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I thought it'd be nice to hear a bit from Dogen about ritual and it's purpose. Dogen was an unusual Zen teacher in that he wrote so much down and I want to share a short essay of instructions for his monks written during one of his most prolific periods in his late 30's and early 40's.
We all hear about Eiheiji, but before that Dogen and his students, well and his patrons really who would have paid for everything, built a small monastery outside Kyoto - actually I think they repurposed and expanded an existing temple - and called it Kannondôri Kôshô Gokuku-Ji meaning "Avalokitshvara's Guiding Power, Raising Sages, Treasure Forest, Protecting the Nation Monastery." Later, apparently he let go of trying to get royal patronage and dropped the Gokuku - protecting the nation - part and the place was known as Kannondôri Kôshô-ji. Kannon is the Japanese for Avalokitshvara just like in "Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo".
It makes me wonder about the name of our new temple. A mix of traditional and what's happening in America would be to have an organizational name, which would stay Red Cedar Zen Community I assume, and a temple name, and a mountain name. And it's nice if the temple name works in both Japanese and English. Like in Oregon a few temples like ours are called Heart of Wisdom Temple, and Buddha Eye Temple. I was thinking about our love for the mountains and waters of this region and wonder about just that "Mountains and Waters Temple" which would be Sansui-ji, works in both languages. The mountain name is supposed to be what mountain we're on because in the mythology of Zen a monastery is always on top of a mountain whether it is geographically or not.
One of my Japanese Zen priest informants shared that, for example, one of the earliest Zen temples in America Zenshuji in Los Angeles has the a mountain name of Hokubei Zan "Mountain of North America" - so that can be pretty poetic. I wonder if we could figure out a Japanese version of Kollia-Kulshan or Komo Kulshan - our English-ified versions of the Lummi and Nooksack names for Mount Baker. Meaning "great white watcher" or "White, shining, steep mountain". Baker, by the way was Captain George Vancouver's third lieutenant Joseph Baker. When Vancouver explored the area in the 1790's most of the names he put on his charts stuck.
Or maybe we focus on the local terrain where our building is just above Squalicum Creek - another native name. According to the website of the Washington Trust for Preservation the name Squalicum is a compound of two Native American words; squalla, the dog salmon [chum I assume], and cum, meaning place, the place of the dog salmon. An alternate name, no longer used, was Qualla Creek. Qualla is a Native American name for dog salmon. Not really a mountain though.
The Samish nation made a wonderful website with a tribal speaker pronouncing lots of names around the San Juans and along our coast here. They didn't include Squalicum but I thought you might enjoy hearing how "Whatcom" is pronounced in the Samish Language:
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9b0f86b51e054ba78b83ab39c4d0b1a6
Anyway names are important and also something we often don't really see or think about because they become just, well, the name of the thing. The meaning and history of the word easily lost as we move on to what the name points to. So Dogen I'm sure put some care into the name of his first monastery. Kannondôri Kôshô-Ji: "Avalokitshvara's Guiding Power, Raising Sages, Treasure Forest."
After it had been open for a few years they apparently didn't have enough room for the monks so a second, undō, cloud hall, was built. I haven't been able to find out what the difference between the sodō - the monks hall where the monks sleep and sit - and the cloud hall but I remember the central part of the barn at Green Gulch in between the zendo and the little rooms where people live is called Cloud Hall. At a monastery usually there wasn't a zendo - a place to just sit zazen, the monks lived and sat in the sodo, the monk's hall.
A temple though could have a zendo, but not all do, mostly temples in Japan are devoted to ritual and serving the community, not all Zen connected people there sit zazen believe it or not. Rinso-in, the temple in Japan Suzuki Roshi came from, where we hope to visit in May 2024 is we make it over there - did have a zendo that sat about 25 and they have zazen in the morning. When I was there with Norman and co. our group sat there with Shungo san, Suzuki Roshi's grandson, and I remember one other guy coming up from town on his motorcycle. And it did feel a little dusty and worn. Not quite as spiff as the Buddha Hall, Butsuden, where the rituals happen. And after sitting we didn't do any chanting in the zendo, we filed out to the Butsuden to do service.
