Discrimination in the SZBA: Small Changes, BIG BARRIERS

[Washin]

Sitting comfortably at home is saving all beings.
Doing work tasks is saving all beings.
Performing priest duties at Treeleaf is saving all beings.
Watching Netflix is saving all beings.

[Tai Shi]

I sat zazen this morning for 1/2 hour. I have spent 6 hours wadding through monologue after dialogue, thread after thread trying to make sense of the "disabled" arguments, including my own comments. My head is in pain though I have periods of time outs. What have I to make of the poor monk disabled who cannot see these arguments, or the poor monk who cannot operate a computer, or one, like me, racked with pain, or the poor monk who cannot buy material let alone stitch his or her priestly vestments. For this reason there must be many who skim volume after volume of book after repetitious book. This point is that I even if I wanted to study for the priesthood, I bet there are those who are not kept out of the MS simply because they are blind, or cannot counsel because at the end of a long day must "put their feet up and give up precious study time?" The person who I know personally even went on to become a well known visual artist in South Dakota. Who decides that I must be kept out because I take psychiatric medications or if I must receive opiate pain medications for sever unrelenting pain? To many these medications mean panic, and rejection. Who keeps me out, even if I did want to join the royalty of priesthood? Poverty, and being a vow of early monks walking town to town looking for a handout? Who would defy current priestly behavior? There are those in my country who receive monthly small sums called SSDI payments? They must have "food stamps" to live on less than $10,000 a year. They can only afford the bare necessities. These are the minority disabled in my country, yet they may vote. Early monks walked barefoot everywhere. Where do the paradoxes end and reality smack you up side the head. Disabled are kept out.
Gassho
sat/lah

[Jishin]

Discrimination in the SZBA: Small Changes, BIG BARRIERS



Gassho, Jishin, ST, LAH

[Kokuu]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...555291ba67.jpg

Good luck with your supermarket shopping!

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Jishin]

Good luck with your supermarket shopping!

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[emoji3][emoji120]

[Kokuu]

That was clearly a pat answer but it points to something important in Zen.

Going beyond the usual way that things appear, when we sit Zazen we drop away all labels and see things just as they are, coming face-to-face with the reality of dependent arising (pratitya samudpada) and emptiness (sunyata). Nothing is as it appears, or has an independent self, but is instead reliant on a thousand and one other things, existing in an interdependent web of existence.

Seeing this awakens out mind to a new reality of life. This reality is a comfortable place to be, in which there are no labels, no good or bad, no right or wrong, no self and other.

However, Zen does not stop there. Instead, we move from the comfort of absolute reality, back into the messiness and confusion of the relative world. We take a leap off the hundred foot pole and, as it says in the last of the ten ox herding pictures we Enter the City. Seeing emptiness in form is merely the second of the Five Ranks of our Zen ancestor, Dongshan Liangjie (807–869).

This is spoken of numerous times in Zen, which points to the next step after seeing the emptiness of all labelling:

“Before I had studied Ch’an for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and rivers as rivers. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance, I am at rest. For it’s just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and rivers once again as rivers.”

-- Qingyuan Weixin (9th century CE)

“As all things are buddha-dharma, there is delusion and realization, practice, birth and death, and there are buddhas and sentient beings.
As the myriad things are without an abiding self, there is no delusion, no realization, no buddha, no sentient being, no birth and death.
The buddha way is, basically, leaping clear of the many of the one; thus there are birth and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings and buddhas.
Yet in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread.“

-- Eihei Dōgen (1200-1253), Genjokōan

“The subtle Source shines clear in the light;
The branching streams flow in the dark.
To be attached to things is primordial illusion;
To encounter the absolute is not yet enlightenment.”

-- Shitou Xiqian (700-790), The Identity of Relative and Absolute

This is not meant to be critical of Jishin, but instead to make a point about practice. Seeing that labels are only pointing to reality is helpful, but it would not be Zen to dismiss them altogether. We all have to deal with the relative existence of name and form, of people and objects. How do we get around without signs? How do we know what is in a tin on a supermarket shelf without a label? Beans or fermented herring – are you feeling lucky?

Apologies for length.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Jundo]

In any case, I have resigned from the SZBA (Soto Zen Buddhist Association of North America) in protest of their policies which discriminate against many who, because of hardships of disability, age and economics, cannot meet their requirement for residential training. They were going to punish me in the organization for speaking out publicly and telling you about these issues (the first rule of "Zen Club" is don't criticize "Zen Club"), but I spoke out when nothing was changing, and I resigned instead. Let light shine on this discrimination.

