{"id":4981,"date":"2019-01-19T10:15:11","date_gmt":"2019-01-19T16:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?p=4981"},"modified":"2022-01-25T19:41:47","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T01:41:47","slug":"hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html","title":{"rendered":"H\u014dky\u014dji Memories on Katagiri R\u014dshi’s 91st Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"
Katagiri R\u014dshi, right, with D\u014dsh\u014d, left, in 1984.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Today would be the 91st birthday of my first teacher, Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi (1928-1990). Happy birthday, old boy!<\/p>\n

Recently, the H\u014dky\u014dji Zen Practice Community<\/a>, one of the centers that\u00a0Katagiri R\u014dshi founded, asked me to share some memories of the early days there, given that they\u2019re celebrating their 40th year. Below you\u2019ll find what I wrote, slightly modified.<\/p>\n

\n

H\u014dky\u014dji was very important to my development as a Zen practitioner, and I\u2019m very grateful to everyone who made this wonderful place possible, especially, of course, Katagiri R\u014dshi.<\/p>\n

I first went camping on \u201cthe land,\u201d as we then called H\u014dky\u014dji, soon after it was purchased in 1978, although we didn\u2019t use it much for the first couple years. I believe there was a tree planting in 1979 of the pines on the bluff-side above the cabin. During the simple planting ceremony Katagiri R\u014dshi gave a great shout, and that seemed like it really started the practice there. This shout was particularly surprising becauseKatagiri R\u014dshi was not a \u201cshouting-Zen\u201d type.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 1980, Katagiri R\u014dshi asked me to coordinate the first sesshin at the land. It would be a major undertaking because we didn\u2019t have a road into the area we had chosen (the future building site) and there were no buildings and certainly no utilities. We also had to ford the creek to get back into the area that is now developed.<\/p>\n

I believe it was Paul D\u014dsh\u014d Courtney that found the big army tent that we used for a zendo and Greg Taizan Shaeffer who built a portable bridge for the creek. We cooked over a fire and with Coleman stoves. Idealists that we were, we planned the sesshin for the first weekend in October, not anticipating that the temperature would get down to 22 degrees. We sat on frozen ground with only a lining of plastic tarp for insulation. Thank buddha for even our paper-thin zabutons!<\/p>\n

Most of the couple dozen practitioners who attended sat zazen in the early morning with our sleeping bags wrapped around us \u2013 except Katagiri R\u014dshi, of course, who wore the same thin robes as usual. He gave a talk during zazen about \u201cDongshan\u2019s No Heat, No Cold,\u201d and concluded by saying, \u201cThis not cold. Eiheiji (the monastery he trained at in Japan) was cold. Very cold. This not cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

I tell you, though, it was cold. How cold was it? As the timekeeper, I sat facing out. Just as Katagiri R\u014dshi ended his \u201cinspirational\u201d talk, I saw a horse fly buzzing awkwardly around the altar. The horse fly suddenly made a beeline for the candle, committing suicide, and snuffing out the flame, all in one swoop.<\/p>\n

Don Uphold, who sat next to me (and was always tougher than me), also started the period without his sleeping bag, but during that first cold and endless period of sitting he stealthily reached over and slowly pulled my bag off me and over himself. He often tried to make me laugh during sesshin, and succeeded more than once, but this was just not funny!<\/p>\n

Soon after that, we did some fundraising with the beautiful poster that you may have seen. See below. We were inspired by Kobun Chino\u2019s group that had raised $250,000 with a similar poster.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we didn\u2019t have a \u201cSteve Jobs\u201d on our mailing list and the fundraising didn\u2019t go well. We raised just enough to cover the printing and postage, about $32,000, if memory serves (more than our annual budget). This wasn\u2019t good because we had a balloon payment of about $25,000 coming up in about 1982. So we tried again. This time I asked R\u014dshi if I could recruit the most \u201cworldly\u201d and extroverted students in the group to focus on fundraising and he supported the idea. So several other odd Zen students and I met every Tuesday night for the better part of a year figuring out how to bring in money. We not only had a great time together, but also succeeded \u2013 we raised enough for the balloon payment and the first buildings.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll end with one more story. At one of the first practice periods, I was Katagiri R\u014dshi\u2019s anja (in-the-room attendant). Greg had rigged a Japanese-style soaking tub for\u00a0R\u014dshi with a 50-gallon barrel on a small platform next to the cabin (in very early stages). One of my jobs on bath days was to heat the water with an old propane camp stove. I had to keep an eye on it so it didn\u2019t go out, blow up, or burn down the cabin with R\u014dshi inside. Sometimes Katagiri R\u014dshi would come out and sit with me in the grass and talk.<\/p>\n

