The Boundless Way Zen network’s leadership circle gathered this past weekend in Worcester, Massachusetts, for our third annual meeting. We currently have sixteen teachers. Ten hold one of our forms of Dharma transmission including the four roshis, three senseis, and three dharma holders. We also include our six senior dharma teachers, who while not dharma successors, all have permission, with guidance, to give talks and most importantly to provide practice interviews including supervising koan introspection. So, while the roshis and senseis together form the senior guiding teachers council, and are the “official” spiritual leadership of the sangha, the sixteen of us together are genuinely the heart of the heart of our community.
And so I found myself reflecting on that “community.” While we affiliations through both the American Zen Teachers Association and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, and have especially deep bounds of affection and mutuality that extend to teachers and sangrias in Connecticut, Kansas, Ohio, and California; this was a gathering of the spiritual leadership of the roughly sixteen (there is fluctuation, particularly for our groups that meet on campuses) Zen sanghas that specifically align as Boundless Way, bound to our specific ethics code, the direction of this band of teachers, and our institutional board, and which share a common vision for Zen in the West.
Our gathering featured zazen, seated meditation in the Zen style, of course. Of course. But it wasn’t a retreat in the traditional Zen way as most of us within this tradition would understand the term. Here we mainly talked. We discussed various aspects of teaching and practice, sharing our experiences as well as hopes and anxieties. What I loved about it at its best was how it showed the Boundless Way beginning to express itself as what might authentically be called a “school” of Zen.
We have inherited several streams of the Zen traditions. We brought together practice insights as well as authorizations from two Japanese lineages, Soto through master Jiyu Kennett, and the koan oriented lay reformed Harada Yasutani lineage through Robert Aitken and John Tarrant, as well as a Korean one through master Seung Sahn. Naturally tensions remain. But, this was the first of gathering where I felt we have achieved largely achieved a synthesis, that we were genuinely speaking to each other out of what I’ve already described as a common vision.
I’m particularly impressed with how our understanding of Zen practice in a Western, and specifically American form is taking shape. Our primary mission is the cultivation of the heart mind. And, I think we can honestly say we’re doing well in that regard. People are finding the disciplines of Zen as we offer them as a genuinely healing balm in hard times. We also have, at least to this day, successfully navigated the tensions unique in our Western Zen communities between lay and ordained practitioners. For the most part I believe we’ve avoided the deep problems of clericalism and anti-clericalism, while engaging in ways to help these be complementary paths rather than competitive ways. We spent some time in one of our breakouts discussing the emerging shape of our ordained model, acknowledging shifts at the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and how that can allow our ordained practice to continue to follow the training focus we consider essential, while remaining recognizable to the larger Soto community. And, we saw how it is an ongoing project requiring humility as well as vision.
For me one of the more important questions is that precisely, how do we provide paths of training that are practical and authentic within our culture, which simply is not ready to support “professional” practitioners in any serious way. As I sat with these people, all who have given their entire hearts and a great deal of their time, sometimes at significant cost personally to this project, I felt humbled and grateful.
We forthrightly discussed the “moving goal posts” when new teachers being to come into a well established circle, and our understanding of what constitutes necessary preparation refines. Some of this opened solutions, some simply revealed problems to be addressed. We also discussed the necessity of expanding retreat opportunities. Primarily we because we see the need for these opportunities for deep practice for the people attracted to our style, but also to allow our newer teachers more opportunities to provide dokusan/interviews within this particularly powerful practice context. We also discussed our growing need for administrative assistance and our need to include paid support positions.
We also discussed our relationship with the times and the urgency of politics and what that means for us as individuals and as a spiritual community. We revisited the questions of how religious institutions may and may not be involved in specific political issues. We were mindful that we were pretty homogeneous in our political views, occupying as we pretty much all do the leftward side of the American political landscape. We discussed how this is a problem, knowing any specific political stance is not necessarily in fact representative of our Zen Buddhist values. And at the same time we acknowledged how many, perhaps all of us deeply felt the cries of the world, and wanted our spiritual discipline to include being aware of and engaging issues of our times, war and peace, the ecological catastrophe, race, and gender.
We only discussed it briefly but we were painfully aware of our limitations of perspective beyond our general political stance. Of our sixteen only one is a person of color and, to my read no more than two identify other than as heterosexual. While several of us came from lower class origins, we were pretty obviously clustered at the upper educational levels of our country, no one present lacking a bachelor’s degree and most with several advanced degrees, including an MD, a JD, and several PhDs.
The whole thing was lightning fast. We began Friday evening and ended with lunch of Sunday. A few of us were able to stay into the afternoon for a jukai ceremony, while others, including Jan and me, had to return to our homes and our communities.
But, now, sitting back here in Long Beach, I feel the warmth of this group of people, their commitment, their growing skills, and our shared vision, which is extending out from Eastern Massachusetts to the Western parts of the state, and to Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and California. Sitting here in Long Beach where we do not have the institutional supports, the physical locations like the Worcester temple, or the network of mutual support, I find nonetheless we are supported. Both spiritually, and practically.
Something like this project is of necessity fragile. Our tradition puts a great deal of importance on the independence of transmitted teachers. And that means anyone can leave at anytime and simply set up shop on our own without having to deal with other people. And everyone knows how other people can be really, really annoying. And. We are holding together.
We are as transparent to each other as I’ve ever seen in a spiritual community. And we are transparent to the great way. Genuinely. Authentically. I feel deeply I am witnessing the birthing of an expression of the great Zen way that is at once authentic and powerful, and completely a part of our culture. A wonderful thing. Something powerful. And precious. I’m honored to be a part of this. And stand in awe as I witness it taking shape.
The Boundless Way teachers shown together in the top picture: Front row: Melissa Blacker, Roshi, David Rynick, Roshi, James Ford, Roshi and Josh Bartok, Roshi. Back row: Senior Dharma Teachers Jan Seymour-Ford, Ed Oberholtzer and Alan Richardson, Diane Fitzgerald, Sensei, Kate Hartland, Sensei, Dharma Holder Steve Wallace, Senior Dharma Teachers Laura Wallace and Carolyn Morley, James Cordova, Sensei, Dharma Holders Mike Fieleke and Bob Waldinger, and Senior Dharma Teacher Jean Erlbaum.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In