I hope that they change their ways. They claim to be concerned about "privilege" and the exclusion of certain groups from Buddhist Sangha. I feel that they do not really mean so when it comes to themselves.

Several folks who, because of age, disability and other hardship, cannot become priests in the normal manner (folks whose "sesshin" has included their own cancers and life threatening illnesses, nursing terminally ill loved ones, extreme economic struggles, and like hardships) are being submitted to the SZBA for membership. If they change their ways, I will be the first to report it here. Alas, I do not see that happening.

Next, Soto Zen in general, in the Americas, Europe and Japan, must consider this issue of discrimination in our traditional ways.

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

[Jishin]

The Road Not Taken
BY ROBERT FROST

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

I think the mind creates the world.

If we want to be disabled, we can.

If we want to be abled, we can.

After I had a psychotic break and ran for president of the USA some 30 years ago, I was told that I had a disability and chaos would follow me for the rest of my life. Chaos did follow me until I created peace with my mind. I was offered disability but I said I am not disabled. I took the road less traveled. Instead of being a patient I become a doctor. I am both actually.

I wonder how much suffering is self inflicted by accepting labels given to us.

Regarding Kokuu's point above: Not 1, not 2.

Gassho, Jishin, ST

[Kokuu]

After I had a psychotic break and ran for president of the USA some 30 years ago, I was told that I had a disability and chaos would follow me for the rest of my life. Chaos did follow me until I created peace with my mind. I was offered disability but I said I am not disabled. I took the road less traveled. Instead of being a patient I become a doctor. I am both actually.

I wonder how much suffering is self inflicted by accepting labels given to us.

I think that is an important point, Jishin, and I should have said more fully than when we return to the world of labels after seeing emptiness, we can see how to hold them more lightly.

However...

If we want to be disabled, we can.

If we want to be abled, we can.

Sure. I can give myself the label of 'abled' but I am still not getting to a sesshin anytime soon or being able to work.

Labels have their uses.


Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Jishin]

Labels have their uses.

[emoji120]

[Jundo]

My latest essay in my ongoing push with the SZBA ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ANGO, AGEISM AND THE SZBA

Richard Jindo Shokai Maxwell is not a famous priest. In fact, it was only after decades as a funeral director, a lifetime raising a family, after children and grandchildren, that Shokai discovered Buddhism and, eventually, a calling to Zen priesthood late in life. Before that, Shokai devoted himself to a long career in Canada tending to the dead with respect, facing daily what most of us avoid, while helping bereaved survivors through their greatest time of grief and vulnerability, Toward the end of his career, Shokai found himself presented with an opportunity to work and teach embalming in Japan of all places, at a funeral home near Hiroshima, where he dove deeply into the world of Japanese Buddhism and mortuary traditions.

Although surprisingly positive, cheerful and vibrant for someone in such a field, he has witnessed unspeakable tragedies through the years, not only professionally but personally. He lost people in his own family. Following his Ordination as a novice priest at the age of 78(!), in 2014, his wife developed terminal cancer, which he nursed her through, right until the end. Since that time, he has been gifted with a new partner in life, a woman who is also elderly and who happens to be totally blind with progressive mobility issues. Shokai serves as her eyes and legs. He himself has had (and has) skin cancer, eye, leg, nerve, and heart disease, as well as serious dental issues. He toughs on.

Despite all that, Shokai found the time to train in Zen, to devote himself to being a good priest, receiving Dharma Transmission from me in 2017. Today, beloved by a small group of Zen students in the town of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, Shokai overseas a little Sangha which meets at the Japanese Garden in Germain Park. The group made it through Covid. He gives Jukai now and then. His reputation is excellent, his Zazen strong, his Zen guidance honest and good. He remains a warm and wise voice within our Treeleaf Sangha, consistently insightful and helpful on issues of maturing, aging, loss, grief, serious illness and life in general.

The one thing that he has not been able to do, however, given his advanced age and poor health (not to mention his daily nursing of other sick individuals around him), is to join in an “Ango” or other similar long term, residential Zen priest training period. His training was primarily at a distance, reading and sitting and meeting with his teacher daily for several years by video, voice and word, seeing and meeting his teacher and his fellow practitioners face-to-face by modern media in our primarily online Sangha, mixed with the sometime personal meeting. His training was at the front lines of life, bringing Buddhist practice to bear in nursing his late wife through terrible illness and his visually impaired partner now. He calls it the “Ango of life and death.” It was enough, and his quality as a priest is obvious by who he has become. Just ask the other Zen folks who know and love him, and who benefit from his presence, both in our Treeleaf Sangha and in Germain Park. This man, during over eight decades of life, has experienced the hardships of life’s “monastery of hard knocks,” and has come out its gates with a heart full of wisdom and compassion.