I remember asking him during one such conversation about dharma<\/a> transmission. This might have been just after I was priest ordained, so around 1984. He got very serious and said, \u201cI will do only in most authentic way.\u201d Unfortunately, I didn\u2019t ask him what he meant by \u201cmost authentic.\u201d I assumed he meant in D\u014dgen\u2019s way because, for Katagiri R\u014dshi, \u201cauthentic\u201d = D\u014dgen\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

Then later, just before he died, he did give dharma transmission to twelve of us. I have often wondered if this was in line with D\u014dgen\u2019s authentic way. Katagiri R\u014dshi and the several monks who came from Japan to help with the ceremony, told us that our dharma transmissions were premature (although I think they may have used a more delicate term), and so it was very important that we continue our training.<\/p>\n

After all this time, I am very happy to see H\u014dky\u014dji celebrating 40 years, and continuing to offer practice opportunities!<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach \u014csh\u014d. D\u014dsh\u014d also teaches with the\u00a0Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>,\u00a0an internet-based Zen community. D\u014dsh\u014d received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi and inka sh\u014dmei from James My\u014dun Ford R\u014dshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is the author\u00a0of\u00a0Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today would be the 91st birthday of my first teacher, Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi (1928-1990). Happy birthday, old boy! Recently, the H\u014dky\u014dji Zen Practice Community, one of the centers that\u00a0Katagiri R\u014dshi founded, asked me to share some memories of the early days there, given that they\u2019re celebrating their 40th year. Below you\u2019ll find what I wrote, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nH\u014dky\u014dji Memories on Katagiri R\u014dshi's 91st Birthday<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today would be the 91st birthday of my first teacher, Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi (1928-1990). Happy birthday, old boy! Recently, the H\u014dky\u014dji Zen Practice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"H\u014dky\u014dji Memories on Katagiri R\u014dshi's 91st Birthday\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today would be the 91st birthday of my first teacher, Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi (1928-1990). Happy birthday, old boy! Recently, the H\u014dky\u014dji Zen Practice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wild Fox Zen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-19T16:15:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-26T01:41:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/88\/2014\/02\/Katagiri-and-Dosho--300x298.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dosho Port\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dosho Port\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html\",\"name\":\"H\u014dky\u014dji Memories on Katagiri R\u014dshi's 91st Birthday\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-19T16:15:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-26T01:41:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd\"},\"description\":\"Today would be the 91st birthday of my first teacher, Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi (1928-1990). Happy birthday, old boy! Recently, the H\u014dky\u014dji Zen Practice\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"H\u014dky\u014dji Memories on Katagiri R\u014dshi’s 91st Birthday\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/\",\"name\":\"Wild Fox Zen\",\"description\":\"Living the Dream\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd\",\"name\":\"Dosho Port\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dosho Port\"},\"description\":\"Dosho Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teachers with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach, with the Vine of Obstacles Zen. Dosho received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri Roshi and inka shomei from James Myoun Ford Roshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is the author of \\\"Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri,\\\" \\\"The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,\\\" and \\\"Going Through the Mystery's One Hundred Questions.\\\"\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.vineobstacleszen.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/author\/doshoport\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"H\u014dky\u014dji Memories on Katagiri R\u014dshi's 91st Birthday","description":"Today would be the 91st birthday of my first teacher, Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi (1928-1990). Happy birthday, old boy! Recently, the H\u014dky\u014dji Zen Practice","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"H\u014dky\u014dji Memories on Katagiri R\u014dshi's 91st Birthday","og_description":"Today would be the 91st birthday of my first teacher, Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi (1928-1990). Happy birthday, old boy! Recently, the H\u014dky\u014dji Zen Practice","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html","og_site_name":"Wild Fox Zen","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port","article_published_time":"2019-01-19T16:15:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-26T01:41:47+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/88\/2014\/02\/Katagiri-and-Dosho--300x298.jpg"}],"author":"Dosho Port","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dosho Port","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html","name":"H\u014dky\u014dji Memories on Katagiri R\u014dshi's 91st Birthday","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-01-19T16:15:11+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-26T01:41:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd"},"description":"Today would be the 91st birthday of my first teacher, Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi (1928-1990). Happy birthday, old boy! Recently, the H\u014dky\u014dji Zen Practice","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2019\/01\/hokyoji-memories-on-katagiri-roshis-91st-birthday.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"H\u014dky\u014dji Memories on Katagiri R\u014dshi’s 91st Birthday"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/","name":"Wild Fox Zen","description":"Living the Dream","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd","name":"Dosho Port","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dosho Port"},"description":"Dosho Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teachers with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach, with the Vine of Obstacles Zen. Dosho received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri Roshi and inka shomei from James Myoun Ford Roshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is the author of \"Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri,\" \"The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,\" and \"Going Through the Mystery's One Hundred Questions.\"","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.vineobstacleszen.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/author\/doshoport"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}