Liturgy

I have been exploring the roots of Korean Son (Zen) Liturgy and am having a blast in this exploration. Having practiced with the Kwan Um School of Zen for most of my Zen History, I had gotten used to chanting in transliterated Chinese, Korean and Sanskrit. In fact, the only chant we did in English was the Heart Sutra.

It has been quite interesting to actually read the English versions of chants that I could do in my sleep in their transliterated forms and have no idea of what any of them mean in English.

It is also interesting to go into many Western Zen Center's and view the beautiful Calligraphy Scrolls that adorn the walls which were painted by Master's in the expressive Chinese Grass Style font. Yet, what struck me many years ago was that if a Chinese National (which would occasionally happen) would come to the Zen Center they would instantaneously understand the messages on the wall. Simple statements like; "Wake Up," or "Blue Mountain, White Cloud." I always thought, how inspiring that must be to those who can read the Chinese Logographs.

So, for many years I chanted sounds completely disconnected from meaning; and I would quote Zen Master Seung Sahn who would say that many of the Korean Monks didn't know what they were saying either. Some how that made it OK; yet I don't know how many times I witnessed new students get up and walk out in the middle of the first or second chant we would be performing to never return. Now, I don't mean to want to change things just for changes sake, but after reading these Liturgical forms in English I am struck by their depth of meaning and the potential significance they can have for the practitioner.

There are still sections of chants that contain dharanis or mantras that cannot be translated and these of course are left as is, and still contain the power of their unknowing execution. Yet this still leaves me with the feeling that we English speaking people should be chanting in our native language so that we can understand the depth of the teaching that it is we are practicing.

It is wonderful to be in a group that can chant well, and the exotic nature of the sounds that are formless can be uplifting and cause us to transcend the self; yet this usually only occurs when there is a large group who is well versed in the chanting. Our lay sangha's that don't sit ninety day retreats have difficulty learning these chants and the potential seems to never hit the mark.

I remember one such retreat in the foothills above Denver perhaps in 2000 or 2001. Zen Master Seong Hyang (Bobbie Rhodes) was leading the retreat and in attendance was Thom Pastor; Abbot of Great Bright Zen Center, Algernon D'Ammassa; Abbot of Dharma Zen Center, Richard Baer; Abbot of the Denver Zen Community and myself, Abbot of the Ocean Eyes Zen Center. I was sitting next to Bobbie and the chanting was so intense that I remember one night of the seven day retreat where I was with Zen Master Soeng Hyang note for note on the Great Dharani, and when we were all done we looked into each others eyes and realized that we had connected on the wordless plane.

Consequently, by adopting a liturgy which is true to my Korean Son lineage, and also allows students to partake in the depth of the teaching by understanding the Liturgy, seems like the natural progression of the transmission from Korea to America.

When Chan was first transmitted to Korea and Japan interviews and koan work were initially done in Chinese, so the monks needed to study a foreign language in order to practice. Eventually some sage teachers decided that it was more important for the students to understand what was going on than it was to study some arcane language. In the 1960's the Catholic Church quit doing Mass in Latin, so I think we are safe in doing a little chanting in English.

Zen Master Seung Sahn's 1st meeting with his teacher

My Dharma Brother Zen Master Daebong who has been living and teaching in Korea since the mid nineties just recently posted this video and I thought I would share it with all of you. Actually Daebong Sunim took care of Sungsan for the last years of his life in Korea and was with him until the end. This is a very interesting story and I hope you all enjoy the energy that he tells it with.

A Meeting of Clear Minds at Huntington Zen Center

I found this article from 14 years ago on LA Times web site, it was back when we were still the Huntington Beach Zen Center. I thought it nice to repost it along with the upcoming rebirth of the Ocean Eyes Zen Center. Although the original members are scattered far and wide, the life long connections will never me broken.

http://articles.latimes.com/1995-06-01/news/ls-8410_1_zen-center

By BARBIE LUDOVISE, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES June 01, 1995

The first retreat in Huntington Beach which was led by Nancy Hedgepeth-Brown, JDPSN.

