by Morley Evans
Dogen-zenji founded the Sōtō School in Japan. This is his story.
MEMORIES of MY VISIT TO JAPAN in 1970 have been stirred up. I hope you don’t mind and you will indulge me for a few minutes.
As soon as I arrived in Japan, I felt welcome for the first time in my life. I felt as if I was coming home. This movie deals with Sōtō Zen that was founded in Japan by Dōgen-zenji. Sōtō is the largest Zen sect in Japan; Sōtō priests do all the funerals in Japan; Shintō priests do weddings and open factories. Shintō is not Buddhism.
In the movie, you will see monks sitting on zafu pillows in the lotus position facing walls. Za-zen requires a person to sit quietly and to do nothing. That’s it! Thoughts come and go. One watches one's thoughts as if they were passing clouds floating across the sky. The mind creates thoughts. The heart pumps blood. Lungs breathe. These are functions of being alive. They are facts of life.
Zen masters teach that za-zen is entirely worthless. It has no purpose. “You are not sitting to ‘improve’ yourself or to gain anything.” Pain is an over-riding fact of zazen that is seldom mentioned in books, but everyone experiences pain. You can find out yourself. If you can, get into the lotus position; sit for fifty minutes; then get up and slowly walk for ten minutes in kinhin meditation; then sit again for fifty minutes. Sleeping is not permitted. When you start to get comfortable, you will start to fall asleep. You will be awakened abruptly and rudely if you fall asleep. At some point, you may think you are going to die, but no one has ever died doing za-zen, they say. The bell rings three times to end a session. The brass bell was the best sound I have ever heard. Bong; Bong; Bong.
Monks in the movie are at Eiheiji which was founded by Dogen.
Uchiyama-Roshi told us in 1970 that the United States is nominally a Christian country. Despite this, few Americans know anything about Christianity, he told us. The same is true of Japan, he said. Japan is nominally a Buddhist country. Yet few Japanese know anything about Buddhism.
Uchiyama-Roshi was only 58 years old in 1970. He seemed old and frail to me. I was 23 years old. Roshi told us being tough won't help you to do zazen. Yet, he was tough. Uchiyama did extra zazen. He would sit, by himself, for hours in the zendo. Sometimes he would be joined by Omura-san, a retired businessman who had come to live at Antaiji to prepare for the end of his life. Uchiyama-Roshi was a life-long sufferer of tuberculosis. He was the most humble man I will ever know. When his teacher Sawaki-Roshi died, Uchiyama-Roshi sat a forty-nine-day sesshin which is a monumental achievement.
"In Zen-Buddhism, Dharma transmission is a custom in which a person is established as a "successor in an unbroken lineage of teachers and disciples, a spiritual 'bloodline' theoretically traced back to the Buddha himself." Wikipedia
Zen Masters 'accept' new Zen Masters. In the same way, Christian Bishops 'accept' Bishops. They are part of a lineage connected back to Christ. An Episcopal church is a church of and by bishops.
Ordained Zen priests are not necessarily Zen Masters.
At the time Sawaki died, Uchiyama was alone in a small decrepit temple. But new young energetic monks were attracted to Antaiji, not by slick public relations but by a real Zen Master who kept the faith and stayed true to Zen Buddhism.
 |
| Sawaki-Roshi |
Antaiji was a very humble place. I often wondered if it could be a real Zen Temple. Antaiji was unlike the big impressive Zen Temples in Kyoto. Despite this, Antaiji welcomed people from around the world who came to Japan to learn about Zen. People like me came and stayed. They charged me nothing and only asked that I follow the zen schedule like all the monks. Antaiji has a loyal worldwide following thanks to Uchiyama-Roshi.
Antaiji is no longer in Kyoto. The huge undeveloped parcel where it was located was surrounded by residential developments when I lived there. No doubt, the Sōtō sect sold its property to land developers for a bundle. A new Antaiji is now located on the coast of the Sea of Japan. Wikipedia writes:
Antai-Ji is a Buddhist temple that belongs to the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism. It is located in the town of Shin'onsen, Mikata District, in northern Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, where it sits on about 50 hectares of land in the mountains, close to a national park on the Sea of Japan. Wikipedia
I was a very lucky young man in 1970 to have lived at Anaiji in Kyōtō. This beautiful building above is far away from Kyōtō. It was built long after I left Japan. The current abbot at the new Antaiji is Muhō. The zazen schedule now is even harder than it used to be. I'm 72 years old. I couldn't do it. To be perfectly honest, I couldn't do it when I was 23.
My experience at Antaiji changed my life. I've done a little of this and a little of that. Zen remains the single most valuable thing I have ever done.
No comments:
Post a Comment