Friends,
I posted this as a book we would read and discuss mid August. Some have noted that it is out of print and on Amazon, listed for about $45 used. Clearly not within reach.
For your information, on Powell's Bookstore's website (my favorite place in all of Portland), they offer an Adobe version of the book for $15. It can be downloaded and read on any computer or handheld that opens Adobe. While reading on a computer may not be the world's best option, I think you will find this book well worth the effort. (It is also available on a Kindle from Amazon for about $9, but if you don't have a Kindle the Adobe option is best.)
Warmly,
Mugaku
Friday, July 22, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
The next book: Uchiyama Roshi's "Opening the Hand of Thought"
Friends:
Kosho Uchiyama Roshi's book, "Opening the Hand of Thought", is one that Ottmar Liebert first brought to my attention five or six years ago. Since then I have read it several times and find Uchiyama Roshi amazingly accessible for Westerners. Direct zazen, without elaborate levels, ranks, koan systems. or other appurtenances. Yet cutting to the essence. He explains the Zen practice and insight as clearly as anyone. A man very much aware of Western rational philosophical traditions, including existentialism, he nicely bridges Eastern and Western thought, putting each in relation to the other.
Our first discussion of this book will be on August 16th. Kosho Uchimama, "Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice."
Mugaku
Kosho Uchiyama Roshi's book, "Opening the Hand of Thought", is one that Ottmar Liebert first brought to my attention five or six years ago. Since then I have read it several times and find Uchiyama Roshi amazingly accessible for Westerners. Direct zazen, without elaborate levels, ranks, koan systems. or other appurtenances. Yet cutting to the essence. He explains the Zen practice and insight as clearly as anyone. A man very much aware of Western rational philosophical traditions, including existentialism, he nicely bridges Eastern and Western thought, putting each in relation to the other.
Our first discussion of this book will be on August 16th. Kosho Uchimama, "Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice."
Mugaku
Next Tuesday: the last discussion of The Heart Sutra.
The discussion of the Heart Sutra these past weeks has been stimulating. Red Pine does a great job taking it apart and in giving its historical and philosophical context. He makes a sutra chanted sometimes mechanically into a very penetrating tool to break up our conceptualizations. This coming Tuesday we'll finish with the last lines, those relating to the mantra "Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate. Bodhi sattva." Join us.
Mugaku
Mugaku
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Student-teacher relationships from a psychological standpoint: A booklet
Friends:
Here is a link to a booklet Jikyo Roshi, a therapist, produced some ten years ago on the psychological aspects of student-teacher relationships. It was circulated to all White Plum Asanga teachers at the recent annual meeting. I am posting this link here because I think the information it contains should be available to anyone contemplating entering into such a relationship. Many of the ethically problematic issues that arise within spiritual communities can be traced to a lack of awareness on the part of teachers and students of these dynamics. http://www.whiteplum.org/Student_Teacher.pdf
Warmly,
Mugaku
Here is a link to a booklet Jikyo Roshi, a therapist, produced some ten years ago on the psychological aspects of student-teacher relationships. It was circulated to all White Plum Asanga teachers at the recent annual meeting. I am posting this link here because I think the information it contains should be available to anyone contemplating entering into such a relationship. Many of the ethically problematic issues that arise within spiritual communities can be traced to a lack of awareness on the part of teachers and students of these dynamics. http://www.whiteplum.org/Student_Teacher.pdf
Warmly,
Mugaku
Friday, June 10, 2011
The Last Word From The White Plum Asanga--Addressing Shadow in the Lineage.