So, in response to several recent posts and essays by me calling out the Soto Zen Buddhism Association (SZBA) for age, disability and other discrimination due to their insistence on residential training programs for all their members, the administrators of the SZBA responded to me by self-heralding, to the contrary, the “wokeness” at the SZBA, their goodness, their progressive views, their handful of minority and disabled members, that they are not the kind of folks to discriminate. So, I got Shokai to submit an application to be a full member there, to see if things had changed.

Alas, that’s where reality set in.

There is a Japanese trick of not refusing someone’s membership or application by not really accepting it in the first place. “Processing” and consideration drag on and on, and “no” is never uttered, but neither is “yes,” because consultations and red tape, additional considerations and hoops suddenly present themselves. Just this past week, Shokai was informed by Acting President Ben Connelly of the SZBA that, while the organization “aspires” to process applications in about two months, it can take several months, and might take a year in some cases. The application procedure is complex, and they apologize for any frustration. It is just typical, how things are. Ben explains that “the SZBA has never received a membership application which came with requests for disability accommodations. Our membership committee is not experienced in this field, so we have formed an ad hoc committee to provide disability accommodation recommendations to the membership committee. This probably will add a few weeks to the process. We were in the process of forming an ongoing committee to handle disability accommodation requests when we got Shokai's application but that ongoing committee is not yet in place.”

You are darn right that they have no experience with disability accommodations! That's because prior folks were simply chased away at the door. Well, it is time that they get experienced!

I will continue to report here from time to time on what transpires with Shokai’s application, and whether wisdom and compassion triumph in the end. I sure hope that they do the right thing, not only for Shokai, but for many others like him who are sure to follow. So far, I hear rumors that some hardliners in the SZBA are firmly pushing back against any changes to the requirements of Ango and residency for the simple reason that, because they themselves managed it, because they themselves had the time, wealth and health to do it, and because some disabled individuals manage to manage it, that road must be the unique path for everyone, and thus -all- disabled individuals must somehow manage it. After all, they say, not everyone need be a priest! On the other hand, the liberals in the group continue to profess how “woke” they are in wishing to open the doors of the organization to good priests who are disadvantaged. We shall see.

In the meantime, Shokai turned 85 years old just this week, on April 9th, the day following the traditional Buddha’s Birth celebration in Japan. Unfortunately, Shokai and his lady also received a positive Covid diagnosis this week too. Fully vaxed, they are toughing that out like the rest of life.

Let us hope that the SZBA does the right thing soon, for sweet Shokai and so many others like him.

[Shinshi]

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Nengei]

… and a generally awesome person.

Gassho,
Nengei


Sent using Tapatalk.

[Tairin]

Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Kakunen]

Hi

I check this thread today.And sorry too long for me to understand clearly.
Also I am Japanese so difficult to understand,meaning of English.
I sometimes make misunderstanding.

But from my position.(I am Japanese,and do Ango at Japanese Soto monastery.
And I have lots of disabelity,and have no money.)I feel so big discrimination at
practice time(this is my opinion not nagative message).

When I practiced from temple to temple,I sufferd lots of problems.I did so big effort.
I feel almost impossible to keep practicing at 曹洞宗.But lots of people supported me.
And lots of kirmic effection happend.So I went to Ango.

I separate from family,I accept situation to talk in English(at here,at Antaiji),I had no
money.I have big disability at body and mind.And now my mom is very dangerous
situation,but I separate with her.When I think about this fact.Lots of people
can do more effort to become a monk.This is kind of another view.

And in Tosho-ji lots of old people came from US and Europe,Shoso who came
from France is 81 years old.And lots of harmony to help them to do Ango.

And also I read this

https://www.sotozen.com/eng/dharma/pdf/49e.pdf

Situation at 曹洞宗　at North america and another ared.

I try to think about this situation by Dharma eye.
I think I will keep on practice,and will help you and your Sangha from my experiences.

So..... hard way to do Ango at monastery for me.So I shared my experiences of Ango.
Because of you.

I was at hospital at yesterday because of my heart problem.
But I will go pirglimage from day after tomorrow.(I will report that).

I try to stand up again and again,till before my breath will stop.

Gassho
Sat today
LAH
Kakunen