scandals

[RichardH]

Glanced at the title and thought this thread was about sandals. It's nice to get out of hot, stuffy, shoes when the warm weather comes.... let the toes hang out. But no. Never mind.

.. have no insight on scandals.. Gassho, kojip

[Omoi Otoshi]

If Brad really gives away his stuff, then it is a perfect example for non-attachment.

Yes, non-attachment. But in my experience, non-attachment for the sake of non-attachment can also be a sign of aversion (one of the three poisons).

I'm not saying this is true for Brad!
Just wanted to point that out.
I kinda like the way he sometimes challenges my ideas in his unique way.

Gassho,
Pontus

[Nengyo]

Glanced at the title and thought this thread was about sandals. It's nice to get out of hot, stuffy, shoes when the warm weather comes.... let the toes hang out. But no. Never mind.

.. have no insight on scandals.. Gassho, kojip

And this has made my morning! Thank you

[Myozan Kodo]

Hello,
Does anyone know if the SZBA have clear guidelines on dealing with sexual and physical abuse issues?
Gassho,
Myozan

[Jundo]

Hi Myozan,

They ask and encourage all their members to have ethics policies in place, including on issues of abuse, and have various committees charged with advising on good ethical standards for Soto Zen Clergy and developing "model" ethics policies.

http://szba.org/wp-content/uploads/SZBA_Ethics_Statement_Sept_2011.pdf

Ours here at Treeleaf is modeled on that ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?7607-Treeleaf-Ethics-Committee-%28-Complaint-Box-%29

Gassho, J

[Myozan Kodo]

Thanks Jundo.
I'll be interested in looking these guidelines over. Like any guidelines, they are only of use if followed, of course.
Gassho
Myozan

[Jundo]

Thanks Jundo.
I'll be interested in looking these guidelines over. Like any guidelines, they are only of use if followed, of course.
Gassho
Myozan

As a priest-in-training here, you are expected to uphold them and be bound by them. You were, of course, familiar with our ethics guidelines here at Treeleaf before today I hope.

Gassho, Jundo

[esotericsam]

This all strikes me as a bit shady. He's now "disrobing" and claiming he never considered himself a teacher. But he wrote 3 popular Zen books, founded a popular youth movement, and holds regular sittings where he is in charge. Brad. is most certainly human, just as I am so I don't want to assume a punishing and judging mentality

I've encountered this kind of thing in evangelicalism - trying so hard to be cool and relevant that you get to treat people how they would like to be treated. In the process thousands of young "Hardcore Zen" followers are left behind. Marketing gone wrong.

There's nothing hardcore, cool, or rebellious, about Zen. It's a very old, traditional, and demanding practice. It stands on its own merits of imparting joy, happiness, peace, mindfulness, and mental health. That should be enough.

[Yugen]

"There's nothing hardcore, cool, or rebellious, about Zen. It's a very old, traditional, and demanding practice..."

Why does it have to be one or the other? I would agree with both statements. Zen is a very old and demanding practice. It has migrated across continents through the hundreds and thousands of years.... Shikantaza is also very demanding..... indeed, it gets harder the more time you spend on the cushion..... as far as being rebellious goes, from a historical perspective Chinese emperors and rulers over the centuries alternatively co-opted, bought into, and attempted to eradicate Chan/Zen Buddhism because of its potential to challenge centralized authority. The same was true in Japan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and I am sure more knowledgeable folks here than me will indicate this was the case much earlier as well.

Shikantaza can be very hardcore as well - it is not new age meditation - to be alone with a zafu and your own thoughts is tough stuff and requires enormous discipline. To sit and face a blank wall for day after day, year after year, when it is easier to watch TV, go shopping, or eat Twinkies is pretty hardcore in my mind.

From a cultural perspective in the United States, the notion of Zen as rebellious and cool is a cultural one - may have started with Gary Snyder and Alan Ginsberg and colleagues of their generation - thought of as counterculture and anti-establishment.... this is somewhat unfortunate as the more I read Snyder's work I like what he has to say. It is thoughtful and he is very close to our own lineage's emphasis on dissolving the boundaries between lay and clerical/monastic practice. He very much advocates practicing "out in the world." Just as Koans have been used to disrupt conventional thought processes there have been practitioners (aren't we all teachers?) who have thought to challenge the status quo by utilising techniques, commentary, and fora that are considered "in your face," "improper" or not conventional (Brad?). The maple tree outside my window is a marvelous teacher to me - it doesn't wear an Okesa - does that delegitimize it? In my mind this is the only way our practice is advanced, and prevents becoming arteriosclerotic. More power to Brad, as far as I am concerned. I may not always agree with what he says, but he challenges our thinking and practice. The truth is that Zen takes on the character of the cultures and society it migrates into - it changed when it migrated from China to Japan, and it is changing as develops in the United States and Europe - it takes on the flavors of the things it is mixed with. We depend on experienced teachers and "good friends" in practice to help us stay on track and determine whether or not our practice is authentic and consistent with the teachings....both from the past and present. I have to be careful with the word tradition because that can become a euphemism for rejecting change or evolution. There are many varieties of Zen practice, and the US is not without those who differ significantly as to what constitutes Zen practice. I find the intramural squabbling in the Zen community - picking and choosing - to be foolish and a waste of time. Sit, live and love. Practice with a sangha. Follow your heart. The rest is beyond our control.

