UNSUI – Dharma Cloud Hermitage

Archive for October, 2009

Last week the vice-abbess Shuko and I went to participate in a five day retreat at Rinzai-ji Zen Center in Los Angeles.

Joshu Roshi changed the General Sesshin that ran from 10/14 through 10/18 into a Dai-sesshin, meaning that there was full-time sitting schedule with four sanzen and teisho. The numbers were quite impressive, having as many as 37 participants. A large number, almost 20, came all the way from Europe to sit with Roshi. This contingent also included Seiun Genro, Osho from the Bodhidharma Zendo in Vienna – the teacher with whom I first made contact with in 1982 and who started me in formal Zen practice. It was nice to meet many people with whom I go back as far as 27 years of practicing together. It is just amazing to be able to see and appreciate the changes that take place over this amount of time. I feel very fortunate and grateful to have met such outstanding teachers and human beings. A good number of these European practitioners I have not seen since I moved to the US, that means for more than fifteen years. It was nice reconnecting with them.

Joshu Roshi was in good health condition and did not skip a single sanzen. Although he is working slower now than in the past, he saw each of us four times a day. With this number of participants the time elapsed during sanzen varied between four and six or seven sitting periods. This translates to anywhere between two and three and a half hours – which adds a massive amount of sitting to an already tight schedule. Some days we did not close the zendo before 10:45 pm, which pushed the schedule way beyond the 9 pm regular closing. Even with these changes, the 3 am wake-up remains in effect. Altogether this made up for an intense Dai-sesshin that had a quiet and calm overall tone. I had the honor to serve as Jikijitsu and lead the group through most of the retreat. Roshi has moved on to Saisho, Mt. Cobb in northern California, where he is giving a Dai-sesshin starting on the 22nd of October. Mt. Cobb is an evolving center that is aspiring to build Rinzai-ji’s senmon dojo – the monastic training center for future generations of Rinzai-ji monastics, teachers, and leaders. A full plan for all facilities is in development and Gido Osho, who is in charge of Saisho, is working very hard to realize this aspiration on Roshi and his sangha. Many thanks and a deep bow to him and his helpers.

Many thanks also to everyone who helped in making another Dai-sesshin with Roshi possible, and to all who covered for us absentees during that time. We’re back!

We have resumed our full schedule after Labor Day weekend and the Zendo has come back to its full life. With the new site there will be more frequent updates on what’s happening, articles, essays, and other materials that pertain to what we do at Houn-an.

The October 7 Open House was well attended, we had visitors from the Harvard Buddhist Community, as well as individuals who just came to check out the CBA. A quick sit, followed by walking meditation, and an introduction to the practice of chanting made up the formal part of the evening. Refreshments after allowed for a lively discussion, question and answers, in which visitors and sangha members contributed. We always appreciate the visitors, and sometimes we see faces return and join the sangha.  Like a living organism that constantly changes, our group also undergoes changes. We have a core group of practitioners who sustain the practice and serve as officers during the formal sittings. This is a good place to thank them for their support and participation in the activities of the temple.

Today we learned that the Abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery, John Daido Roshi, has succumbed to cancer. He was a successor to Maezumi Taizan, but had also studied with Nakagawa Soen. The Mountain and Rivers Order has lost their founder and the American Zen landscape a fixture and prominent personality.

The loss of a Zen teacher always makes me keenly aware of the unfathomable privilege to have been able to study with Joshu Roshi over the last decades, and to be still able to go and work with him in his 103rd year here on this planet. In fact, next week the vice-abbess and I will be able to participate in a Jidori Sesshin with Roshi and a good number of his European sangha at Rinzai-ji Zen Center in Los Angeles. If all works out I will also have the opportunity to meet again with Seiun Genro Osho, with whom I first started in the early eighties of the last century. Genro is himself geeting up there, 85 years of age, and it will be neat to have him there with Roshi. There will also be a good number of ‘old’ Zen students I know from my early Zen times in Austria.

In our absence the Zendo will be run by our senior sangha members. Please attend frequently and take advantage of the opportunities to sit, chant, walk, and share the spirit of the sangha. Your participation is important and we are truly grateful having you be part of our community.

