{"id":42467,"date":"2023-10-02T13:04:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T20:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?p=42467"},"modified":"2023-10-02T13:14:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T20:14:31","slug":"a-complicated-banquet-notes-from-the-american-zen-teachers-association-gathering-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2023\/10\/a-complicated-banquet-notes-from-the-american-zen-teachers-association-gathering-in-2023.html","title":{"rendered":"A Complicated Banquet: Notes from the American Zen Teachers Association gathering in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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On Wednesday morning, the 27th<\/sup> of September, Jan drove me to the Burbank airport where I flew north to San Jose, changed planes, then continued on to Portland. There I was picked up by my friend, colleague in UU world, and in the Zen universe my senior student and an apprentice teacher, Janine Larsen. We paused for lunch in Portland, and then she took me the sixty seven or so miles to Great Vow Zen monastery<\/a> in Clatskanie, about half way to the coast.<\/p>\n
I was on my way there for the first in person gathering of the American Zen Teachers association since the Covid pandemic.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a good decade since I\u2019ve been to the monastery. Although, I\u2019ve visited a number of times over the many years and feel a particular closeness to them.<\/p>\n
Once there I checked in and joined with the about thirty-five Zen teaching colleagues, most of whom had already arrived. We had dinner. The monastery pays attention to food. Vegetarian, not super fancy, but always as tasty as nourishing, and almost always featuring something from their gardens or orchard.<\/p>\n
The AZTA, the American Zen Teachers Association<\/a>, is one of the two long lasting gatherings of Zen teachers in North America. This one\u2019s distinction is that it is a very, very loose organization and open beyond sectarian identity within the Zen family. It is meant to be a support group. And it is not a legal entity with bylaws and a board. For years I thought it should be more. But then when someone was seriously disruptive a few years back, I was impressed with how they dealt with him. Compassionately but decisively. They are serious about the integrity of the group. I stopped suggesting it need be something more. It is a respite, a time to pause, and for renewal in ways different than a sesshin, or some other kind of formal retreat.<\/p>\n
As a bit of an aside, but for those who are curious, as a support group it needs for its members to be recognizable by each other as coming from some similar place. Basically, the qualifications that fulfill this need are two. A member needs to stand in a generally recognized historic Zen lineage. And there needs to have been a substantial formation within the disciplines of Zen meditation.<\/p>\n
In seeking some kind of quasi objective criteria this has come down to a candidate for membership having about a year\u2019s worth of daily retreat under their belt, with a minimum of about seven hours of meditation in each of those days, before being eligible for membership. Almost everyone has much more experience than that. As a minimum of experience this seems to cultivate Zen meditation teachers recognizable across traditions and lineages. And this has become the unifying factor. Otherwise, members are priests, monastics, and householders. Some do koans. Others focus on Just sitting. The lineages come from Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
That noted, back to the gathering. Our first since the pandemic. Daniel Terragno, a senior teacher with the Diamond Sangha, and a native Spanish speaker kept referring to that moment as the Pandemia<\/em>. I think I\u2019m going to officially embrace that as the term for those several hard years. This was our first in person gathering since the Pandemia.<\/p>\n
After dinner we checked in. A majority of us this time around are women. The majority of us were older teachers and priests, there were no traditional monastics this time, clustered in our seventies. Given the necessities of formation and what leads to someone becoming a Zen teacher in our time and place, the new crop were clustered in their fifties. The youngest fifty-one.<\/p>\n
We were overwhelmingly represented by Japanese derived lineages, the majority Soto, followed I believe by the Harada Yasutani lineages, of these mostly Diamond Sangha, some Rinzai people, one in the Korean lineage of Seung Sahn, and one in the Chinese lineage of Sheng Yen. I didn\u2019t count, but I would guess a slight majority ordained, the balance householders. One was a person of color.<\/p>\n
In addition to us, there were the residents. The vast majority of them I\u2019m going to guess somewhere on the cusp between their twenties and thirties. They seemed slightly more ethnically diverse.<\/p>\n
Good people. Serious about the Zen dharma<\/a>. And all in different places on their life trajectories.<\/p>\n
Every morning of the gathering began with optional Zen meditation. Then breakfast.<\/p>\n
The evening concluded with a performance from the monastery\u2019s marimba band<\/a>. It was a delight and a hoot.<\/p>\n
Saturday morning, we had our annual business meeting. As a non-incorporated body with no bylaws and no budget, and with only two standing committees, a membership committee, and a committee charged with organizing the next meeting.<\/p>\n
The afternoon continued to discuss aspects of encountering the world and especially how Zen is taking its tentative rooting into our North American culture.<\/p>\n
That evening featured the \u201cbanquet,\u201d which mainly meant the nice silver and table cloths. Well, also with their astonishing monastery vegetarian cooking, clicked up a couple of notches.<\/p>\n
The next morning, Sunday the 1st<\/sup> of October, we had zazen, breakfast, and a closing ceremony. After which we began our trips home. Hogen Roshi invited me to give the Sunday dharma talk, so I lingered a bit\u2026<\/p>\n
So. My thoughts. No real takeaways. Well, other than how I see Great Vow and its leadership so seriously and consciously looking to how to continue their work serving the dharma and especially the new generation of seekers and practitioners. After the successful transition at Dharma Rain<\/a>, they\u2019re showing serious promise at how it can be done.<\/p>\n
Most of all I noticed how there is a generational passing going on. The tide has come\u2026<\/p>\n
I see it in my own body. My spine is riddled with arthritis complicated by general disintegration of the structures of the darned thing, and how the consequences of that are multiple. I don\u2019t sit on the floor. I am careful when I get up. I have an old man\u2019s stoop. And I walk carefully.<\/p>\n
My thoughts are generally about the ancient truths of the Buddha way. And what that means in my specific situation.<\/p>\n
And with that letting go.<\/p>\n
That stuff.<\/p>\n
And. Being with people, some of whom I\u2019ve known for thirty and more years, each committed to this path, and meeting new companions and colleagues. Comforted some when some of these newer teachers tell me I\u2019ve been of some help to them on their way.<\/p>\n
The sad. And the sweet.<\/p>\n
A complicated banquet.<\/p>\n