Devyani Sadh - Zen Studies Society

Engaged at ZSS – Self-Care, Up Close, From Afar

July 1, 2024 by Devyani Sadh

By Dr. Morgan Perkins

Throughout history, humans have found ways to communicate over distance using constantly evolving technologies. The earliest evidence of a printed book is a copy of the Diamond Sutra from 868 CE. This sutra was printed using wood blocks to facilitate mass production in order to spread the Dharma.

It was a more recent technology–a webcam–that inspired this message. I expect few readers are not intimately familiar with these devices, as they are now integrated into our computers. You may love, hate, or be indifferent to them. You may avoid online meditation entirely, keep your camera off, or fully embrace the opportunities it provides. For me, seeing the face of the speaker, or a screen full of co-practitioners, provides intimacy despite the distance. This particular webcam, which was once at the cutting edge of online communication but is now obsolete, I might have thrown away as trash; instead, it has been transformed by an artist’s imagination, and now ‘sits,’ encouraging self-care.

What does this have to do with Engaged Buddhism?

Although I had visited DBZ for many years to join the Thanksgiving celebration, it was not until the COVID-19 pandemic—when ZSS began the Three-Fold Sangha online gatherings each Sunday for Dharma talks—that I began to engage with the Sangha more regularly. The webcam technology was there before, but we embraced it in new ways as we came together to practice, to share our joys and sorrows, to see and hear those whom we could not touch, and to alleviate some of the isolation imposed upon so many of us. During that time, I learned of the Engaged Buddhism discussions on Wednesday evenings, and here I am.

As the world returns to some new semblance of ‘normal,’ the use of online practice to complement meeting in person has endured. We who have reflected on what this means for the ZSS Engaged Buddhism efforts have certainly spent time considering the benefits of bringing people together from all over the globe to learn and practice. While many live in close proximity and can create initiatives that may seem more tangible, when we are working from a distance, we have to depend on technology and find alternative ways to engage. I for one am grateful for this humble and ingenious little device, for I do not live close enough to our practice centers to sit regularly in person.

So, even though I have not met all of you in person, thank you to Jikyo, Jifu, Michael, Yūki, Seiho, and everyone else who has participated in our gatherings, for being there on my screen and for helping me try to make my engagement more sincere. What can we do from afar? We can come together, up close. We hope you will join us.

Engaged at ZSS – Engaging While Aging

June 24, 2024 by Devyani Sadh

By Jikyo Bonnie Shoultz Sensei

In April and May, articles by Yuki Eric Michels and Michael Fayne asked us to look at our own mortality and the impermanence of all things. Their approaches are the “same yet different,” hitting on both the absolute and relative truth. Yuki asked us not to be lulled by our awareness of impermanence but instead to “continue questioning the things we are not taught to question, and especially the things we are taught not to question.” Michael reminded us that “through a loving engagement with all things, we can see with amazement the miracle and transcendent value of each life, each name, each body, and each moment.”

Even if we don’t fear death, even if we feel we are clear about impermanence, something within us encourages us to look away from writings about death. At age 82, I find the same to be true when we regard aging. As a woman in the later stages of life, it can be confusing…is today’s loss of mental clarity or physical energy going to last? Does my practice mean just accepting what I notice in myself? Can I continue to question what I experience and at the same time embrace lovingly that which I uncover, whether in myself or the social environment?

Aging also makes me reflect on how I can continue to engage with the apparent injustices and suffering in the world. I worked in prisons and jails for many years, as an advocate in the 1970s and as a Buddhist volunteer from 2005-2020. The pandemic lockdown stopped that work, and by the time things opened up, I was in my early 80s. Even if I had started up again, I knew it wouldn’t last many more years.

I was also involved in anti-violence work, as a board member of OGs Against Violence, a local organization founded by a man doing bodhisattva work in the streets of Syracuse. Every day, he intervened personally to stop shootings, knifings, and fights, all the while showing love and care to everyone affected, even those who were engaged in violence. When board elections came around, I stepped down to leave a slot for a younger person, preferably someone from the neighborhoods he worked in.

For an aging person who still wants to contribute, I’ve found the book The Engaged Spiritual Life by Donald Rothberg (Beacon Press, 2006) provides suggestions. He reminded me that I have felt called to do work that addresses injustice and supports those most impacted by it for most of my life. I still feel that calling, but I meet it in different ways now. I can join an organization led by people with very different lives than mine and stay with it if they accept me. I can work with an interfaith coalition that addresses social issues. I can become more aware of the needs of others in my own Buddhist community. The options are endless if I just pay attention to others and am honest with myself about what I can bring to the needs I am finding. It is both continuing to question, as Yuki urges, and finding ways to engage with love, as Michael Fayne advises.