In our regular evening schedule we end every sitting at night with the Kozen Daito Kokushi Yui Kai, the Final Admonition of the National Teacher Kozen Daito. In Zen temples that are in the lineage tradition of the Otokan school (Dai-o Kokushi, Daito Kokushi, Kanzan Egen) the text is also chanted before the master gives teisho. The chant sounds quite different compared to the sino-japanese syllabic transliterations of Indian Buddhist scriptures since it is medieval Japanese and multiple syllables may fall on a single beat. The rhythm on the mokugyo (the wooden temple block) also differs from the patterns used in the regular sutra chants – it is constant, an elemental rhythm, like a march, without acceleration; it begins at a set pace and remains in the same tempo throughout.

The text goes back to Shuho Myocho 宗峰妙超 (1282-1337), usually known as Daito Kokushi 大燈國師, who according to the stories gave this admonition as the last address to his students. He was an interesting character, who according to legend after the death of his principle master (Dai-o Kokushi) spent twenty years living with homeless beggars under the Gojo Bridge in Kyoto. The Emperor Hanazono, who later sponsored Myoshin-ji 妙心寺, went to look for Shuho Myocho; not being able to distinguish him from the other beggars he resorted to a clever device. The Emperor knew that the Zen master loved melons; therefore he brought along a basket of melons and asked the beggars to take the melon without using their hands. By answering “Give me the melon without using your hands” Shuho revealed himself and the emperor was able to persuade him to become the abbot of Daitoku-ji 大徳寺, where Shuho then spent the rest of his life. Shuho Myocho died in the high seat, after forcing his crippled leg into full lotos posture (and thus breaking it); once he assumed the posture he composed his death poem, and then passed away.

Translation

O you, monks, who have come to this mountain monastery, remember that you are gathered here for the sake of the Way and not for the sake of clothes and food. As long as you have shoulders [i.e. a body], you will have clothes to wear, and as long as you have a mouth, you will have food to eat. Be ever mindful, throughout the twelve hours of the day, to apply yourselves to the study of the Unthinkable. Time passes like an arrow, never let your minds be disturbed by worldly cares. Ever, ever be on the look-out. After my departure, some of you may preside over five temples in prosperous conditions, with towers and halls and holy books all decorated in gold and silver, and devotees may noisily crowd into the grounds; some may pass hours in reading the sutras and reciting the dharanis, and sitting long in contemplation may not give themselves up to sleep; they may, eating once a day and observing the fast-days, and, throughout the six periods of the day, practice all the religious deeds. Even when they are thus devoted to the cause, if their thoughts are not really dwelling on the mysterious and untransmissible Way of the Buddhas and Patriarchs, they may yet come to ignore the law of causation, ending in demise of the true rpractice. All such belong to the family of evil spirits; however long my departure from the world may be, they are not to be called my descendants. Let, however, there be just one individual, who may be living in the wilderness in a hut thatched with one bundle of straw and passing his days by eating the roots of wild herbs cooked in a pot with broken legs; but if he single-mindedly applies himself to the study of his own affairs, he is the very one who has a daily interview with me and knows how to be grateful for his life. Who should ever despise such a one? Work hard, work hard!