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Tom Becker didn't want to lie, but there didn't seem to be much choice. His mother would have a fit if she knew where he was headed. So, at 14, the altar boy from upstate New York took a deep breath and let out a whopper:

"Mother," he said. "I'm going camping."

With that, Becker grabbed his backpack, ran to the highway and stuck out his thumb. Destination: the Zen Mountain Monastery, high in the Catskill Mountains.

Becker, a 25-year-old Costa Mesa resident, laughs at the memory. Inspired by David Carradine's character in the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" and impassioned with the martial arts, he and a buddy made frequent, secret pilgrimages to the Buddhist monastery over four years.
Today, Becker continues to practice Zen, though no longer on the sly. He is part of a growing number of young adults who frequent the Huntington Beach Zen Center, in the heart of a suburban housing tract. The center--open to all ages--doubles as the home of Paul Lynch, a 38-year-old manufacturing engineer who leads group meditation in his spare time.

Lynch opened the center two years ago, hoping it would become a resident base for serious students of Zen. Paris-born Carlos Montana, 29, who is training to be a Zen monk, moved in last April. Robert Fittro, 28, of Anaheim, is moving in today. Becker is considering the same.
The Buddhist school of Zen dates to about 600 BC. Through rigorous meditation, a student strives to empty his mind of thought, allowing him to see himself as he truly is. Only then, devotees say, can one approach the ultimate goal of spiritual enlightenment.
*
Of course, people have their own take on the subject.
"Zen is very boring," Lynch says, only half-joking. "Our main practice is just sitting on a cushion and not saying anything."

Says Becker: "Zen is not about gaining anything--it's about losing. Losing your opinions, your ego. There's a constant humbling process. You gain a bit of wisdom, then let it go."
Says Montana: "In Zen, they say if you open your mouth, you are wrong already."
Says Fittro: "It's, well. . . . Oh, hell. I don't know. It's Zen!"

Fittro, a psychology major at Cal State Fullerton, said he began practicing Zen on his own 18 months ago in hopes of gaining a better understanding of himself. Earlier attempts at self-awareness, he said, were lost in a party-hardy lifestyle, one that centered around everything from pot to LSD.

Now drug-free, Fittro says, he plans to become a clinical psychologist, a role he believes will benefit from his practice of Zen.
"Psychology is about understanding other people," he says. "Zen is what I do to understand me."
Montana can relate. Until recently, his life was a dizzying--and ultimately depressing--walk on the wild side, one in which pleasure was the ultimate goal. Among his circle of friends, he says, unprotected sex with casual acquaintances was commonplace, HIV be damned. Montana wasn't quite so cavalier, but he wanted out just the same.

He says he walked out of his Santa Ana apartment one day with the intention of getting lost. He spent three nights on the streets, sleeping on benches, listening to gunfire, watching people selling drugs or themselves. The surreal became real, the suffering overwhelming. Montana woke up on the fourth day with a mantra ringing in his brain:
No more .

He moved into the Zen center a week later, giving away the bulk of his possessions--clothes, books, CDs. As a trainee, Montana accepted a long list of vows, including abstinence from sex. He no longer spends hours preening in front of the mirror, but shaves his head and dons a simple gray robe.

He rises at 4:45 a.m. to perform his morning ritual of 108 bows. His vegetarian diet is heavy on tofu. And when he goes out, it's usually to walk Barney, the Zen center dog.

Montana earns his keep by keeping the Zen center tidy, sweeping the floor of the dharma room, where formal meditation takes place, making sure the purple floor cushions are in place when visitors arrive. He wears a string of yom ju, or meditation beads, around his wrist, twisting it gently as he talks about his lifelong search for peace.

His parents divorced when he was 5. His twin brother committed suicide at 18. Montana has spent much of his life asking why ?

Zen, he says, helps him better explore what's inside. The discoveries aren't always pleasant.
"Sometimes," Montana says, "I'm doing my meditation, and I feel like screaming. But those are just thoughts. You look at them, and, after awhile, they go away."