2024 A Grateful Return by Shinge Roshi

June 12, 2024 by Devyani Sadh

By Shinge Sherry Chayat Roshi

I can’t describe my recent visit to Japan without using a cliché: it was the trip of a lifetime. The last time I was there, in 2017, was certainly a peak experience—Chigan Roshi and his wife, Shuko Rubin; Myogen Conor Keenan and his wife, Kai Sasahara, and Myoku Miyo Hirano and I were guests of Noritake Shunan Roshi, abbot of Reiun-in, who made it possible for us to attend the 250th commemoration of Hakuin Ekaku Zenji at RyutakuJi in Mishima and additional ceremonies at MyoshinJi. It was a rich and fulfilling time, an unsurpassable time—surely my last in Japan, I thought.

Then the invitation came: on May 26, 2024, Yamakawa Sogen Roshi, abbot of ShogenJi and KokokuJi, would be installed as Kancho (supreme abbot) of MyoshinJi, one of the Rinzai School headquarters. The Kyoto temple complex includes 46 sub-temples, including Reiun-in, spread across a vast area connected by stone pathways. I immediately accepted. Chigan Roshi could not attend, but special funding arrangements were made through the generosity of several donors so that I could represent the Zen Studies Society. Read More

Article – Feeding the Hungry Ghost

May 8, 2024 by Devyani Sadh

By Eshin Brenda Shoshanna

Some people are unable to feel full and complete. They crave so much that no matter what they have, they cannot be satisfied. This is called being a hungry ghost, run by the affliction of greed. When hungry ghosts are invited to a banquet, they sample everything and eat it up, but cannot taste, savor, or digest the delicious meal in front of them. No matter what they eat, they are left hungrier than before.

Similarly, when hungry ghosts are invited to the banquet of life, they cannot taste or digest their experiences. Hungry ghosts can be hungry for food, love, money, recognition, anything. Whatever they receive, they want more.

Hungry ghosts do not realize that it is greed that causes the pain. And the more they grasp, the more they crush whatever they have in the palm of their hand. As we learn to let go, rather than feed our cravings, the hunger and dissatisfaction will start to subside.

The Disease of the Mind

To separate what we like
From what we dislike
Is the disease of the mind.

—Zen Master Sosan

As we feed our cravings, we become controlled by the desire to cling to whatever feels good and reject whatever feels threatening. When we find what we like, we become attached; when we find what we dislike, we use all our power to push it away. Thus, we spend our precious life energy discarding half our experience, and grasping at and clinging to the rest.
Living this way, we become completely dependent on external conditions for our sense of well-being. A sunny day will make us happy, but as soon as thunderstorms arrive our happiness is gone. The same is true in our relationships, where so-called love and hate fluctuate wildly.
Like a leaf blowing in the wind, we can’t relax, we are always anticipating what will come next. Because people and conditions constantly change, we have no idea what we can hold on to or where to find true satisfaction.

A student went to his meditation teacher and said, “My meditation is horrible, I feel so distracted, my legs ache, and I am constantly falling asleep.”

“It will pass,” the teacher said matter-of-factly.

A week later, the student came back to his teacher. “My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive!”

“It will pass,” the teacher said matter-of-factly, again.

—Zen teaching

We may think something painful is bad for us, and something that feels good is positive. But this is not so. We may be rejecting something that could be meaningful because it makes us uneasy initially. We may be staying attached to something that is harmful, simply because it is familiar. It’s impossible to realize what is truly beneficial when we live in this way. As Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi has said, the great gift of zazen is to be able to hold all the world in the palm of our hands.
What is it that you chase after and hold on to? What is it that you routinely avoid, reject, or hide from? Can you see what a toll this takes on you? Does this way of being bring comfort, safety, or happiness? Be honest with yourself. That’s all that’s needed, honesty.

When we begin to let go, to open our hands, minds, and hearts, we reverse this age-old pattern. We begin to see that what we like or dislike is not a measure of anything. We cannot build our lives around it. We often dislike something because we know nothing about it and recoil from something that may be entirely good. Beyond that, our likes and dislikes are constantly changing. One day, something that we adore may cause us to recoil.

