 issues 8 issues balanced by the withering of what has roshi bodhin kjolhede U.s. : $20.00 $40.00 been in full bloom. Intimations of mortality Kyosei’s sound foreign : $40.00 $80.00 are nearly impossible to ignore, and it of raindrops Please send checks and your current address to : seems natural to turn inward. Zen Bow Subscriptions Desk “If you don’t call it the sound of Rochester Zen Center This issue of Zen Bow includes 7 Arnold Park several different fingers pointing to the raindrops, what sound will you Rochester, nY 14607 Moon of Truth. (I’m sure there’s a joke call it?” Kyosei points to direct pleAse note : If you are moving, the Postal Service in here somewhere: “A Zen teacher, a experience. ▶ 16 charges us for each piece of mail sent to your old address, whether you have left a forwarding poet, a sleep-deprived parent, and an address or not. If you change your address, please astrophysicist walk into a bar….”) As the let us know as soon as possible. Send your address 22 M SIGHTINGS corrections to the Zen Bow Subscriptions Desk at days grow shorter and the nights grow the above address or email [email protected]. longer, I am reminded of an old song by Letters to the editor | Reader reviews the Youngbloods: | Amala-sensei meets with New Countless good deeds Zealand’s Prime Minister | Sculpture If you’re thinking about financial planning, estate Darkness darkness, hide my yearning planning, or both, please remember that there are For the things that cannot be installation begins at Chapin Mill myriad ways you can help the rZC through planned giving. The right kind of plan can help you reduce Keep my mind from constant turning your taxes significantly while providing for a larger, Towards the things I cannot see. longer-lasting gift to the Zen Center. Because there —chris pulleyn is a wide array of bequests, annuities, trusts, and other financial vehicles to consider, you’ll want to work with your financial advisor to decide what’s best for you. Long-time Zen Center member David Kernan, an attorney who concentrates his practice in tax law, has generously offered to help point you in the right direction at no charge. For more information about planned giving and David’s offer, ON THE COVER please contact the Center’s receptionist. photogrAph bY John Margolies | For almost forty years, Margolies (1940–2016), an architectural critic and photographer, documented the COPYRIGHT ©2019 ROCHESTER ZEN CENTER beauty he saw in the buildings and signs along the American roadside. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN ZEN BOW ARE THOSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS ALONE AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE ROCHESTER ZEN CENTER, ITS A publication of the Rochester Zen Center LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DIRECTORS, ITS TRUSTEES, ITS MEMBERS, OR ITS STAFF. 2 ZEN BOW AUTUMN 2019 Autumn 2019 Soundings 2 A.M. ZEN better than in the past; I was more patient, “Kýrie eléison, through the darkness more compassionate, and in tune with of the night” the baby. It was not the burden it could —Mr. Mister, “Kyrie,” 1985 have been. In fact, the next day my wife the hoUse hAd finally fallen silent from said that she appreciated how calmly I had the day’s activities. reported the situation to her. It was nearly 11 pm when I sat down to When our first daughter was born, I do my evening zazen. Towards the end of was not sitting on a regular basis. As a the round, I heard a stirring from the baby result, I realize I did not handle the diffi- monitor in the room where I was sitting. I culties of being a new parent as skillfully was familiar enough with the baby’s nois- as I can now. The combination of sleep es to know that no reaction was needed, deprivation, anxiety, and adjusting to a so I continued sitting. The baby’s shifting This type of night is common for most new way of life led to a lot of stress and around in her crib gave way to moans and parents, and, this being our second child, conflict at home. groans, so I got up to check the monitor. was nothing new for us. Our first daugh- Over the past several years of practic- Her eyes, black and beady on the night-vi- ter was a terrible sleeper, and my wife and ing Zen, I have struggled to establish a sion monitor, stared blankly at me—this I had gone through these long, arduous daily routine. The efforts towards prac- was going to be a long night! nights before. They can result in sleep tice would come in spurts, usually when For the next two hours, I attempted deprivation and anxiety because you’re things got rough, and as my situation to get her to fall back asleep: picking desperate to help the baby and don’t improved (as a result of sitting), the felt her up, comforting her, swaying in the know what to do. And this frustration can need to sit would fade. Just before my rocking chair, and putting her back down sometimes be taken out on our partner, second daughter was born, I had made the to sleep—only to find she was still awake. or manifest at work, or in other ways in resolve to sit every day and to maintain Finally, at 2 Am, I got my wife to see if she our daily life. New babies can be such a awareness of the practice throughout the needed to be nursed and I went to sleep challenge—they don’t even know how to day as best as I could. With the limited before work the next day. sleep yet! time available to sit, I really needed to What made this evening different from emphasize the active aspect of practice as all the previous ones was my reaction to much as I could. the situation: I had used that opportu- If doing zazen amidst activity is, as A NEW MORNING nity of not sleeping to continue zazen. Chinese master Yuanwu (1063–1135) says, And today, once again, a new morning: This normally frustrating situation was “producing a lotus from within the fire,” bright, with close, rounded clouds that much more pleasant and as a result less then doing zazen amidst the activities of frame expanses of the immeasurably challenging. Each time the baby woke, parenting must be producing a lotus from deep sky. Agitation in the treetops. In usually after only five minutes, I had to within a volcano! everything else, restfulness. Windfall of start putting her to sleep all over again, If my practice is only related to sitting, apples. The grass softly invites you to with nothing seeming to work. Instead of or more specifically, sitting at the Zen walk out of the house. The dimness in- complaining or getting upset, I realized Center, then I wouldn’t have much of a side is alive with lights on antique silver, this was a chance to continue the prac- practice. I simply had to find time in my and their reflections in the looking glass tice, which seemed to continue almost busy schedule to sit. For me, I found that confuse the eye as to what is enclosed automatically. Throughout those two sitting in the evenings, when everyone within the mirror’s frame.