{"id":7556,"date":"2021-06-21T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?p=7556"},"modified":"2021-11-01T12:48:48","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T18:48:48","slug":"zen-conversations-42-zen-teachers-talk-a-short-excerpt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2021\/06\/zen-conversations-42-zen-teachers-talk-a-short-excerpt.html","title":{"rendered":"Zen Conversations: 42 Zen Teachers talk … a short excerpt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Another baby book has birthed and is making their way the world. In this case, it\u2019s Rick McDaniel\u2019s new book that\u2019s out there, ready to be read. You\u2019ll find it here: click<\/a>. Zen Conversations<\/em> includes a section by yours truly, see below, and features a rare section by Tetsugan Sensei, my wife, best friend, and teaching partner.<\/p>\n

If you follow the click<\/a>, you\u2019ll also find fourteen<\/span> blurbs by Zen teachers \u2013 now that\u2019s one well-blurbed book! These blurbs represent a really wide range of Zen teachers, which is also what you\u2019ll find in the book \u2013 a wide range of opinions about key issues in Zen practice.\u00a0Indeed, the array of views might be confusing. After all, if there is this thing called Zen<\/em>, then shouldn\u2019t there be more commonality about what the heck it is?<\/p>\n

That seems reasonable, but apparently, Zen doesn\u2019t mind having many voices. What is the one voice?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the blurb I wrote: \u201cIn\u00a0Zen Conversations<\/em>, Rick McDaniel captures the voice of American Zen. It comes through as if there were one voice whispering through all the many voices chronicled\u00a0here and through all the various views about practice and awakening. Rick\u2019s extraordinary interviewing skills stand out through these many Zen teachers. He himself is almost absent, while his subjects shine through on page after page. A delightful read.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the blurb, below you\u2019ll find the portion of Zen Conversations<\/em> that I contributed. In addition to sharing a little section in hope that might lead you to buy the book, I\u2019m posting this because it strikes me as a pretty clear expression of my opinion \u2013 that if a Zen student\u2019s intention is to realize the same mind as Buddha and live accordingly, koan work is more effective for most householders\u00a0<\/span>than just-sitting. I hope this might stimulate some conversations about best practice standards for meditation techniques, especially among Zen teachers.<\/p>\n

We teachers have best practice standards in other areas \u2013 governance and ethics, for example \u2013 so why not have best practice standards for the heart of Zen?<\/p>\n

I invite you to take a look at this. If you are so moved, share your opinion on the Facebook page where you found this (not Disqus, please).<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in reflecting on the Zen movement in the West (especially the US and Canada), or if you\u2019re looking for a teacher and would like to see them in the context of an array of other teachers, I encourage you to buy Rick\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the excerpt:<\/p>\n

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Since Albert Low\u2019s death, Dosho Port is the teacher with whom I\u2019ve continued playing with koans. He is a Dharma<\/a> heir of both Dainin Katagiri and James Ford, and his training with Katagiri was in the Soto tradition where the focus is on monastic life and shikan taza \u2013 which Dosho prefers to refer to by the English rendering \u201cjust-sitting\u201d \u2013 rather than on koan study. It was Katagiri\u2019s wish, however, that Dosho spend some time practicing in Japan, and, while there, he was introduced to koan work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the purpose of koan introspection and just-sitting combined with dignified behavior, the way it\u2019s taught in Soto monasticism, are the same,\u201d he tells me. \u201cBut if the goal is to realize the same mind as Buddha and live accordingly \u2013 or \u2018to practice awakening\u2019 as Dogen put it \u2013 koan work is more effective for most householders\u00a0<\/span>than just-sitting, and, despite the continuing prevalence and power of the monastic narrative within Western Zen, about 99% of Zen students are householders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Harada Daiun Roshi and Yasutani Roshi did in the 20th <\/span>century was simplify the Rinzai koan curriculum so that it was portable, so that practicing awakening as a householder was within reach of anyone who approached the work with persistence and skilled guidance. I don\u2019t know that making it available to householders was their intention. It could be that they were just trimming the hedge that had grown up since Hakuin\u2019s time, but that simplification, or refocusing, made it possible for English-speaking Westerners to do post-kensho koan training without being Chinese classics scholars.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt about the same time, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Katagiri Roshi, Chino Roshi, and others were here trying to figure out how to teach people how to practice in householder life in the West, and so they simplified dignified-behavior training from the Soto monastic system in a way that was similar to what Harada Roshi and Yasutani Roshi had done with the koan curriculum. But, in my experience, without the monastic container, the impact of dignified-behavior training is rarely as effective as the koan curriculum. It just isn\u2019t as obviously portable.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaying this doesn\u2019t make me very popular in some Soto circles, but that\u2019s my experience as a student and as a teacher, first as a teacher in the Soto system for twenty years and now as a teacher of the Harada-Yasutani koan curriculum for about ten. Without koan training, people can certainly have deep belief in the efficacy of the Buddhadharma, but it\u2019s rare to actually taste the truth of Zen in their life without some kind of koan work. It\u2019s possible, of course, and I\u2019ve met about a dozen students, some of whom also started with Katagiri Roshi, who I\u2019m convinced had clear kensho experiences while practicing just-sitting. But even if someone living as a householder has a first kensho, there isn\u2019t a system within Soto Zen in the West, at least outside of the few Soto monasteries here, that can help people move through and beyond the first opening. And post-kensho integration is really the more important part of training. Within the koan curriculum there are hundreds of barrier koans to pass through as exercises in the \u2018how to\u2019 of vividly practicing awakening \u2013 actually integrating the kensho experience within the nitty gritty details of the life the person is living.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\"D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach \u014csh\u014d, with the\u00a0Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>, an 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. D\u014dsh\u014d\u2019s translation and commentary on\u00a0The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is now available (Shambhala). He is also 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":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Another baby book has birthed and is making their way the world. In this case, it\u2019s Rick McDaniel\u2019s new book that\u2019s out there, ready to be read. You\u2019ll find it here: click. Zen Conversations includes a section by yours truly, see below, and features a rare section by […]<\/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-7556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nZen Conversations: 42 Zen Teachers talk ... a short excerpt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"              Another baby book has birthed and is making their way the world. 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