June 12-13th, 2015 - Memorial Zazenkai with Yugen: HONORING REV. ZENSHIN TIM BUCKLEY

**Jundo** · 06-12-2015, 04:36 AM

The following is from the SFZC website ----

Jokan Zenshin Thomas (Tim) Buckley: Zen Way, Yurok Way
by Laura Burges

Note: Tim Buckley, SFZC alumnus and an early student of Suzuki Roshi, passed away on April 17, 2015. This article about Tim originally appeared in Sangha News in April 2011. Tim was the leader of the Branching Streams affiliate Green River Zendo in West Bath, Maine.

Thomas “Tim” Buckley, Jokan Zenshin, began sitting with Suzuki Roshi at Sokoji Temple in Japantown in 1965. He describes himself and his old friends from that time as a band of “street hippies and desperados.” Tim has been participating in the spring practice period at City Center and after sesshin he will return to his home in West Bath, Maine, where he now lives with his wife, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, a professor of religion at Bowdoin College. In January, after a long and colorful career as a cultural anthropologist specializing in the Yurok Indian people of Northern California, Tim received priest ordination with Reverend Peter Schneider, another Zen Center friend from the early days.

Zen Center acquired Tassajara in 1967 and Tim was part of the first Zen Center summer guest season. He practiced at Zen Mountain Center for two years. “Suzuki Roshi asked me to ordain as a priest and stay at Zen Center but I said no. I wasn’t prepared at that young age to take on lifetime vows. Now that I look back, when I said ‘no’ to Suzuki Roshi, I think I really said ‘yes’.” Tim left Tassajara with Emily Bragdon. They married and had a son, Jesse, and later parted.

After Suzuki Roshi died, Tim began studying with Harry Roberts. Among the Yurok people, adoption is a custom of aligning yourself with someone with whom you share a sense of kinship. Harry was born in 1906 and was adopted as a nephew by a highly trained Yurok man, Robert Frank Spott. Robert and his sister, Alice Frank Spott, had been adopted when they were children by a Captain Robert Spott, the headman of the town of Requa in Northern California on the Klamath River. Requa was an important trade town where river people and coast people of the Yurok tribe met. Robert Spott saw the potential in Harry, when Harry was just 11, to become a “high man,” a spiritual counselor and teacher, and he trained Harry for about 15 years in the ways of the Yurok action and knowledge. Later, Harry adopted Tim as his nephew. Tim felt a deep affinity for Harry, as he had for Suzuki Roshi, and treasures the time he spent with him.

“Harry knew welding and blacksmithing, he knew how to plant redwoods, how to make duck egg custard, and how to tat a tea towel. He had that practical, botanical and horticultural knowledge that he shared with us at Green Gulch Farm. But he also had a profound spiritual understanding of the world. He taught me to be a man. For Yuroks, that is the first thing you need to do if you are a male person. That is what you need to learn before you can take on any higher men’s spiritual training. First, you have to know who you are.

“Harry taught me that human beings are born afraid and that a big part of training is to develop physical and spiritual confidence. Babies are born with the innate ability to acquire language. They are born with a sucking reflex, so that they can take nourishment. And they are born with a fear of falling, a fear of being dropped. So we have a proclivity for fear. In order to grow up, to be a whole person, we need to render that fear irrelevant. Harry’s central teaching was, ‘Pay attention, from moment to moment. Get ego and desire out of the way.’ This is really important in hunting and gathering societies. And of course it is also central to our Buddhist practice.

“What does it mean to be a ‘man,’ pegerk? It means to become an independent person that others can depend on, whether you are male or female. Alice Spott was considered ‘a real man,’ numi pegerk. These things should also happen in serious Zen training. Not a blustery egoistic confidence, but confidence and trust in our Buddha nature. Harry and the old people trusted the original condition of the world, what he called ‘Beauty.’ We could call it, ‘That which is,’ or, ‘All of it.’”

Harry Roberts encouraged Tim to become an anthropologist. Having studied Asian Art and Buddhism at Harvard as an undergraduate, Tim entered the University of Chicago where he received his PhD in cultural anthropology.

“It was at that time that I took ownership of my intellect. I admitted that I loved to read, to argue closely, and to write,” he says.

He began his formal doctoral research with the Yurok in 1978. He has been active in that community for over 30 years, first as a researcher, and now as a friend and family member of the tribe. Tim taught anthropology and American Indian studies for many years at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, and he is also a gifted photographer. When he returns to Maine, he intends to create a small community zendo in his home.