Deep bows,
Yugen

[esotericsam]

I very much appreciated your thoughts Yugen. Thanks. I am very new to Zen.

[Yugen]

And I am very glad you are here to practice with us! Like you, I am very new to Zen - every day!

I also owe you an apology - my comments were very US-centric - I do not know a lot about Zen practice in Canada - and do not presume they are the same. Perhaps you will share with us what you find...

Keep it up!

Gassho
Yugen

[Myozan Kodo]

As a priest-in-training here, you are expected to uphold them and be bound by them. You were, of course, familiar with our ethics guidelines here at Treeleaf before today I hope.

Gassho, Jundo

Yes. I was looking into the SZBA guidelines. I know we have guidelines. An ethics committee. I was interested in any concerted effort at offering guidelines to the wider Soto Zen world in the west. I am not ignorant of our ethical guidelines and our five-man committee.

Regarding our ethics committee, maybe we should have a woman or two on board for gender balance?

Thanks for the link.
Gassho
Myozan

[Jakudo]

Spot on Yugen, I'm tired of the bickering that goes on....just sit. I have met Brad and he was nothing like his writing style would suggest. Also when I was practising without a teacher I would occasionally e mail Brad with questions about practice and he always got back to me with good advice and I am grateful for that. All our life is our temple, and everything can be our teacher.

[Jundo]

"There's nothing hardcore, cool, or rebellious, about Zen. It's a very old, traditional, and demanding practice..."

Why does it have to be one or the other? I would agree with both statements. Zen is a very old and demanding practice. It has migrated across continents through the hundreds and thousands of years.... Shikantaza is also very demanding..... indeed, it gets harder the more time you spend on the cushion..... as far as being rebellious goes, from a historical perspective Chinese emperors and rulers over the centuries alternatively co-opted, bought into, and attempted to eradicate Chan/Zen Buddhism because of its potential to challenge centralized authority. The same was true in Japan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and I am sure more knowledgeable folks here than me will indicate this was the case much earlier as well.

Shikantaza can be very hardcore as well - it is not new age meditation - to be alone with a zafu and your own thoughts is tough stuff and requires enormous discipline. To sit and face a blank wall for day after day, year after year, when it is easier to watch TV, go shopping, or eat Twinkies is pretty hardcore in my mind.

From a cultural perspective in the United States, the notion of Zen as rebellious and cool is a cultural one - may have started with Gary Snyder and Alan Ginsberg and colleagues of their generation - thought of as counterculture and anti-establishment.... this is somewhat unfortunate as the more I read Snyder's work I like what he has to say. It is thoughtful and he is very close to our own lineage's emphasis on dissolving the boundaries between lay and clerical/monastic practice. He very much advocates practicing "out in the world." Just as Koans have been used to disrupt conventional thought processes there have been practitioners (aren't we all teachers?) who have thought to challenge the status quo by utilising techniques, commentary, and fora that are considered "in your face," "improper" or not conventional (Brad?). The maple tree outside my window is a marvelous teacher to me - it doesn't wear an Okesa - does that delegitimize it? In my mind this is the only way our practice is advanced, and prevents becoming arteriosclerotic. More power to Brad, as far as I am concerned. I may not always agree with what he says, but he challenges our thinking and practice. The truth is that Zen takes on the character of the cultures and society it migrates into - it changed when it migrated from China to Japan, and it is changing as develops in the United States and Europe - it takes on the flavors of the things it is mixed with. We depend on experienced teachers and "good friends" in practice to help us stay on track and determine whether or not our practice is authentic and consistent with the teachings....both from the past and present. I have to be careful with the word tradition because that can become a euphemism for rejecting change or evolution. There are many varieties of Zen practice, and the US is not without those who differ significantly as to what constitutes Zen practice. I find the intramural squabbling in the Zen community - picking and choosing - to be foolish and a waste of time. Sit, live and love. Practice with a sangha. Follow your heart. The rest is beyond our control.

Deep bows,
Yugen

Thank you, Yugen, this speaks my heart too.

Throughout its history, Zen has been rebellious and iconoclastic, but also conservative and honoring of Tradition ... and usually it was the same people who were both at once. For all his supposed sexual and moral freedom, Ikkyu has also been shown by historians to be quite the stick in the mud and traditionalist in other ways. There is a time for each. Let's manifest "Rebel-Non-Rebel" ... both bowing down and burning the wooden Buddha statue when the time is right (Ikkyu would bow down to statues, but also reportedly pissed on one he was asked to consecrate). I find Brad ... so "straight edge", conservative about drink, drugs and certainly no "seducer of women" ... to be such a Rebel-Non-Rebel. (Me too, Taigu too!).

I wrote this to and about Brad regarding being "clergy" ... just my feeling ...