It is a key aspect of Zen, devotees say. The mind is cleared . . . thoughts appear . . . thoughts are let go. "A return to white paper," one informational pamphlet puts it. It is the state for which Zen students strive.
*
Becker became mesmerized by the process more than a dozen years ago and today is all the more intrigued. After a devoutly Catholic upbringing, he no longer fears the wrath of God while meditating, he says.

He chuckles at the memory of himself, as an altar boy, practicing Zen meditation during Sunday Mass. Those "camping" trips he took? It wasn't all a lie. Any time the monastery had an overfill of visitors, Becker rolled out his sleeping bag and snoozed under the stars.

And, as it turned out, Becker wasn't the only member of his family to develop a yen for Zen.
"My mom got into it about a year ago," he says with a laugh.
It's one thought he won't soon let go.

UCLA Scholar to Head New Korean Buddhist Research Institute

Robert Buswell, who once dropped out of college to become a monk in Asia, directs the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies.

My friend and mentor Robert Buswell, who is a distinguished professor of Buddhist Studies in the department of Asian Languages and Cultures and director of the Center for Buddhist Studies at UCLA, has been appointed founding director of a new Buddhist Research Institute at Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea. He will hold this title for the next year, during which he will work to introduce Korean Buddhist history, culture and practice to Buddhist scholars and to citizens worldwide. Buswell began his studies of Buddhism while he was in high school. He became interested in Buddhist doctrine and meditation and started studying Chinese and Sanskrit.

Robert dropped out of college in 1972 and spent a year each in Thailand and Hong Kong as a Theravada Buddhist monk. While he was in Thailand, he met two Korean monks who introduced him to Korean Buddhism and persuaded him to visit their monastery in Korea. Buswell then trekked to Songgwangsa, or Piney Expanse Monastery, in Korea’s South Cholla province, in 1974 at the age of 21, where he practiced Zen meditation with Zen Master Kusan for five years as a Buddhist monk. At the behest of Zen Master Kusan who told him to return to the West and teach Buddhism and following his total of seven years in Asia, he returned to UC Berkeley to pursue a BA, MA, and finally PhD in Buddhist Studies in 1985. Robert Buswell is the translator of many seminal Buddhist Texts as well as an author of the important "Zen Monastic Experience" which Chronicles the studies of Zen Buddhism in Korea.

Buswell will hold a dual faculty position at UCLA and Dongguk University for the next year.

Bodhidharma and Japan's Upcoming Election

Japan: Political Lucky Charms for Upcoming Election

Candidates for Japan’s upcoming general election are using a bit of supernatural help to win. Lucky Buddhist dolls or “daruma” are popular among politicians. These dolls are modeled after the founder of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma.[Seiishi Hirose, Buddhist Monk, Daruma Temple]:"Using a daruma is in part to gather the cooperation of a lot of people, so candidates will put it in their political office in order to win. Everyone then makes dedications to the daruma and makes some sort of goal such as 'Let's win!'" Daruma dolls are made in a small factory in the outskirts of Tokyo. They were introduced as part of the electoral campaign traditions in the 1930s. The dolls represented a saint that could roll back upright even if pushed down repeatedly. It symbolized the road to success despite repeated failures. [Junichi Nakada, Daimonya Owner]:"Candidates up for election put in one eye on one side, and then if they win, put in the other side. This has becomes a kind of traditional thing to do in relatively recent history." Demand for these dolls has increased due to the upcoming general election.When these dolls are no longer in use, they are laid to rest at Daruma temple. Once or twice a year, most are blessed before being burned. But a few of the more popular dolls are kept in a museum, such as those that belonged to former prime ministers.

Precepts

So, are you ready to make these dedications? Moving in all directions through our practice of Zazen, Shikantaza and raw awareness the integration of our personal precepts become the only guide to our lives.

I may discuss the intial five precepts, or the ten precepts and later we might discuss the more advanced sixteen precepts as a way to life.