Anyway the monastic place for zazen is the monk's hall, the sodo, and it's part of the intensive, ceaseless container or practice they devised. You basically sleep and live at your place in the meditation hall. There's a little cabinet behind you where the bedding and all of your other things are kept. What Dogen wrote about the rules and regulations for the Cloud Hall, undo, would fit that idea. Cloud here, by the way, refers to the name for monks: unsui - cloud-water people.
Anyway here's what Dogen wrote it's just a few pages. Let's listen especially to the hints here around the point of all of these rules and rituals and not get too distracted by the details.
Those who have way-seeking mind and wish to abandon fame and gain should enter. Those who are half-hearted and lack sincerity should not enter. If the entry is a mistake, after some consideration one may be asked to leave.
Know that when the way-seeking mind is aroused within, there is immediate freedom from fame and gain. In the vastness of the billion worlds, true heirs of dharma are rare. In spite of the long history of our country you should make the present moment the true source, having compassion for later generations by giving emphasis to the present.
The assembly of students in the hall should blend like milk and water to support the activity of the way. Although now for some period you are either guest or host, later you will be buddha ancestors equally throughout time. Therefore, you should not forget the feeling of gratitude. It is rare to meet one another and practice what is rare to practice.
This is called the body and mind of buddha dharma; you will certainly become a buddha ancestor.
Having left your home and birthplace, now you depend on clouds and you depend on water. The support to you and your practice given by this assembly of students surpasses that which was given by your father and mother. Your father and mother are temporarily close to you in birth and death, but this assembly of students is your companion in the buddha way of enlightenment for all time.
Do not look for a chance to go out. But, if necessary, going out is permitted once a month. People in the past lived in the remote mountains and practiced far away in the forests. Not only were they free from nearly all worldly affairs, but they also relinquished all relationships. You should learn the heart of their hiding brilliance and obscuring traces. Now is the time for the fire on your head to be brushed off. Is it not sad if you waste this time, concerning yourself with secular affairs? Life is impermanent and unreliable. No one knows where and when this dewlike existence will drop from the grass. Not recognizing impermanence is truly regrettable.
Do not read books in the hall, even Zen texts, and do not bring in personal correspondence. In the hall you should endeavor in the way of realizing the great matter. When facing the bright window, you should illuminate the mind with the authentic teaching. Do not waste a moment. Concentrate your effort.
Day or night, always inform the director of the hall where you are going to be. Do not play around according to your own impulses; your actions affect the discipline of the entire assembly. Who knows? This may be the last day of your life. It would be truly regrettable to die while indulging in pleasures.
Do not be concerned with the faults of others. Do not see others’ faults with a hateful mind. There is an old saying that if you stop seeing others’ faults, then naturally seniors are venerated and juniors are revered. Do not imitate others’ faults; just cultivate virtue. The Buddha prohibited unwholesome actions but did not tell us to despise those who practice unwholesome actions.
Whether carrying out either important matters or trifles, always consult with the director of the hall. Those who do things without consulting with the director of the hall should leave. If you neglect the formality of guest and host, you can understand neither the true nor the conditional.
Inside or near the hall, do not put your heads together and talk loudly. The director should prohibit this.
Do not do chanting circumambulation in the hall.
Do not hold or carry beads in the hall. Do not enter or leave with your hands hanging down. [e.g. always be in shashu]
Do not chant the names of buddhas or sutras in the hall. However, this is permitted when supporters request sutra chanting on a particular occasion.
Do not spit, blow your nose, or laugh loudly. Be sobered by the fact that the work of the way is not yet mastered. Regret the subtle passage of time, which is eating away this opportunity for practice of the way. Then you may have the sense of being a fish in a small puddle.
Those assembled in the hall should not wear brocade but rather things like paper robes. Those who understood the way in the past were all like this.