Friends,
On June 2, 2011, the Board of The White Plum Asanga issued a statement that addressed in general terms certain unspoken shadow elements in the lineage of Maezumi Roshi, announced the resolve of the WPA to move to address such issues in the future more openly and resolutely, and distanced the WPA from the actions of its former President, Dennis Genpo Merzel, who had resigned from the WPA in early February of this year. That statement can be found at http://www.whiteplum.org/announcements.html. This statement was issued only after extensive and prolonged discussion within the WPA Board and the general membership, extensive communications with Genpo and with the board of the Kanzeon Zen Center (now Big Mind Center), and a meeting between Genpo and a designated group WPA members. As a member of the Board of the WPA and of the group that met with Genpo, I have participated in all these deliberations and joined in the statement of the Board. As a successor of Genpo's, and a friend, I feel a need to make my own position on all this known, without adding any fuel to what I hope is a dying fire.
These discussions, meetings, and actions have been difficult and painful for me. It is a daunting task to be in a position where you are must consider whether to censure a teacher, much less your own teacher. Yet this process has had positive consequences for me personally and, I think, for the WPA. I have had to face my own projections, my own tendency to idealize my teacher, and my own willingness to turn a blind eye to situations rife with ethical issues. I have also had to be willing to look at my teacher as a peer.
As for the WPA, the process now extending over four months has seen a gradual shift in tone. At the end, it was less about Genpo and more about the larger issues his situation represents for the WPA, about certain patterns going back decades within the lineage that have given rise to abuses of power by more than a few, abuses that have been treated as anomalies, rather than manifestations of deeper issues. The discussions over the past months have produced a new-found resolve within the WPA to work toward a consensus statement of core values to which all members can subscribe, and as well the establishment of processes for considering complaints about member teachers alleged to have departed from those values and to have caused harm.
These deliberations may take some time to reach fruition. The WPA is a voluntary membership affinity group, not a sanctioning or licensing organization. But the fact that the membership is engaging in these discussions is a positive step for the organization, the lineage, and for Zen in general. The acknowledgment that certain cultural and structural elements within the institutions of Zen in general, and within this lineage in particular, have permitted unhealthy patterns of behavior to repeatedly manifest in teachers, in students, and in sanghas, is important. And it is also important that the WPA membership is acting on these insights. If if this Zen lineage is to continue to grow and prosper, it must accomodate the political and psychological insights of the soil in which it has been planted. A consequence should be the development of a sangha culture and correlative governance structures that will be premised on a more sophisticated understanding of the psychological dynamics that tend to develop between teacher and student and sangha, and the perils of those dynamics.
As hard as this entire process has been, as painful as it has been for me personally because of my teacher's unfortunate role as a catalytic agent, I am heartened by what appears to be the consequent developing willingness of the WPA membership to take on these broader issues. And I am personally relieved to be able to move on with the development of our own sangha, hopefully alert to the challenges that it represents.
Warmly,
Mugaku
On June 2, 2011, the Board of The White Plum Asanga issued a statement that addressed in general terms certain unspoken shadow elements in the lineage of Maezumi Roshi, announced the resolve of the WPA to move to address such issues in the future more openly and resolutely, and distanced the WPA from the actions of its former President, Dennis Genpo Merzel, who had resigned from the WPA in early February of this year. That statement can be found at http://www.whiteplum.org/announcements.html. This statement was issued only after extensive and prolonged discussion within the WPA Board and the general membership, extensive communications with Genpo and with the board of the Kanzeon Zen Center (now Big Mind Center), and a meeting between Genpo and a designated group WPA members. As a member of the Board of the WPA and of the group that met with Genpo, I have participated in all these deliberations and joined in the statement of the Board. As a successor of Genpo's, and a friend, I feel a need to make my own position on all this known, without adding any fuel to what I hope is a dying fire.
These discussions, meetings, and actions have been difficult and painful for me. It is a daunting task to be in a position where you are must consider whether to censure a teacher, much less your own teacher. Yet this process has had positive consequences for me personally and, I think, for the WPA. I have had to face my own projections, my own tendency to idealize my teacher, and my own willingness to turn a blind eye to situations rife with ethical issues. I have also had to be willing to look at my teacher as a peer.
