Five Styles of Soto Zen in the West

Five Styles of Soto Zen in the West April 29, 2016

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Five Styles of Soto Zen in the West

The project of Zen is awakening.

Awakening is seeing past the illusions of our isolation and permanence and into the real world of causal play, where we understand from our cells that we and everyone and everything else are constantly birthing, dying and rebirthing within a dance more intimate than words can ever tell.

This is, of course, our common inheritance. And people wake up to this reality in all cultures and within all religions. But, some traditions offer technologies of the spirit that are generally more useful than others. I find Zen to be among the most useful of these.

And so Zen is a family of disciplines that help us to find our way. And Soto Zen is a member of that family, with a history that extends from China into Japan and from there has come west. However, Soto itself is not one thing. In fact in my years along the Zen way, I have come to identify five ways in which Soto Zen manifests here in the West.

In this brief reflection I want to hold them up for our consideration.

At the heart of all these five we find the practice of zazen, just sitting, sometimes called silent illumination, and the guidance of the Japanese founder Eihei Dogen, one of the great spiritual geniuses of all time. Leadership is held within an ordination system unique to Japan, based in an older precept system initially seen as a complement to Vinaya monastic ordination, but over time standing on its own, and significantly, creating temple priests who often live outside of community and who even marry and raise families.

But, there is more, yet. And, this is where we see the five approaches that have emerged within the training of these practitioners and leaders.

First, there is the Japanese monastic model, which is normative in Japan. In fact anything else is pretty much unimaginable in Japan. I believe it is deeply misunderstood by many of us in the West. Observing the harshness of the discipline, Soto monastic training has been characterized as being like an English boy’s boarding school. And with that often dismissed as something archaic and probably unhealthy. But, I think that’s inaccurate. What it really is, is a very strict, and yes, harshly applied pushing of the individual into a manifestation of the Buddha way.

It is done through an individual’s alignment with prescribed forms ranging from how you sit in zazen to how you shit. Pretty much every moment is an invitation into manifestation. All along this way the individual’s thoughts or feelings simply do not matter. It isn’t about crushing the ego. The ego is simply irrelevant to the matter at hand. In this practice the only thing that matters is following the form, becoming the form. While it is a high-risk discipline, and I’m sure it is littered with casualties, it also does produce fruit. I’ve been deeply impressed with some of the people I’ve met for whom the Soto way is just this discipline.

And.

There is what we encounter in the large training centers here in the West. They resemble that Japanese model. But import in subtle and not so subtle ways a western style monasticism into the training that overlays the form-as-enlightenment model.

While there are moments where precision of attention as practice manifests, in zazen and in liturgical moments, beyond those prescribed moments that strictness quickly fades away. Outside of that formal part of the day people are simply living under rule. Lower risk, but also less fruitful, in my opinion. Still, for some it definitely works. Again, I’ve seen some powerful examples of transformed lives. It is this form of training that has become more or less “normative” Soto in the West.

And.

The fastest growing form of practicing Zen in the West I’d call temple oriented. It’s heavy on regular zazen, and offering lots of retreats. It brings with it a much heavier emphasis on life in the world, which I think a healthy turn. Often, but not necessarily these communities are led by people with monastic training background, both of the Japanese variety, but more commonly of the Western monastic model. In a few communities, church-like congregations are appearing with religious education opportunities aiding in raising children, as well as other venues building Buddhist communities.

And.

There has been an introduction or rather re-introduction of curricular koan introspection practice, primarily through the adaptation of the Harada-Yasutani curriculum. A large minority of Western Soto groups incorporate this koan path.

It has its risks, as well; but, offers a way into manifestation of the Buddha way through an interior route rather than the exterior one of classic Soto monasticism. It can fit in with either forms of monastic training, but doesn’t appear to require it. In practice this style is most often associated with a form of the temple-oriented community, and provides an alternative to the monastic models.

And.

Last there’s what I’m calling a “sacramental” approach to ordination. It is the most complicated of the emerging forms of Zen in the West. Zen is marked by, in many ways supported by, and as well haunted by the myth and reality of Dharma transmission. And in particular as Soto Zen has collapsed Dharma transmission and full ordination into a single ceremonial authorization of leadership, it becomes the focus of romance and projection. And in this last “sacramental” form of Zen in the West, ordination is seen as similar to Christian priestly ordination, which is understood as a “mark” on the soul, a shift in who the ordained is.

In groups with sacramental oriented priests, while zazen remains important, there is a de-emphasizing of both monastic and retreat practice. For the most part priests in this sacramental way have neither monastic nor koan experience, and compared to the previous models their training can be extremely light. What this emerging form of Zen will mean is far from clear. Although, I have some anxiety about it diluting into something more about costumes and titles than any kind of serious practice.

In general I’m quite excited at the range of possibility emerging within Western Soto Zen. I’m sure there will be some dead ends. And no doubt other forms will emerge, as well. For instance, I think we’re at the edge of lay led Soto identified groups becoming a sixth style. For the most part richness. Within all this new opportunities for practice and depth, and most of all awakening are emerging.


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