Do not enter the hall intoxicated with wine. If you do so by accident, you should make a formal repentance. Do not have wine brought into the hall. Do not enter the hall smelling of onions.
Quarreling persons should go out of the hall, because their quarreling not only hinders their own work in the way but also that of others. Those who see such quarreling and do not stop it are equally at fault.
Those who do not follow the guidelines of the hall should be removed. Those who are amused by or in sympathy with such students are also at fault.
Do not show the inside of the hall to visiting monks or laypeople, as this may disturb the students. Do not speak loudly with guests near the hall, and do not talk about practice in a self-praising way, in order to get offerings. However, those who have a long-standing intention to practice or those who are on pilgrimage may be allowed inside. In such cases, always consult the director of the hall beforehand.
Practice zazen in this hall just as in the monks’ hall. Never neglect early morning zazen or the evening practice instruction period.
At mealtime, those who drop monks’ bowls or utensils on the floor should be fined according to the regulations of the monastery.
The admonitions of buddha ancestors should always be followed. The pure guidelines of the monastery are to be inscribed in your bones and mind.
Wish to be serenely composed for your entire life and to practice the way free of expectations.
These regulations are the body and mind of the ancient buddhas. Respect and follow them.
So a very strong practice container. Quiet, serious, non-judgmental of others, not losing yourself in stuff, not even in your Buddhist studies. How might it be to live and practice full time in such a place? Definitely not a lot of amusements going on. Even chuckling at someone else being a goofball is an offense.
I was having a conversation the other day with someone about how very aggressively MALE our practice can seem to be. Does this system of training feel like the invention of men? I'm pretty sure the training nunneries in Japan operate on very similar rules but maybe that's because they're adapting a male system, I don't know.
Let's get into group of 3 and discuss the value or problems you can imagine in such a highly regulated and ordered place of practice. Do reflect that we have some of those same rules here, too. We try to be quiet and composed and still when we're in full zendo mode here at the church.
I thought it'd be nice to hear a bit from Dogen about ritual and it's purpose. Dogen was an unusual Zen teacher in that he wrote so much down and I want to share a short essay of instructions for his monks written during one of his most prolific periods in his late 30's and early 40's.
We all hear about Eiheiji, but before that Dogen and his students, well and his patrons really who would have paid for everything, built a small monastery outside Kyoto - actually I think they repurposed and expanded an existing temple - and called it Kannondôri Kôshô Gokuku-Ji meaning "Avalokitshvara's Guiding Power, Raising Sages, Treasure Forest, Protecting the Nation Monastery." Later, apparently he let go of trying to get royal patronage and dropped the Gokuku - protecting the nation - part and the place was known as Kannondôri Kôshô-ji. Kannon is the Japanese for Avalokitshvara just like in "Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo".
It makes me wonder about the name of our new temple. A mix of traditional and what's happening in America would be to have an organizational name, which would stay Red Cedar Zen Community I assume, and a temple name, and a mountain name. And it's nice if the temple name works in both Japanese and English. Like in Oregon a few temples like ours are called Heart of Wisdom Temple, and Buddha Eye Temple. I was thinking about our love for the mountains and waters of this region and wonder about just that "Mountains and Waters Temple" which would be Sansui-ji, works in both languages. The mountain name is supposed to be what mountain we're on because in the mythology of Zen a monastery is always on top of a mountain whether it is geographically or not.
One of my Japanese Zen priest informants shared that, for example, one of the earliest Zen temples in America Zenshuji in Los Angeles has the a mountain name of Hokubei Zan "Mountain of North America" - so that can be pretty poetic. I wonder if we could figure out a Japanese version of Kollia-Kulshan or Komo Kulshan - our English-ified versions of the Lummi and Nooksack names for Mount Baker. Meaning "great white watcher" or "White, shining, steep mountain". Baker, by the way was Captain George Vancouver's third lieutenant Joseph Baker. When Vancouver explored the area in the 1790's most of the names he put on his charts stuck.
