Sangha News for May

5/15/2024

Monthly commentaries from Sanshin teachers

Dogen's Chinese Poems (77)
A Tired Infant
Commentary by Shohaku Okumura

75. Buddha's Birthday Dharma Hall Discourse

For a long time in the entire world the sky has been getting brighter.
Today in heaven and earth the radiance is clear and beautiful.
Walking around for seven steps [the baby Buddha] exhausted all his energy.
Observers of this scene cannot avoid laughing.

Buddha’s Birthday is one of the most important annual events in all Buddhist traditions. In the east Asian Buddhist countries, it is observed on April eighth. Dōgen Zenji celebrated Buddha’s Birthday each year at Kōshōji and Eiheiji. His nine dharma discourses on this occasion are contained in Eihei Kōroku (Dōgen’s Extensive Record). This is the third one given in 1243.

As far as I know, the oldest Buddhist scripture in which the Buddha’s birth is mentioned is the Nālaka Sutta in the Sutta Nipāta. This is a story of a monk Nālaka and his uncle Asita. Asita was a brahmana who was the chaplain to the Buddha’s grandfather and his father Suddhodana. One day, Asita met thirty gods who were happy and excited, singing, shouting, playing music, dancing around and clapping and waving. Asita asked the gods why they were so joyful and excited. READ MORE

New article series: I vow with all beings
As of late April, the Dogen Institute has begun to host a new series of monthly articles by Hoko on gathas. In the training temple, there are four-line verses (Skt. gatha, Jp. ge) to be chanted for a variety of daily activities. Everything from waking up in the morning to brushing the teeth to eating a meal is an opportunity to remember to practice what Buddha taught. These gathas are based on teachings from Volume 14 (Purifying Practice) of the Avatamsaka Sutra. Hoko takes a look at these sutra verses to investigate what they’re pointing to and how we can include them in our own daily practice. See the 'I vow with all beings' study page on the Dogen Institute website for more resources.

When I'm at home
Commentary by Hoko Karnegis

When I’m at home,
I vow with all beings
to realize that “home” is empty
and escape its pressures.

The first verse in the sutra starts where we all start—at home. What could be more basic and foundational? Chances are, you haven’t considered simply being at home as a practice in itself. Yet, of course, there is home and “home”—the home made up of doors and dishes and dresses, and the “home” we inhabit when we settle into non-attachment.When we receive lay precepts, the ceremony is sometimes called zaike tokudo 在家得度: staying home and acquiring (the practice). That’s in contrast to ordination as a novice, which is called shukke tokudo 出家得度: leaving home and acquiring (the practice). Traditionally, laypeople did their practice in the context of family and job responsibilities, while the clergy left those obligations behind and devoted the entirety of their time and attention to sitting and study. Today in North America, few practitioners live in a temple full time; almost all of us are managing home lives for ourselves regardless of what kind of commitment we’ve made to the Three Treasures. If we don’t do our own laundry, cook our own meals, go get the mail and cut the grass, those things aren’t going to happen. The cat box isn’t going to clean itself. READ MORE

In this issue:

Commentaries: "A tired infant" by Okumura Roshi; New article series on gathas by Hoko ("I vow with all beings")
From our directors: Building our future; Haiku from our Treasurer
New on the web: 108 Gates; Sunday dharma talks
Other news: A wedding at Sanshinji
Practice recap: Wright-Braverman-Hoffman discussion; Virtual dharma study intensive; Work practice
Coming up: "Six Points" discussion; June sesshin; Ryaku fusatsu
American religious landscape: Religion & feelings of closeness
Sanshin Network: Updates from Okumura Roshi's Japanese ordained students; Jukai-e in Belgium

New on the web this month

108 Gates: Hoko's written commentaries on gate statements 17 - 20 of the 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination (Ippyakuhachi Homyomon) are now available, together with study/discussion questions for groups or individuals. New commentaries are posted to our 108 Gates page each Monday.

This month's Sunday dharma talks on Youtube: New talks are posted on most Tuesdays. The following three talks came from Esho, our shuso for this year's ango.