Tim says it is important to recognize that each path is unique and has its own integrity. At the same time, he sees a resonance between Buddhism and the Yurok way, especially in ceremonial life. His Buddhist training helped Tim understand the Yurok elders in a way that sometimes surprised them.

“If you are committed to the Dharma, you’ve already moved away from a European world view, a Christian world view. You have begun to see the world in a way that isn’t characteristic of those cultures. I grew up in a strict Episcopalian family, a very conservative war-torn family. Given the circumstances of my childhood, ‘The First Noble Truth’ didn’t come as a surprise to me. I became interested in studying Buddhism when I was about 17 and never stopped. Now I don’t think in terms of reconciling being a Buddhist priest with the great privilege I feel in having been able to be a witness to Yurok life. This is just my life.”

Tim (Thomas Buckley) published Blood Magic, a book he edited with Alma Gottlieb, in 1988, in which he explored women’s menstrual rituals and practices. It was an important book in that it blew the lid off theories of menstrual “taboos” in the field of anthropology. “I was afraid that Yurok women might tease me to death about taking up this topic but they were grateful that someone was interested in their lives.” His book Standing Ground came out in 2002 and focused on Yurok men’s and women’s spiritual training.

“Harry taught us that when we walk, we can feel the earth pushing back, supporting us. We talk about loving the earth. But we can also feel the earth loving us. Pay attention. Pay attention to the stability and the reliability of the earth. You can say ‘love.’ Harry would never use that word. But I use it.”

Jokan Zenshin Thomas (Tim) Buckley: Zen Way, Yurok Way | Sangha News Journal

http://blogs.sfzc.org/blog/2015/04/27/zen-way-yurok-way-republished/

Mp · 06-12-2015, 04:53 AM

It will be an honour to be there live, thank you Yugen. =)

Deep bows
Shingen

#sattoday

**Jika** · 06-12-2015, 05:02 AM

Dear Yugen and Jundo,

I am sad I won't be able to participate live to honour this teacher and friend.
I will be leaving town very early Saturday morning to travel a day to visit a friend in hospital.
Will be sitting with you on Sunday.

Gassho,
Danny
#sattoday

**Jundo** · 06-12-2015, 05:07 AM

I also will be unable to attend live this time. I will be at the 17th Hoji (Memorial Service) for my wife's late father. They are Nichiren Buddhists, so the ceremony will be held at their family temple in their hometown.

I will sit this later this weekend.

Gassho, Jundo

**Jundo** · 06-12-2015, 05:37 AM

By the way, the following information is from the Soto-shu in Japan on Hoji/Memorial Services, from their web page. The writer is Issho Fujita, a Soto-shu priest very active in the West. It is a traditional interpretation, of course, with mixtures of Zen, Shinto, Pure Land Buddhism, orthodox views of rebirth, and traditional Chinese-Japanese "Ancestor Veneration" ... It speaks of "souls" (probably better translated as the person's "spirit", although still ambiguous from a strictly Buddhist perspective) and the "Pure Land" (not a typical focus of most Zen Teachings) and such, so you can see how mixed up things are in Japan when it comes to this!

It is very much the same in the Nichiren Sect for my father-in-law, and in all the Buddhist schools of Japan.

Let me say that our Memorial Service today at Treeleaf is --not-- all this ... but then again, I leave it to all our hearts as to what it means.

Gassho, J

Hoji (memorial services) by Issho Fujita

Hoji, literally translated as "dharma event", is an important Buddhist practice to commemorate a deceased person and to pray sincerely for the repose of his or her soul. It also provides a wonderful opportunity for surviving family and friends to reconfirm human ties which the departed brought about, to realize that they owe much to the deceased, to renew their gratitude to him or her and to deeply reflect upon themselves in connection with him or her.

It is believed that these hoji services will increase the merit of the deceased person so that he/she will be reborn in the pure land. Therefore these hoji are sometimes called tsuizen-kuyo (later-practice of offering goodness). In Jucchikyo (Daśabhūmika-sūtra, "The Sutra of Ten Grounds") three kinds of offering are taught: (a) offerings of incense, flowers, food, candlelight, etc.; (b) offerings of praise and reverence (by chanting sutras and worshipping the Buddha and his teaching); (c) offerings of right conduct (by practicing the Buddha’s way and living a wholesome life).