As for the WPA, the process now extending over four months has seen a gradual shift in tone. At the end, it was less about Genpo and more about the larger issues his situation represents for the WPA, about certain patterns going back decades within the lineage that have given rise to abuses of power by more than a few, abuses that have been treated as anomalies, rather than manifestations of deeper issues. The discussions over the past months have produced a new-found resolve within the WPA to work toward a consensus statement of core values to which all members can subscribe, and as well the establishment of processes for considering complaints about member teachers alleged to have departed from those values and to have caused harm.
These deliberations may take some time to reach fruition. The WPA is a voluntary membership affinity group, not a sanctioning or licensing organization. But the fact that the membership is engaging in these discussions is a positive step for the organization, the lineage, and for Zen in general. The acknowledgment that certain cultural and structural elements within the institutions of Zen in general, and within this lineage in particular, have permitted unhealthy patterns of behavior to repeatedly manifest in teachers, in students, and in sanghas, is important. And it is also important that the WPA membership is acting on these insights. If if this Zen lineage is to continue to grow and prosper, it must accomodate the political and psychological insights of the soil in which it has been planted. A consequence should be the development of a sangha culture and correlative governance structures that will be premised on a more sophisticated understanding of the psychological dynamics that tend to develop between teacher and student and sangha, and the perils of those dynamics.
As hard as this entire process has been, as painful as it has been for me personally because of my teacher's unfortunate role as a catalytic agent, I am heartened by what appears to be the consequent developing willingness of the WPA membership to take on these broader issues. And I am personally relieved to be able to move on with the development of our own sangha, hopefully alert to the challenges that it represents.
Warmly,
Mugaku
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Next book--Red Pine, "The Heart Sutra"
We discussed Chogam Trungpa's Myth of Freedom last night. Of course, you can't really discuss a book with that many valuable insights in one evening. So we had a discussion inspired by a small part of that book. This experience suggests to me that in the future, we should spend more than one evening on a book, perhaps using it to tee up discussions for several weeks.
The next book we will read is The Heart Sutra by Red Pine. We will discuss it first on June 21st. This is a lovely book, one filled with interesting scholarship for those interested in the evolution of Chan and Buddhism in China, and critical discussion of the essence of Zen.
-Mugaku
The next book we will read is The Heart Sutra by Red Pine. We will discuss it first on June 21st. This is a lovely book, one filled with interesting scholarship for those interested in the evolution of Chan and Buddhism in China, and critical discussion of the essence of Zen.
-Mugaku
Monday, April 18, 2011
Tuesday night class--change of Trungpa book to "Myth of Freedom"
Friends,
Those of you who are planning on reading the Chogam Trungpa book for the mid-May discussion should switch from "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" to Trungpa's earlier book, "The Myth of Fredom". I apologize for the change, but after discussion with several veteran Vajriyana practitioners, I have concluded that "The Myth of Freedom" is a better choice. It is directed at the fundamental practice of meditation--a common ground of Vajriyana and Zen practice, and it was the assigned foundational book at Naropa Institute during Trungpa's life.
To compensate for changing the book, and for my being in Israel the week of May 2d and returning on May 9th, we'll push back the book discussion to May 17th.
I look forward to seeing you, and discussing this book.
Warmly,
Mugaku
Those of you who are planning on reading the Chogam Trungpa book for the mid-May discussion should switch from "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" to Trungpa's earlier book, "The Myth of Fredom". I apologize for the change, but after discussion with several veteran Vajriyana practitioners, I have concluded that "The Myth of Freedom" is a better choice. It is directed at the fundamental practice of meditation--a common ground of Vajriyana and Zen practice, and it was the assigned foundational book at Naropa Institute during Trungpa's life.
To compensate for changing the book, and for my being in Israel the week of May 2d and returning on May 9th, we'll push back the book discussion to May 17th.
I look forward to seeing you, and discussing this book.
Warmly,
Mugaku
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