Transliteration

KO ZEN DAITO KOKU SHI YUI KAI
NAN JIRA SHO NIN KONO SAN CHU NI KITA- ATTE DO NO TAME NI KO BEO ATSU MU.
EJI KINO TAME NI SURU KOTO NAKA RE,
KATA A- TTE KIZU TO YU KOTO NA KU,
KUCHI A- TTE KURA WAZU TO YU KOTO NA SHI.
TADA SUBE KARA KU JU NIJI CHU MURI ENO TOKO RONI MUKA- ATTE,
KIWA ME KITA RI KIWA ME SARU BE SHI,
KO IN YANO GOTO SHI, TSUTSU SHIN DE ZO YO SHIN SURU KOTO NAKA RE,
KAN SHUSE YO KAN SHUSE YO.
RO SO AN GYANO NO CHI ARU IWA JI MON HAN KO BU- KAKKU KYO KAN, KIN GIN O CHIRI BA ME,
TASHU NYO NETSU ARU IWA JU KYO FUN JU CHO ZA FU GA ICHI JIKI BO SAI ROKU JI GYO DO,
TATO I IN MONI SHI SARU TO IE DOMO,
BU- SSO FUDEN NO MYO DO O MO- TTE, KYO KAN NI KAZA I SEZU N’BA TACHI MACHI IN GAO HATSU MUSHI,
SHIN PU CHINI OTSU, MINA KORE JYAMA NO SHUZO KUNA RI.
RO SO YO SARU KOTO HISA SHIKU TOMO JISON TO SHO SURU KOTO O YURU SA JI.
ARU IWA MO SHI ICHI NIN A RI YAGA INI MEN ZE- SHI,
I- PPA BO TEI SE- KKYAKU SHO NAI NI YASA I KON O NITE KI- SSHITE HIO SUGO SUTO MO
SEN ICHI NI KOJI O KYU MEI SURU TEI WA, RO SO TO NICHI NICHI SHO KEN HO ON TEI NO HITO NA RI,
TARE KA AE TE KYO KOTSU SEN YA.
BEN SEN BEN SEN.

Japanese

Version 1

This version I found on the Web at http://www.geocities.jp/tierrakoya/umibe/zendera/daitokokusi.html

興禅大燈國師遺誡

汝等諸人此の山中に来つて道の為に頭を聚む。
衣食の為にする事なかれ、
肩有つて着ずと云ふ事なく、口有つて食はずと云ふこと無し。
只須らく十二時中無理會の處に向つて、
究め来り究め去るべし、
光陰箭の如し、謹んで雑用心すること莫れ、
看取せよ看取せよ。
老僧行脚の後或は寺門繁興佛閣経巻、金銀を鏤め、
多衆閙熱或は誦経諷呪長座不臥一食卯斎六時行道、
直饒恁麼にし去ると雖も、
佛祖不傳の妙道を以て、胸間に掛在せずんば忽ち因果を撥無し、
眞風地に墜つ、皆是れ邪魔の種族なり。
老僧世を去る事久しくとも兒孫と称する事を許さじ。
或は一人有り野外に綿絶し、
一把茅底折脚鐺内に野菜根を煮て喫して日を過すとも
専一に己事を究明する底は、老僧と日々相見報恩底の人なり、
誰か敢て軽忽せんや。
勉旃。勉旃。

Version 2

This second version was taken from a 2006 edition of the Myoshin-ji Sutra Book (妙心寺臨済宗勤行聖典). It differs in punctuation and some characters are different or replaced by the hiragana pronunciation.

興禅大燈國師遺誡

汝等諸人、此の山中に来つて、道のために頭を聚む、
衣食のためにする事なかれ。
肩あつて着ずということ無く、口あつて食わずということなし。
只須らく十二時中、無理会の処に向つて、
究め来り究め去るべし。
光陰箭の如し、謹んで雑用心すること莫れ。
看取せよ看取せよ。
老僧行脚の後、あるいは寺門繁興、仏閣経巻、金銀を縷め、
多衆閙熱、或は誦経諷竪咒、長坐不臥、一食卯斎、六時行道、
直饒恁麼にし去ると雖も、
仏祖不伝の妙道を以て、胸間に掛在せずんば、忽ち因果を撥無し、
真風地に墜つ、みなこれ邪魔の種族なり。
老僧世を去ること久しくとも兒孫と称することを許さじ。
或は一人有り。野外に綿絶し、
一把茅底折脚鐺内に野菜根を煮て喫して日を過すとも、
専一に己事を究明する底は、老僧と日日相見報恩底の人なり。
誰か敢て軽忽せんや。
勉旃勉旃。

Please come by the Cambridge Buddhist Association on the evening of the first Wednesday in October, November, or December.

The dates are October 7, November 4, and December 2. We will start around 7:30 pm. If you arrive earlier we can send one of the sangha members to give you a tour of the house; otherwise, please come by 7:30 pm so we can start on time!

• October 7, 2009, 7:30 pm
• November 4, 2009, 7:30 pm
• December 2, 2009, 7:30 pm