With palms together,
Zen is neither Japanese or American, Chinese or German, Zen is just Zen.
We should leave all such distinctions aside. We are about practice. We practice to discover our true nature. We practice to be buddhas.
When we come to Zen, however, a Teacher and his or her Zen Center practices with a set of clothes, a language, and a set of customs, if you will. It is these clothes , languages, and the assumptions that go with them that create "American Zen" or Japanese Zen" or some other "Zen."
When I say we are severing our ties with Soto Shu, I mean that we are setting out on our own, walking in our own authority, and not being tied emotionally, financially, or in any other way, to Soto.
My Teacher's Teacher (my dharma grandfather) Matsuoka-roshi was a Soto Zen Bishop. He was sent to America to establish Zen Centers and bring the dharma here to the US. He was assigned here by Sojiji, a training center in Japan. He was a poor monk, not clever or sophisticated with money. While he managed to establish several Zen Centers on both coasts, he took very little money and had little to share with Sojiji. Now Japanese Zen is all about authority, control, and money. If Matsuoka sent the money everything was fine. When Matsuoka could not send the money, things were not fine.
Our model here in the US is his. We make little money from the dharma, ceremonies, ordinations. We modify our ceremonies to fit our neighborhoods and the cultures we exist in. This is classic Zen Buddhism. Adapting, changing, growing: a dymamic , living, force. Soto training centers such as Sojiji seem to be bent on continuing their existance for the purpose of regulating and authenticating (for a fee, of course) Zen.
Humbug.
Want to know Zen? Sit on a cushion and face a wall. With practice comes clear mind, with clear mind comes clear thinking and all of the other paths of our way.
So here we are in a New Year. Let us rejoice in our own authority!
Be well,
May All Beings Be Free From Suffering
So Daiho-roshi
On the web at http://www.daihoji.org/ and http://daihoji.blogspot.com/
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