Our whole Lineage [through Niwa, the Abbot of Eiheiji and Nishijima, the priest-working man he ordained] is very much about softening and knocking down all the traditional barriers in Buddhism between “Ordained Clergy” “Lay Householders” “Male” and “Female”. I would disagree with him about whether we are “clergy”, because we function in that role in my eyes … like someone is a “bus driver” when they drive a bus on a regular basis. [Beyond one having undergone the rituals of "Home Leaving" Ordination and "Dharma Transmission"], if one is writing books about Zen, is leading sittings and writing advice columns on peoples’ personal issues in a major Buddhist magazine [like Tricycle, as Brad is], then one would be functioning as “clergy”. But that is just my view, and need not be Brad’s view and, for what it is worth, I support it. Brad sometimes describes himself more as an “artist” or “Zen troubadour” or “spiritual entertainer”, the same label Alan Watts used to describe himself, and Brad may actually be a more effective voice of the Dharma in such role than leading a typical Zen Group or preaching to the same choir as all the other Zen folks.

More here on Ikkyu ... the surprisingly sometimes conservative rebel ...

His life grew progressively more unconventional with time, just the opposite of most. Beginning as a classicist in the finest Kyoto tradition, he had gone on to become a spiritual recluse in the mountains under a harsh meditation master. After all this training he then took the road, becoming a wandering monk in the traditional T'ang mode.

Well, almost in the traditional mode. He seemed to wander into brothels and wine shops almost as often as into Zen temples. He consorted with high and low, merchant and commoner, male and female. Our record of these explorations, both geographic and social, is in his writings, particularly his poetry. He also harbored a vendetta against the complacency and corruption of Japanese Zen and its masters, particularly the new abbot of Daitoku-ji, an older man named Yoso who had once been a fellow disciple of his beloved Kaso.

When Ikkyu was forty-six he was invited by Yoso to head a subtemple in the Daitoku-ji compound. He accepted, much to the delight of his admirers, who began bringing the temple donations in gratitude. However, after only ten days Ikkyu concluded that Daitoku-ji too had become more concerned with ceremony than with the preservation of Zen, and he wrote a famous protest poem as a parting gesture—claiming he could find more of Zen in the meat, drink, and sex traditionally forbidden Buddhists.

For ten days in this temple my mind's been in turmoil,
My feet are entangled in endless red tape.
If some day you get around to looking for me,
Try the fish-shop, the wine parlor, or the brothel.17

Ikkyu's attack on the commercialization of Zen was not without cause. The scholar Jan Covell observes that in Ikkyu's time, "Rinzai Zen had sunk to a low point and enlightenment was 'sold,' particularly by those temples associated with the Shogunate. Zen temples also made money in sake-brewing and through usury. In the mid-fifteenth century one Zen temple, Shokoku-ji, furnished all the advisers to the Shogunate's government and received most of the bribes. The imperial-sanctioned temple of Daitoku-ji was only on the fringe of this corruption, but Ikkyu felt he could not criticize it enough."18

... Ikkyu used his poetry (later collected as the "Crazy Cloud Poems" or Kyoun-shu) as a means of expressing his enlightenment, as well as his criticism of the establishment. It also, as often as not, celebrated sensual over spiritual pleasures. ... When Ikkyu was in his seventies, during the disastrous civil conflict known as the Onin war, he had a love affair with a forty-year-old temple attendant named Mori. On languid afternoons she would play the Japanese koto or harp and he the wistful-sounding shakuhachi, a long bamboo flute sometimes carried by monks as a weapon. This late-life love affair occasioned a number of erotic poems, including one that claims her restoration of his virility (called by the Chinese euphemism "jade stalk") cheered his disciples.

How is my hand like Mori's hand?
Self confidence is the vassal, Freedom the master.
When I am ill she cures the jade stalk
And brings joy back to my followers.22

Ironically, the real-life Ikkyu spent his twilight years restoring Daitoku-ji after its destruction (along with the rest of Kyoto) from the ten-year Onin war (1467-77), by taking over the temple and using his contacts in the merchant community to raise funds. He had over a hundred disciples at this time, a popularity that saddened him since earlier (and, he thought, more deserving) masters had had many fewer followers. Thus in the last decade of his life he finally exchanged his straw sandals and reed hat for the robes of a prestigious abbot over a major monastery. His own ambivalence on this he confessed in a poem:

Fifty years a rustic wanderer,
Now mortified in purple robes.26

From: The Zen Experience by Thomas Hoover

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34325/34325-h/34325-h.htm

By the way, Barbara O'brien over at "About Buddhism" has what I feel is a very fair assessment of Brad and what he is saying on teacher-student sexual relationships ...

http://buddhism.about.com/b/2012/12/13/when-teachers-disagree.htm

Gassho, J

[Jundo]

Regarding our ethics committee, maybe we should have a woman or two on board for gender balance? ...

Thanks for the link.
Gassho
Myozan

Excellent suggestion.

And, although we see beyond and through-and-through all mental divisions of male, female, gay, straight, transgender and everything beyond ... I would like to see soon more novice priests-in-training of the female persuasion and such.

Gassho, J