Big Mind Genpo is disrobing after admitting to having sex with a woman other than his wife and then having sex with a couple others too, going beyond cheating, I guess. Genpo had previous issues having sex with students but I’d thought (hoped) he’d put that behind him.  The main thing seems to be that he’s stepping back from teaching Soto Zen, ordinations and precept ceremonies specifically, but continuing with his Big Mind activities.  Sweeping Zen has a number of... Read more

On Sunday I had the opportunity to speak to the community of the Buddhist Temple of Ann Arbor Zen about one of the topics most dear to me – the precarious situation of our planet and what we can do about it. One source of inspiration for me – really positive things and not just gloom and doom – that I didn’t mention is the World Changing: Change Your Thinking site.  Here’s Alex Steffen’s TED presentation about creating a sustainable... Read more

This past weekend I went to the Buddhist Temple of Ann Arbor to malign the buddhadharma and am happy to report that the trip was quite successful on this and other counts. Haju Sunim, the resident teacher (in orange above), picked me up at the airport and went to work on trying to teach me right away. She brought me to her car and opened her trunk. As I put the larger of my two bags in the trunk, Haju... Read more

Genjo Marinello is the fine teacher with the Rinzai group in Seattle, Chobo-Ji. Among other student experiences, Genjo studied with Eido Shimano for ~15 years and has been instrumental in the retirement of Eido and the first steps of recovery for Zen Studies Society.  In the moving talk linked below, Genjo gives his understanding of Eido’s disparate behavior. Could be titled, “How a Good Teacher Can also be a Bad Teacher Can also be a Good Teacher.” Click here or... Read more

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My day job is coordinating a program for teenagers with “behavior problems,” as we say. I don’t write about it much here due to confidentiality and boundary issues.  And today I can’t go into the kind of detail necessary for a really good blog post either.  Let me just say we had a real rough week and I want to praise the police officers that I work with for stepping into situations where somebody could get hurt – especially themselves... Read more

I enjoy the “No Zen in the West” blog of Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler (it seems to be messed up somehow tonight though so you might check back again soon).  Recently Jiryu has been chewing on the question of whether to stick to the real McCoy of the true Buddhadharma or offer people what they want, re-creating the Buddhadharma to fit with people’s interests. Jiryu begins “No One Cares in the West” with a quote he attributes to the Soto Zen... Read more

Yesterday we completed a sweet weekend sesshin. Our theme during this period is the up-a-tree koan (see previous post) and we’re using Dogen’s “The Meaning of Bodhidharma Coming from the West” as our play ground. Our entry point is to taste the branch in our mouth – how each of us is up-a-tree in this life, vulnerable and alone. Hung out to dry. This koan is like a dream – like the one where you show up at work for... Read more

Today is Katagiri Roshi’s birthday (82 or 83) so I begin by toasting that old boy with the above one big candle.  It would make him very happy, I’m sure, to see Kaz Tanahashi & Co’s brand-spanking new and complete translation of Dogen’s Shobogenzo here on my table. And a lovely translation it is with a couple hundred page glossary, maps, index, updated translations and is just a wonderful contribution to dharma students.  You might thank all those associated with... Read more

This is a new book by Pilar Jennings, a psychoanalyst who has studied Buddhism mostly in the Tibetan tradition. A friend mentioned it to me and it grabbed my attention.  The chapter that interested me most is “Asian Monastic Teachers and the Western Psyche” which is about how Asian teachers and Western students tend to misinterpret each other based on our world views. Having studied with Japanese teachers for years, I resonated with a lot of what Jennings says. For... Read more