Or maybe we focus on the local terrain where our building is just above Squalicum Creek - another native name. According to the website of the Washington Trust for Preservation the name Squalicum is a compound of two Native American words; squalla, the dog salmon [chum I assume], and cum, meaning place, the place of the dog salmon. An alternate name, no longer used, was Qualla Creek. Qualla is a Native American name for dog salmon. Not really a mountain though.
The Samish nation made a wonderful website with a tribal speaker pronouncing lots of names around the San Juans and along our coast here. They didn't include Squalicum but I thought you might enjoy hearing how "Whatcom" is pronounced in the Samish Language:
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9b0f86b51e054ba78b83ab39c4d0b1a6
Anyway names are important and also something we often don't really see or think about because they become just, well, the name of the thing. The meaning and history of the word easily lost as we move on to what the name points to. So Dogen I'm sure put some care into the name of his first monastery. Kannondôri Kôshô-Ji: "Avalokitshvara's Guiding Power, Raising Sages, Treasure Forest."
After it had been open for a few years they apparently didn't have enough room for the monks so a second, undō, cloud hall, was built. I haven't been able to find out what the difference between the sodō - the monks hall where the monks sleep and sit - and the cloud hall but I remember the central part of the barn at Green Gulch in between the zendo and the little rooms where people live is called Cloud Hall. At a monastery usually there wasn't a zendo - a place to just sit zazen, the monks lived and sat in the sodo, the monk's hall.
A temple though could have a zendo, but not all do, mostly temples in Japan are devoted to ritual and serving the community, not all Zen connected people there sit zazen believe it or not. Rinso-in, the temple in Japan Suzuki Roshi came from, where we hope to visit in May 2024 is we make it over there - did have a zendo that sat about 25 and they have zazen in the morning. When I was there with Norman and co. our group sat there with Shungo san, Suzuki Roshi's grandson, and I remember one other guy coming up from town on his motorcycle. And it did feel a little dusty and worn. Not quite as spiff as the Buddha Hall, Butsuden, where the rituals happen. And after sitting we didn't do any chanting in the zendo, we filed out to the Butsuden to do service.
Anyway the monastic place for zazen is the monk's hall, the sodo, and it's part of the intensive, ceaseless container or practice they devised. You basically sleep and live at your place in the meditation hall. There's a little cabinet behind you where the bedding and all of your other things are kept. What Dogen wrote about the rules and regulations for the Cloud Hall, undo, would fit that idea. Cloud here, by the way, refers to the name for monks: unsui - cloud-water people.
Anyway here's what Dogen wrote it's just a few pages. Let's listen especially to the hints here around the point of all of these rules and rituals and not get too distracted by the details.
Those who have way-seeking mind and wish to abandon fame and gain should enter. Those who are half-hearted and lack sincerity should not enter. If the entry is a mistake, after some consideration one may be asked to leave.
Know that when the way-seeking mind is aroused within, there is immediate freedom from fame and gain. In the vastness of the billion worlds, true heirs of dharma are rare. In spite of the long history of our country you should make the present moment the true source, having compassion for later generations by giving emphasis to the present.
The assembly of students in the hall should blend like milk and water to support the activity of the way. Although now for some period you are either guest or host, later you will be buddha ancestors equally throughout time. Therefore, you should not forget the feeling of gratitude. It is rare to meet one another and practice what is rare to practice.
This is called the body and mind of buddha dharma; you will certainly become a buddha ancestor.
Having left your home and birthplace, now you depend on clouds and you depend on water. The support to you and your practice given by this assembly of students surpasses that which was given by your father and mother. Your father and mother are temporarily close to you in birth and death, but this assembly of students is your companion in the buddha way of enlightenment for all time.