In our Korean Linji tradition the most advanced extremeophiles may take an additional 58 precepts to set your life path and bestow the honorable direction. There can be no explanation of these advanced precepts in this post, yet we do have information available for all interested parties. Want to commit, we have the vows to consume.

Five Precepts—Lay Practitioner (haengja)

1. I vow to abstain from taking life.
2. I vow to abstain from taking things not given.
3. I vow to abstain from misconduct done in lust.
4. I vow to abstain from lying.
5. I vow to abstain from intoxicants, taken to induce heedlessness.

Ten Precepts—Dharma Practitioner (pŏp haengja)

6. I vow not to talk about the faults of the assembly.
7. I vow not to praise myself and disparage others.
8. I vow not to be covetous and to be generous.
9. I vow not to give way to anger and to be harmonious.
10. I vow not to slander the three jewels. (Buddha, Sangha, and Dharma)

Sixteen Precepts—Dharma Priest (pŏp haech’o)

11. I vow homage to the Buddha.
12. I vow homage to the Dharma.
13. I vow homage to the Sangha.
14. I vow generosity to people.
15. I vow compassionate speech and compassionate action toward people.
16. I vow together action with people and to become one and to attain the Buddha way.

Woodstock

In four days is the fortieth anniversary of the Woodstock Festival; I was only twelve years old and actually living in the South Eastern part of Great Brittan at the time when the concert took place. Most of the information that I received about the United States at that time was through the British Broadcasting Corporation augmented by a bit of information through the Armed Forces Network Radio which was basically American Propaganda.

I returned to the United States in October of 1969, after living in Europe for three years, and only then did my young mind become aware of the happenings of America since 1965. It was a culture shock in the grandest scale, in England the hot news was the United Kingdom’s war with Aden; Vietnam was dealt with in a rather liaise-fair manner and the extent of the controversy was downplayed by the British Media. Consequently, I was thrust into the Seventies with the death of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendricks and Janis Joplin.

Now, back to Woodstock which is the point of this post. Many years later I would come to respect Joni Mitchell for her writing genius and for penning the song Woodstock which has so much captured the event in the hearts of the Western World. I own a complete collection of Joni Mitchell Lyrics and have always viewed popular music as the poetry of our modern era.

Several years after beginning Zen Practice I heard a song on the radio by Joni Mitchell, which was entitled “Moon at the Window.” When I heard this song I immediately knew she had read the poem by the Japanese Monk Ryokan. I offer the explanation of a poem I so love by this beloved monk.

A story is told that, one day when Ryokan returned to his hut he discovered a theif who had broken in and was in the process of stealing the impoverished monk's few possessions. In the thief's haste to leave, he left behind a cushion. Ryokan grabbed the cushion and ran after the thief to give it to him. This event prompted Ryokan to compose one of his best known haikus:

The thief left it behind:
the moon
at the window.

This teaching has come true in my life and many of my friend’s lives. Even though, no one can steal our eternal essence, and no one can take from us our true nature; we have been violated by the thieves of life and of love and of happiness.


Here are Joni’s lyrics to “Moon at the Window”

It takes cheerful resignation
heart and humility
that's all it takes
a cheerful person told me

nobody's harder on me than me
how could they be
and, nobody's harder on you than you
Betsy's blue

she says-Tell me something good!
you know I'd help her out if I only could
oh, but sometimes the light
can be so hard to find

at least the moon at the window--
the thieves left that behind

people don't know how to love
they taste it and toss it
turn it off and on
like a bathtub faucet

oh sometimes the light
can be so hard to find--

at least the moon at the window--
the thieves left that behind

I wish her heart
I know these battles
deep in the dark
when the spooks of memories rattle

ghosts of the future
phantoms of the past
rattle, rattle, rattle
in the spoon and the glass

is it possible to learn
how to care and yet not care--
since love has two faces
hope and despair
and pleasure always turns to fear
I find--

at least the moon at the window--
the thieves left that behind
at least they left the moon
behind the blind
moon at the window

This is a chilling expose of humanness and frailty. I wonder how many sensed this when listening to the song in the early eighties. But now I transgress and want to return to the phenomenal “Woodstock” written immediately after the concert that Joni Mitchell wasn’t allowed to attend because her managers had booked her for the tonight show on the Monday following the concert. Perhaps we wouldn’t have gotten such a memorable capture of the event had she been allowed to perform.



