By Jishin Liz Kuney Sensei
This past fall, two ceremonial events marked the historic transfer of the abbot’s staff from Shinge-shitsu Roko Sherry Chayat Roshi to Chigan-kutsu Kyō-On Dokurō R. Jaeckel Roshi.
On a sunny October 1st, Dai Bosatsu Zendo hosted its first Abbot Retirement Ceremony, a bounteous celebration in honor of Shinge Roshi’s twelve-year term and 50-year association with the Zen Studies Society. Beginning with board president Hokuto Daniel Diffin Osho, several sangha members spoke about the challenging and remarkable journey of Shinge Roshi’s tenure and shared sentiments of gratitude.
Shinge Roshi read numerous excerpts from Like a Dew Drop, an anthology of her recent talks that the Society gifted to those in attendance. As a unique feature, after the sangha chanted the Heart Sutra and Great Light Dharani, the Most Ven. Tet Tung Thai and the Ven. Nguyen Thai from the Định Thành Temple in Frankfort, New York, chanted the Great Light Dharani in Vietnamese. Moving and sublime performances by Anthony Bez on classical guitar and Marco Burmeister on shakuhachi lilted through the autumn air of the majestic zendo. A sumptuous feast
prepared by Muken Mark Barber Sensei and additional speeches followed the ceremony in the tented courtyard. The board of directors presented Shinge Roshi with a
large, vibrant scroll by calligrapher and scholar Kazuaki Tanahashi.
On November 24th, Chigan Roshi was installed as the third Abbot of the Zen Studies Society during the canonical Abbot Installation Ceremony. Chigan Roshi received the Abbot’s staff and presented his four-line verse to mark the occasion: On this mountain, white clouds appear in radiant light,
On this mountain, white clouds appear in radiant light,
Morning dew gathers, heart’s flowers bloom bright.
The valley’s echoes transmitting Dharma-song,
This Dharma jewel shall forever shine on.
山白雲聚承明光
朝露心華綻顏庭
谷回傳響法音悠
法界金剛永輝耀
The dignified and austere traditional ceremony featured chanting and a teisho. Chigan Roshi used an iron nyoi (a ceremonial scepter) that belonged to Nyogen Senzaki, the first Rinzai monk who lived in the United States. Chigan Roshi noted that Senzaki, who called himself a “mushroom monk,” worked quietly and without affectation for half a century, “preparing the ground for us to receive the beneficence of this teaching.”