Hello dear friends, loved ones. I again apologize. It's been many weeks since I've posted, but there simply isn't time. The ancient sages of the past would probably scoff at blog posting during Zen training anyway, so I'm glad to be getting away with what I can!
After the summer, I re-committed to staying at Great Vow through December for their 3-month ango (training period); I just finished the first month. Compared to the summer, training is more intense and intimate, but very rewarding. I live literally across the hallway from my teachers! I receive all kinds of teachings in all kinds of situations at all times of the day from all members of the community. It's very difficult to be in practice mode 24/7, but I feel like I'm seeing in a few months what would might have taken a lifetime of scattered practice to appreciate.
The more I get into the training the less I feel like talking about my experience. And, in typical Zen fashion, I'm encouraged by my teachers to suspend my evaluative mind as much as possible. So, in that vein, I thought I'd share a few fun snippets from my life and wait until at least after December to evaluate everything else.
This week, we at Great Vow had the privilege of hosting the SZBA's (Soto Zen Buddhist Assosciation) annual conference. It was amazing! All week, I rubbed elbows with America's biggest Zen teachers. By some stroke of luck, I ended up as the conference photographer (no one else volunteered to do it). I sat in on a lot of the sessions and got to see a-whole-nother side of Zen in America. Below are just a few of the hundreds of pictures I took.
All the teachers sitting zazen in the zendo.
The teachers of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.
A precious picture for me. My current teacher Hogen Bays introduces my previous teacher from Indiana, Shohaku Okumura Roshi. Okumura-san gave a lecture on the life of Keizan Zenji.
Okumura Roshi on the left, me on the right. Okumura Roshi is the abbot of Sanshinji, a temple in Bloomington, IN, which was an hour away from DePauw. I would frequently sneak away from university mind-chatter to sit silently with him and his students. I was fortunate enough to re-visit with him at the conference.
Okumura Roshi is a very well respected author, translator, and scholar of Dogen Zenji, founder of the Soto school. He studied under Kosho Uchiyama Roshi at Antaiji in Japan, and has since been practicing for over 40 years. He's published many books, most recently Realizing Genjokoan. I didn't appreciate how well-respected he was until this conference. Many of the teachers were referred to his expertise on Dogen and admired his style of retreat which involves very long periods of meditation with few breaks.
I welcomed photography as my "work practice" job. For the past three months I've spent the majority of my time helping build and paint new walls in the monastery's shower rooms:
It's mind-splittingly boring work, but good mindfulness practice. I'll be back on it next week!
Take care friends. Please live your life to the fullest.