I came upon a child of god
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I’m going on down to Yasgurs farm
I’m going to join in a rock n roll band
I’m going to camp out on the land
I’m going to try and get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it’s the time of man
I don’t know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devils bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

This is the epic poem of a generation. We are stardust. Yes we are truly the stardust of millennia and she captured it before Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” so popularized this notion. We are containers of the Dinosaurs, and the cosmic soup that boar all life on this planet. Yet Joni wants us to really understand the point of our lives. We have got to get ourselves back to the garden.

The garden is the analogy for our true selves. It is where we can function outside of thought and control. This is our enlightened nature. This is annutara samyak sambodhi. Can someone else steal this affect of mind? No! There are no theives, there is no enlightened nature! There is nothing but this moment, which flows into the cosmos with perfect naturallness and sunyata. It is this which defines us as human, and this which is the spirit of sixty nine.

I was too young to attend Woodstock, plus I was out of the country. But the after affects of its influence on my will never be shaken or tarnished. May we all celebrate the opening of a generation that happened forty years ago.

Zen Liturgy

I am currently working on the Liturgy for the Five Mountain Sangha and am exploring the connections of the Caodong and Linji Lineages. I have entered into collaboration with the Boundless Way Zen Project and have discovered that their Liturgy is much more significant to English Speaking Westerners. Based upon this I have begun to explore the English translations of the liturgy that was inherited from Zen Master Seung Sahn through Korea.

I have turned to my friend, Robert Buswell, PhD, for his work on the liturgy in his book "The Zen Monastic Experience." I have taken some liberties, but am using his core of translation for some of the content to the new Liturgy for the Five Mountain Sangha. I am including the four great vows as their representation moved my after reviewing their representation in his Appendix.

The Four Expansive Vows
[Hapchang; bow at end]

Sentient beings are numberless;
We vow to save them all.
Delusions are endless;
We vow to cut through them all.
The teachings are infinite;
We vow to learn them all.
The Buddha way is inconceivable;
We vow to attain it.

Sentient beings of my own self nature;
I vow to save them all.
Delusions of my own self nature;
I vow to cut through them all.
The teachings in my own self nature;
I vow to learn them all.
The Buddha way of my own self nature;
I vow to attain it.

Homage to the Buddhas who abide
eternally in the ten directions.
Homage to the Dharmas that abide
eternally in the ten directions.
Homage to the Sanghas that abide
eternally in the ten directions.

Boundless Way Zen Project

How does one express true thanks when encountering the true Dharma manifest in not just two but Six Sparkling Eyes. I feel that I have been practicing more within the Visceral Mind of Zen for the last 23 years, because last week I encountered its Heart flowing out of three Zen masters, two senior teachers and a Sangha that embodies the heart of Zen for their own. The courage I witnessed in all who attended, the gracefulness of movement lacking the rigidity that sometimes has appeared in other groups has left me in a humble and appreciative place. It was out of their open generosity in allowing me to share in this dazzling intimacy that has grown out of their three heart/minds. I am speaking of the Boundless Way Zen Project and its Guiding Teachers, James Ford, Melissa Blacker and David Rynick. When I first encountered the “Project” I wasn’t sure of what project meant, and now I have attained their commitment and willingness to adapt and to change as the situation requires.

I was honored by these Teachers respect of position, as I hope I respected all who were there to share, to learn and to grow. It had been a few years since I had the opportunity to just be a participant, to immerse myself in practice and not having to deal with logistics, or form, or any number of issues that come up before, during and after an event like this.

It is said that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and the fruit of this sangha is sweetened by its very deep and vast network of roots. I bow in humble reverence to their wisdom, grace and love. Dae Ja, Dae Bi, Dae Bosal Do (Great Love, Great Compassion, the Great Bodhisattva Way.)