Do not look for a chance to go out. But, if necessary, going out is permitted once a month. People in the past lived in the remote mountains and practiced far away in the forests. Not only were they free from nearly all worldly affairs, but they also relinquished all relationships. You should learn the heart of their hiding brilliance and obscuring traces. Now is the time for the fire on your head to be brushed off. Is it not sad if you waste this time, concerning yourself with secular affairs? Life is impermanent and unreliable. No one knows where and when this dewlike existence will drop from the grass. Not recognizing impermanence is truly regrettable.
Do not read books in the hall, even Zen texts, and do not bring in personal correspondence. In the hall you should endeavor in the way of realizing the great matter. When facing the bright window, you should illuminate the mind with the authentic teaching. Do not waste a moment. Concentrate your effort.
Day or night, always inform the director of the hall where you are going to be. Do not play around according to your own impulses; your actions affect the discipline of the entire assembly. Who knows? This may be the last day of your life. It would be truly regrettable to die while indulging in pleasures.
Do not be concerned with the faults of others. Do not see others’ faults with a hateful mind. There is an old saying that if you stop seeing others’ faults, then naturally seniors are venerated and juniors are revered. Do not imitate others’ faults; just cultivate virtue. The Buddha prohibited unwholesome actions but did not tell us to despise those who practice unwholesome actions.
Whether carrying out either important matters or trifles, always consult with the director of the hall. Those who do things without consulting with the director of the hall should leave. If you neglect the formality of guest and host, you can understand neither the true nor the conditional.
Inside or near the hall, do not put your heads together and talk loudly. The director should prohibit this.
Do not do chanting circumambulation in the hall.
Do not hold or carry beads in the hall. Do not enter or leave with your hands hanging down. [e.g. always be in shashu]
Do not chant the names of buddhas or sutras in the hall. However, this is permitted when supporters request sutra chanting on a particular occasion.
Do not spit, blow your nose, or laugh loudly. Be sobered by the fact that the work of the way is not yet mastered. Regret the subtle passage of time, which is eating away this opportunity for practice of the way. Then you may have the sense of being a fish in a small puddle.
Those assembled in the hall should not wear brocade but rather things like paper robes. Those who understood the way in the past were all like this.
Do not enter the hall intoxicated with wine. If you do so by accident, you should make a formal repentance. Do not have wine brought into the hall. Do not enter the hall smelling of onions.
Quarreling persons should go out of the hall, because their quarreling not only hinders their own work in the way but also that of others. Those who see such quarreling and do not stop it are equally at fault.
Those who do not follow the guidelines of the hall should be removed. Those who are amused by or in sympathy with such students are also at fault.
Do not show the inside of the hall to visiting monks or laypeople, as this may disturb the students. Do not speak loudly with guests near the hall, and do not talk about practice in a self-praising way, in order to get offerings. However, those who have a long-standing intention to practice or those who are on pilgrimage may be allowed inside. In such cases, always consult the director of the hall beforehand.
Practice zazen in this hall just as in the monks’ hall. Never neglect early morning zazen or the evening practice instruction period.
At mealtime, those who drop monks’ bowls or utensils on the floor should be fined according to the regulations of the monastery.
The admonitions of buddha ancestors should always be followed. The pure guidelines of the monastery are to be inscribed in your bones and mind.
Wish to be serenely composed for your entire life and to practice the way free of expectations.
These regulations are the body and mind of the ancient buddhas. Respect and follow them.
So a very strong practice container. Quiet, serious, non-judgmental of others, not losing yourself in stuff, not even in your Buddhist studies. How might it be to live and practice full time in such a place? Definitely not a lot of amusements going on. Even chuckling at someone else being a goofball is an offense.
I was having a conversation the other day with someone about how very aggressively MALE our practice can seem to be. Does this system of training feel like the invention of men? I'm pretty sure the training nunneries in Japan operate on very similar rules but maybe that's because they're adapting a male system, I don't know.
Let's get into group of 3 and discuss the value or problems you can imagine in such a highly regulated and ordered place of practice. Do reflect that we have some of those same rules here, too. We try to be quiet and composed and still when we're in full zendo mode here at the church.