As you undertake the task to live a life of true satisfaction, do not separate what you like from what you dislike; don’t chase after one thing and reject another. Instead, slowly open your mind and hands to everything.

Open Hands

When Dogen, a great Zen master, was young, he went to China to study Zen. Dogen spent many years there, and then undertook the dangerous journey back to Japan. When he reached his homeland, many people had heard about him and came to see him. When they asked him what he had learned during all those years in the monastery, he said, “I came back with nothing but empty hands.”
Empty hands are precious. When our hands are empty, not grasping, they become supple and available. They can feel, they can touch, reach out to others, give and accept gifts in return. Dogen’s open hands were available to all of life. He was not holding on to what he liked and pushing away the rest. He was willing to accept and be with it all.
Empty your hands. What are you holding on to tightly? Can you open your hands for a moment and let it go? Can you stop grasping that which you desire and pushing away what may not feel good? See yourself opening your hands and allowing something to go. See yourself opening a fist you may have clenched to fight or reject part of life. Stop fighting and allow everything to be as it is, including yourself.

Engaged at ZSS – When Death Comes…

May 1, 2024 by Devyani Sadh

By Dr. Michael Fayne

As the Evening Gatha reminds us, “On this night, the days of our life are diminished by one.” No one knows that number, from which their days are relentlessly subtracted. It might not be a large number at all. This is an easy thing to say, but to hold in our hearts a deep understanding of this truth, is an awareness both shattering and liberating.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver addresses this matter in a work entitled “When Death Comes”, from which this excerpt is taken:

When death comes
like an iceberg beneath the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering,
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms…
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

Ms. Oliver poses inconceivable questions for us to consider, again and again. How can we look directly at our mortality and feel joy? How can we acknowledge the impermanence and loss of all that we know and love, with a heartfelt peace?

She offers a way: Only by befriending our life, she says, can we befriend our death. Through a loving engagement with all things — “look[ing] upon everything as a brotherhood and sisterhood” — we can see with amazement the miracle and transcendent value of each life, each name, each body, each moment.

To look upon everything in its true nature, without exception.

To engage with life in this way would be to shake free of many chains of the mind. Breath by breath, in our practice we move closer to the truth that, in Ms. Oliver’s “cottage of darkness” — be it throughout this life or after it, or perhaps over many lifetimes — there is a tenderness from which nothing is ever cast away.
Ms. Oliver poses inconceivable questions for us to consider, again and again. How can we look directly at our mortality and feel joy? How can we acknowledge the impermanence and loss of all that we know and love, with a heartfelt peace?

2024 MRC The Perfection of Generosity

April 26, 2024 by Devyani Sadh

By Chigan Roland Jaeckel Roshi

Last year we made significant progress in the first phase of the Monastery Restoration Campaign. Your generosity has enabled us to make critical repairs to the temple bell tower, to install more environmentally sound heating systems in the Zendo and the Dharma Hall, and to prepare the site for the installation of our own photovoltaic array near the Temple Gate at the bottom of the DBZ property. The newly installed heating systems ensured a comfortable setting for our first Introduction to Zen event in 2024, accommodating forty people.

Some Phase II projects are on hold until the weather is more suitable, like the repairs needed to fix the roof leaks that have been annual occurrences for the last decade. Currently, melting snow and ice on the flat portion of the roof requires us to send someone onto the roof to clear it, or the water will leak into the building.

We look forward to seeing the plans for the new heating and dehumidification systems for the guest wing, library, and abbot’s quarters. This will make visits in the cold season more comfortable, reduce dampness in the summer months, and further reduce our carbon footprint. The photovoltaic array will be our next big impact project, offsetting our energy consumption with renewable energy that is as locally sourced as possible!

Much more work is needed on our aging infrastructure, but as we progress, we all feel heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has contributed, those who are contributing for the first time, and those who will, with open hearts, give again. Together, we carry forward the spark of the energy of Universal Life throughout these endless dimensions – making it possible for new practitioners to encounter the Dharma Jewel at Dai Bosatsu Zendo, and for long-time practitioners to return and continue to walk this path of the bodhisattva.

The perfection of generosity may seem like an idealistic idea or concept, but it becomes real when you can see the impact it has. I invite you to adopt one of the remaining projects, give towards a project close to your heart, and then come to Dai Bosatsu Zendo to witness the actualization of your giving. Thank you!