After the Buddha entered into the nirvana, Buddhist monks did a ceremony of doing gassho and making prostrations in front of the stupa where his relics were placed. This commemorative ritual of reverence is the origin of hoji.

Nowadays in Japan after a funeral is held, hoji is performed every seven days after the day of death, seven times altogether. These memorial services are called kinichihoyo. This is based on the ancient Indian idea that the soul of the deceased would stay in an intermediary realm (chuin, or chuu in Japanese) for 49 days after death, wandering between this world and the next. Each period of seven days marks a gradual loosening of the connection with this world and on the 49th day the deceased is reborn according to his/her karmic retribution.

Dogen Zenji wrote in Shobogenzo Doshin (Heart of the Way),
"…When you leave this life, and before you enter the next life, there is a place called an intermediary realm. You stay there for seven days. You should resolve to keep chanting the names of the three treasures without ceasing while you are there. After seven days, you die into another intermediary realm and remain there for no more than seven by seven days (49 days)...."

Through a funeral ceremony, a deceased person is made to take refuge in the Budhha, Dharma and the Sangha and to become an ordained Buddhist. And then while being in an intermediary realm, the deceased one devotes oneself to Buddhist practices under the protection of many buddhas. Family members and friends also support and encourage the deceased to diligently practice the Dharma by observing hoji every seven days. This is also a period of time for the bereaved family to mourn the loss, gradually coming to terms with it, and to regain a sense of peace.

There are also further memorial services after the 49th day, such as the service on the 100th day, the 1st year, 3rd year, 7th, 13th, 17th, 23rd, 27th, and 33rd year. These anniversary memorial services are called nenkihoyo. They are performed in order to support the deceased who have already gone to the pure land to continue walking on the path of the Buddha. Normally the 33rd year (sometimes 37th, or 50th year) is the last (tomuraiage, "end of mourning"), marking the time when the individual deceased is thought to have become absorbed into the general ancestral spirit. It means that the spirit is gradually purified by the power of tsuizen-kuyo, eventually loses its individuality and becomes a full blown bodhisattava (in Buddhism) or a guardian god (in Shinto).

When we pray for the happiness of a deceased person even after the death and accumulate the goodness by performing hoji (tsuizen-kuyo), it will eventually bring happines to ourselves and our family members who are still alive in this world. Thus through observing hoji, the living and the dead can influence and help each other. Of course it is possible only when we do it for real. We must not make light of the power of these rituals.

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http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/eng/library/sermon_archive/201111.html

**Kyotai** · 06-12-2015, 11:28 AM

Apologies Yugen, as I will not be able to attend in person.

Gassho, Kyotai
Sat today

**RichardH** · 06-12-2015, 12:01 PM

I'll be here/there. Thank you Jundo and Yugen

Gassho
Daizan

sat drifty zzzzzzzazen

**Dosho** · 06-12-2015, 12:28 PM

I will be here.

Gassho,
Dosho

Sat today

**Getchi** · 06-12-2015, 01:57 PM

Ill be thinking of you Yugen and Jundo, and will sit the session this week.

Gassho,
Geoff.SatToday

Mp · 06-12-2015, 02:03 PM

Originally posted by Jundo

I also will be unable to attend live this time. I will be at the 13th Hoji (Memorial Service) for my wife's late father. They are Nichiren Buddhists, so the ceremony will be held at their family temple in their hometown.

I will sit this later this weekend.

Gassho, Jundo

We will be sitting with you and your family as well Jundo.

Deep bows
Shingen

#sattoday

**adrianbkelly** · 06-12-2015, 04:11 PM

I will be there Sunday morning.

_/\_
Ade

Sat today

**Kyonin** · 06-12-2015, 04:13 PM

Hi Yugen.

I will pay my respects sitting Saturday Morning.

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday

**BrianW** · 06-12-2015, 04:47 PM

Just by coincidence I am reading Crooked Cucumber:The Life and Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki and I see some of the photos used in the book were shot by Tim. I will have to catch the recorded version.

Gassho,
Jisen/BrianW

Sat2Day

**Myosha** · 06-12-2015, 09:56 PM

Participating.

Gassho
Myosha sat today

June 12-13th, 2015 - Memorial Zazenkai with Yugen: HONORING REV. ZENSHIN TIM BUCKLEY

June 12-13th, 2015 - Memorial Zazenkai with Yugen: HONORING REV. ZENSHIN TIM BUCKLEY

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