A wonderful weekend in Clatskanie is winding down…
This was perhaps the smallest of the American Zen Teacher’s Association gatherings in recent years. Still twenty-five teachers representing Soto, Rinzai, Harada-Yasutani, Chogye and mixed lines gathered at the Great Vow monastery to visit, to reflect and to renew.
We had wonderful Dharma presentations from Genjo Marinello, a Rinzai priest from Washington State and Taihaku Gretchen Priest, a Soto priest teaching in Vermont. Our final speaker will be my collaborator David Dayan Rynick, who brings the Son Linji line into our Boundless Way project.
We had presentations and discussions on various subjects ranging from psychological issues encountered in practice centers to the relationship of the Dharma and the Internet. We had small group discussions on a variety of issues including current trends in koan study, innovations and successes in sangas and lay empowerment.
And I found, as I suspect many of us did, the real heart of this gathering were the opportunities for peers to gather and just be together. This is a rare opportunity for those of us who have been gifted with the responsibility of presenting the Zen Dharma in the west to be with folk who share in this project, its heartaches and its joys.
Our hosts Chozen & Hogen Bays and the sangha of the Great Vow monastery were graceful and inviting.
This evening which wraps up most of the events, save only zazen and a public Dharma talk tomorrow, concluded with a vegetarian feast followed by homegrown entertainment. The Great Vow’s renowned marimba band played, Soto priest Ejo McMullen turned out to be an accomplished magician, Rinzai priest Shinge Roko Chayat gave a powerful reading of something from Oregon’s poet laureate Lawson Inada, and we concluded as David Rynick and Buddhist Society of Compassionate Wisdom sunim, Haju Murray, led us in a beautiful round adapted from the Metta Sutta.
I’m ready to go home. I’ve been on the road a bit too long.
And I’m so grateful for these coworkers in this great project, grateful for all they’ve done and will do, and for the way they’re willing to reach across traditions in service and friendship, and for what these gatherings can mean for the Zen Dharma as its tender roots sink into our rich Western soil…
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