dharma<\/a> transmission is 65 and the average age of priests-in-training like Jiryu is 58 (yes, thems the real \u201creliable\u201d numbers \u2013 crunched em myself \u2013 and we could be in deep trouble with the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack about to become our very own if things don\u2019t change). If this tradition is going to survive with any strength, I\u2019m praying for more like him in age and spunk!\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nLooks like we believe that 60 is the new 40. Well, 53 doesn\u2019t feel like 40 to me!\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAnyway, Jiryu is a priest in the San Francisco Zen system who isn\u2019t averse to cussing, at least in print \u2013 and I like that. After some years of practice, including at Tassajara, Jiryu became concerned with what he saw going on around him, struggled to be nice, but had to admit that he found the practice lacking the intensity and single-mindedness that he\u2019d found in Zen lore, so off he went to Japan, looking for the real deal.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nJiryu trained both at a traditional monastery with a history going back to one of Dogen\u2019s students, Hokyoji, and a not-so-traditional monastery, Bukkokuji (pictured above), with Harada Tangen Roshi \u2013 the only surviving direct discendent of Harada Diun Roshi (of the Yasutani-Harada lineage and thus the White Plum, Diamond Sangha, and Kapleau Roshi lineages to name just a few).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nI too trained at Bukkokuji in 1990-91 and find Jiryu\u2019s\u00a0 descriptions of his experiences <\/span><\/span>very evocative <\/span><\/span>and quite similar to my own. Harada Tangen Roshi is the real deal. Everyplace is different but if you want a clear view of Bukkokuji and get a sense of practice in Japan, read this book.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nHowever, I find that my own interest piques in his descriptions of San Francisco Zen Center. I\u2019ve visited their various centers a few times, had friends that were high up in the organization, even helped foil their attempts in about \u201985 to make Katagiri Roshi abbot after Baker Roshi left (another story!) but am very much an outsider, an interested onlooker. Katagiri Roshi helped get the place started afterall and Zen Mind Beginner\u2019s Mind, Crooked Cucumber <\/i>and Shoes Outside the Door <\/i>have all been important books for me in very different ways \u2013 all three are really important contributions to American Zen, imv.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nSo I\u2019ve watched from afar, usually living in the fly-over, far from one of the<\/i> shores of Zen. Okay, that\u2019s one minor beef I have with the book \u2013 \u201ctwo shores\u201d is so Californiacentric, so Californicationish, forgetting perhaps that there\u2019s more to Zen than what\u2019s going on in the altered state and the old country.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nSo Jiryu struggled with priests living comfortably with spouses and kids, the lack of zazen zeal, organizational priorities, etc., and told his SF teacher that this was all \u201cbullshit.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nHis teacher\u2019s response included the following,\u00a0<\/span><\/span> \u201cA disciple of Buddha does not disparage the triple treasure. Please be careful. Don\u2019t make yourself better than the rest of us. I think you know that\u2019s the furthest thing from our practice.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nJiryu\u2019s comments here summarize much of his perspective: I do know that; I have heard it many times anyway. But I\u2019m frustrated, and I\u2019m tired, and it\u2019s dawning on me, like a slow, unstoppable train, that if I\u2019m really serious about this Buddhism thing, I may well need to abandon this California imitation of it. I don\u2019t mean to disparage the Sangha, my peers and my teachers, but I have vowed to end all suffering, my own and others\u2019. And I\u2019ve glimpsed the possibility of that kind of salvation, but the lifestyle here is not pushing me to take the plunge, to realize the one final truth that will shatter all delusions and liberate all beings.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nNow that\u2019s all well and good. I\u2019d say, \u201cWhat\u2019s holding you back? Sit until you break through your zafu, etc.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nWhat concerns me is Jiryu\u2019s teacher\u2019s response, \u201cDon\u2019t make yourself better than the rest of us.\u201d On the one hand, \u201cmaking\u201d yourself better than others really isn\u2019t possible (what\u2019s the measure?) so what\u2019s the point of saying it? And on the other hand, is it a violation of the tenth of the ten grave precepts, \u201cnot disparage the triple treasure,\u201d by suggesting that your co-practitioners are engaged in some bullshit?\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nIn order to disparge the sangha, the community of San Francisco Zen Center, or any Zen Center (I could say dharma center but rather stay closer to home), would have to be a \u201csangha\u201d in the triple treasures of buddha, dharma and sangha.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe value of the triple treasures lies in how they are reliable refuges in the ocean of suffering like the old buddha or the dharma teachings and practices. What constitutes a sangha, a community of practitioners, whom we can rely on?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAccording to the Buddha, the sangha was composed of people who had become home-leavers, following all the hundreds of precepts (which we mostly do not in Zen) and\/or those who had attained stream entry (a kensho-esque initial breakthrough). Following all those precepts restricts activity to the point that it makes sense to me that a person would be reliable \u2013 at least on the surface \u2013 because they couldn\u2019t even tickle anyone without having to confess it. Breakthrough experiences \u2026 well, I\u2019m less convinced (and am speaking about myself too, just to be clear).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nIn the Mahayana, especially in China, the definition of sangha expanded to include birds and trees, tiles, rocks and pebbles. This was an important expansion of our tribe to no boundaries. And yet \u2026 the definition also collapses any practical utility. A bird is really reliably a bird and doesn\u2019t much care if a priest calls his\/her lifestyle bullshit.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nMaybe it\u2019s just me being presumptuous, but I find using the \u201csangha\u201d word a bit presumptuous and call myself and those who practice here a practice community because, let me be clear, I am unreliable.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAnd I haven\u2019t found others reliable either, including Katagiri Roshi \u2013 that\u2019s either one of the wonderful qualities of humans that I usually enjoy or is a cynical song of experience or both.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nMy view that people are unreliability, btw, includes people who are members at Zen Centers, enlightened teachers, and myself as I said. Even if only finally, in death, everybody is unreliable.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nIn other words, the reliable thing about people is their unreliability. To assert that anybody who wanders through the doors of a Zen Center and pays dues is sangha (in any sense other than birds and trees) and therefore a reliable refuge is really idealistic and doesn\u2019t really prepare a community for the hard parts of the journey. It\u2019s like cutting out the horrific dragons and witches from fairy stories.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nMy first sesshin with Daido Roshi, I said to him, \u201cSeems like a really good group of practitioners.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAa,\u201d he said, \u201cthey\u2019re just barely alright.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAnyway, if someone were sangha, shouldn\u2019t we honor them by meeting them completely, playing full out, with whatever can be said fairly and kindly? This is part of the \u201cmutual polishing\u201d (more about that in the future for our online practice community) practice of the Japanese monastic system that we don\u2019t do much of here in the US. \u201cUgly potatoes in potato peeler,\u201d said Katagiri Roshi, \u201call become shiny and beautiful.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAnyway, the importance of reliability is overstated, especially when we need incredible creativity and boldness to establish Zen practice in such a way that it can be transmitted to future generations.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nTherefore, to suggest that Jiryu\u2019s earnest-sounding doubts<\/span><\/span> about San Francisco Zen Center (and American Zen generally)<\/span><\/span> \u2013 maybe like the kid who saw that the emperor had no clothes and was willing to call out \u2013 should not be raised because he\u2019s breaking the precepts seems like both a way of repressing investigation in order to maintain the organizational status-quo and a missed opportunity for a full-out meeting.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nComments welcome, of course.<\/span> Let\u2019s explore this more together.<\/span><\/p>\n
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