Morning Stars Everywhere Rohatsu Sesshin

This past weekend we honored Shakyamuni Buddha's awakening, conventionally celebrated on December 8,  ("rohatsu" in Japanese.)   Many of the participants are pictured at the left, in a photo taken by Dharma Holder Michael Herzog.  The tanto (head seat), Lara Nordenson, gave the sesshin the name "Morning Stars Everywhere." This name was based on the teaching that the Buddha awakened when he saw the morning star after a long night of fighting off the forces of confusion and suffering in his own mind, through the powerful practice of being still and unmoving in the face of everything.   (Otherwise known as zazen!)

 The teachers of this Rohatsu sesshin, Dharma Holder Alan Richardson, David Roshi and myself talked about how this morning star appears everywhere, in all places and in all times.  And we chose the following koan to explore together., Case 32 in the Gateless Gate collection:

THE BUDDHA RESPONDS TO AN OUTSIDER

An outsider asked the World-Honored One, “I do not ask for the spoken; I do not ask for the unspoken.” The World-Honored One just sat still.

The outsider praised him, saying, “The World-Honored One with his great compassion and mercy has opened the clouds of my delusion and enabled me to enter the way.” He then made bows and took his leave.

Ananda asked, “What did that outsider realize to make him praise you?”

The World-Honored One said, “He is like the fine horse who runs even at the shadow of the whip.”

Wumen's commentary

Ananda is the Buddha's disciple, but his realization is less than the outsider's.  Now tell me, how do they differ -- the disciple and the outsider?

Wumen's Verse

Walking along the edge of a sword,

Running along the ridge of an iceberg,

No steps, no ladders,

Jumping from the cliff with hands open.

Realizing the True Self

My dear friend, the Zen teacher Dosho Port, recently posted a challenging essay on his blog.  The gist of his message was that Zen communities are not like church communities -- the emphasis, while celebrating community through practicing together -- is about waking up together.  Zen Buddhist temples are not meant to be social clubs.  

And more important, Zen teachers are not therapists, pastoral counselors, or caregivers primarily.  In those kinds of relationships, the relationship is client-centered.  The practitioner/minister/therapist focuses on the student/parishioner/client and their particular constructed stories  about reality, and especially about their unique "habitualized self."  Instead, a Zen teacher focuses on how to awaken to a recognition of the truth of the awakened heart, which exists beyond all kinds of self-identities, personal traumas and narratives. This is my version of what Dosho wrote, so my apologies to him if I missed or distorted anything.  And of course, this is what all of us human beings are doing continually!

And here is the most radical part of the essay, in Dosho's own words: 

"In Zen, the student must direct themselves toward the teacher. Why? If a student is really going to do what's necessary to awaken and go deeply into post-awakening training, it will only work in that way. Plainly put, as long as a student is making the practice about their habitualized self, they will not realize the true self. And only when the student finds the aspiration that burns deep within will they have the power for the Way."

In my experience with students, the journey within, Dogen's "backward step" and Shitou's "Turn around the light to shine within, then just return" are important pointers to a challenging investigation.  We spend so much time building up walls of protection so that we will feel safe in our constructed selves, and once we let someone else in to that tender and deep place we can feel exposed and terrified.  My sense of the Zen teacher's job is to wait for a moment when someone seems ready to open up to a different way of being, and then begin to gently probe, challenge, and affirm.  What is affirmed, of course, is not the constructed, habitualized self, which we cling to for dear life, but the unconstructed self that lies at the core of those layers of protection.  And this is where awakening comes from.  

Awakening is not a thing that happens and then is over.  It's the beginning, and sometimes only a glimpse, of the possibility of a life supported by the energy of the universe.  It is contained in every sensation in the body, every emotion and every thought.  We dismiss too much of our lives because we also have a constructed idea of what awakening is.  We can't believe that awakening includes what we don't want.   And so we exclude many doorways to awakening, because we become selective.  Everything is a doorway to awakening.  Dharma gates are boundless.  

No Other World Sesshin

photo by Pierce Butler

 This past weekend, in the midst of our recovery from the US presidential election, we had a deep and community-building on-line sesshin.  Our tanto, Jenny Smith, assisted by Pierce Butler, Sabrina Mills and David Linshaw, named the sesshin "No Other World."  This was in honor of the text the teachers (Dharma Holder Michael Herzog, David Rynick, Rōshi and me) used as the theme of the retreat, and also a poem by Gary Snyder that I read and commented on called "Why Log Truck Drivers Rise Earlier than Students of Zen" which ends with the line "There is no other life."  Our text came from a dialogue in the Record of Xuansha:

A monk said, “I’ve just arrived here and I beg the master to point out a gate whereby I may enter.” Xuansha said, “Do you hear the sound of the water in the creek?” The monk siad, “I hear it.” Xuansha said, “Enter here.” 

