Wholehearted Play

I’ve been busy these last few days after sesshin with a couple projects I took on, including writing a piece about play for the upcoming Austin Zen Center newsletter, Just This (not sure when it’ll be “out’), connecting Zen, violence, and salvation, of course.

I also just saw Jiryu’s No Zen in the West blog piece and discussion about the lack of young people in Zen. It’s a important conversation.

Here’s my comment:

Thanks Jiryu for bringing this up. It’s one of my major concerns about Zen these days. I crunched the numbers from the Soto Zen Buddhist Association site a few years ago and found the the mean birth year of those with dharma transmission was 1946 and 1952 for priests in training.

It is as bad as you think. Or worse. Sitting out here in the fly-over, I hear that SF is a big exception. I hope that’s true.

I think one of the main causes is identified above – the present “Zen Center” configuration is designed by and for baby boomers. Easy-going schedule, focus on belongingness needs, and volunteering for labor intensive tasks. That’s gotta change.

Katagiri Roshi often exhorted us about our responsibility to transmit to the next generation. Frankly, I often get the sense at teacher meetings that many are more focused on retirement and lateral transmission.

But then I tend to wallow a bit in the gloomy.