In these wild times, Xuansha's teaching remains relevant and inspiring.  Whatever we may feel: grief, anger, fear, happiness, joy...and in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, the teaching of the Great Way invites us to enter into this life as it is.  Here we can find the way to being a bodhisattva in this burning world.  And, there is no other world.

Ethan Nichern's Confidence

 

A few months ago I received Ethan Nichtern's amazing book, Confidence: Holding Your Seat through Life's Eight Worldly Winds.  I've been interested in these teachings for many years.  My first Zen teacher used to mention the eight worldly winds at the beginning of every sesshin.  His teachings focused on how the winds could be transformed through deep meditation.  

The winds are:  pleasure and pain, praise and criticism, fame and insignificance, and success and failure.  These pairs of opposites assail us regularly as human beings.  Nichtern is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist teacher, and his book couldn't be more timely, as we all work with these worldly winds in the aftermath of the recent US election.  

Nichtern lived through an organizational crisis in his own sangha, much as I did in Boundless Way after the 2016 election.  He is open about that, and other aspects of his personal life, without getting caught in whining and "too much information."  All of the ways we process our difficulties, blown about as we are by circumstances, show up clearly and with great heart and tenderness in this book.  Free of Buddhist jargon, it's a clear-eyed guide to navigating human life in all its complexity.   I highly recommend it! 

Field of Flowers October Hybrid Sesshin

photo by Pierce Butler and Corwyn Miyagishima

 Another month and another sesshin -- and this one was an anniversary.  Fifteen years ago, Boundless Way had its first sesshin at the Temple.  To commemorate this, the teachers chose the kōan from the Gateless Gate, "The Buddha holds up a flower" which celebrates the transmission of the Dharma from Shakyamuni Buddha to Mahakashyapa, a fundamental story in our Zen tradition.  Dharma Holder Alan Richardson, Dharma Holder Michael Herzog and I taught the sesshin, and Dharma Holder Rev. Paul Galvin was the tanto (head seat.). Rev. Paul named the sesshin:  even though there was only one flower in the story, everyone who attended, in person and on line, revealed their Buddha nature without hesitation -- many flowers, many smiles.   A lovely and deep time for us all.

Aimless Wanderers Sesshin September 2024

 

photo by Pierce Butler

Almost a month ago we had our Distant Temple Bell sesshin on Zoom.  Pictured to the left are many of the attendees.  To celebrate David Rõshi's new book "Wandering Close to Home" we took as our theme a kõan about wandering, Case 20 from the Book of Serenity:  Dizang's Nearness.  In this kõan, Fayang tells Dizang that he is wandering aimlessly, but he doesn't know where he's going.  Dizang praises him, saying, "Not knowing is most intimate."

In these times, with war, politics and wild weather surrounding us, not knowing what will happen next feels realistic.  To allow ourselves the intimacy of being in good company in our lostness and confusion is the path that Zen shows us.  May we all wander into clarity and balance as we face these difficult times.

Transmission of the Light August 2024 sesshin

photo by Michael Herzog

  Pictured here are most of the group who attended the third week of our summer residency program, which culminated in a seven-day sesshin which our tanto, Dharma Holder Rev. Paul Galvin, named "The Transmission of the Light."  

This is a particularly resonant name for Paul and for me, because on the last night, in a private (secret) ceremony witnessed by David Rynick, Rōshi, Dharma Holder Alan Richardson and Dharma Holder Michael Herzog, I gave Denkai transmission to Rev. Paul.  He is thus a transmitted teacher, and may take on shoken students and transmit the precepts.  Until he receives Denbo transmission and becomes a Sensei, he can't yet transmit the Dharma to anyone else.

The ceremony was guarded from demons wanting to interfere (a fairly ancient tradition) by Rev. Ray Demers, Senior Assistant Teacher Rev. Corwyn Miyagishima, and Senior Assistant Teacher Jenny Smith.  Since the transmission appears to have been successful, their wielding of two wooden swords (kyosakus) and my shakujo (large staff) appears to have been quite effective.  Rev. Paul is pictured above wearing his new gold/ochre rakusu which indicates his new role as Dharma Holder.  

Congratulations to Dharma Holder Rev. Paul!