We also released a talk from last year, by Ritoku Robinson:

On the first three transmissions of Zen

From our directors

Building Our Future: Updates from Sanshin Zen Community
Michael Komyo Melfi, President, and Laura Miller, Vice President

As stewards of Sanshin Zen Community, the board of directors endeavors to continually envision and enact strategies that uphold our shared mission and vision. Over the past year, amidst the challenges and opportunities that have arisen, we have dedicated ourselves to the development of a long range plan that charts our course for the next fifteen years. This comprehensive plan, meticulously crafted during the final quarter of 2023 and officially passed in January 2024, encompasses a spectrum of initiatives aimed at realizing our practice vision. From housing and support plans to staffing strategies, renovation endeavors to residential practice frameworks, building initiatives to succession planning, every facet of our community's growth and sustainability has been considered. In the subsequent months, we have diligently worked towards operationalizing the initial steps of this transformative plan.

In this vein, we are excited to share that the board is moving forward on some important items to implement two key priorities - restarting residential practice while continuing to support housing for the Okumuras.

Residential practice is an integral part of Sanshin’s strategic plan and Okumura Roshi’s vision for the future of our community, but our property requires some work before we can support residents. To create space for this work and support the continued realization of our community's mission and vision, we are working with the Okumuras to find alternative housing with the goal of them moving into a new residence of their choosing by the end of 2024, so that we will be free to renovate our existing building for residential practice. With this move, Sanshin will continue providing housing support to the Okumuras in the form of a housing allowance.

We are excited to see this work move forward, and ask for your support to make it happen. Please give here to support the Okumuras' move and the development of residential practice. Thank you!

A Haiku of Thanks
Gene Kishin Elias, Treasurer

in every year we
work hard to keep the stream wet
Thanks! for all of the water.

A stream filled with water running through the meadow causes the wild flowers and grasses to prosper, which in turn allows the bees, butterflies and other wild life to flourish. Your donations are like the water in the stream – the donations support our teaching and practice, research, the Dogen Institute, the Sawaki Nyoho-e Treasury, and many other elements that make our mission a reality. They also go a long way in helping us to pay our utility bills and keep the lights on!

A stream flows near Gene's house in the Southern Indiana woods.

Other news

A wedding at Sanshinji: On April 17th, Doju Layton and Alli Gillett were married at Sanshinji. The ceremony was officiated by Hoko, with Sawyer serving as ino. Family members of Doju and Alli were also in attendance for the happy occasion. Doju is an ordained student of Okumura Roshi, and Alli will be receiving lay precepts from Hoko this July.

Practice recap

Wright-Braverman-Hofmann conversation: As part of our yearlong exploration of Sanshin's lineage & legacy, we hosted an online discussion on April 25th with three North American practitioners who studied and practiced with Uchiyama Roshi and the Antaiji sangha in the late 1960s and early 70s, overlapping also with some of Okumura Roshi's time there. About 70 practitioners tuned in via Zoom along with our guests Daitsu Tom Wright, Arthur Braverman, and Michael Hofmann, and about a dozen gathered together in the zendo for the occasion. See a brief clip of some of Daitsu's practice memories of Uchiyama Roshi at right. The full conversation is available on our Youtube channel, here.

Virtual dharma study intensive: From May 2nd to May 11th, about seventy practitioners participated from throughout the U. S. and beyond via Zoom in a 10-day dharma study intensive with Okumura Roshi, focused on Menzan Zuiho's important text, Jijuyu Zanmai. The schedule consisted simply of a lecture and Q & A with Okumura Roshi each morning, which practitioners folded into their own schedules of zazen and day to day responsibilities and practice from home. A small support crew was present in-person to facilitate technical and zendo needs. This event is the successor to the genzo-e retreats of the past twenty years, and is held online twice a year - the next one will be carried out in November.

Work practice: On May 12th, practitioners stayed on campus following Esho's dharma talk for our monthly work day. In the zendo, Hosshin and Jeff focused their work together on the wood valance above the central Manjushri altar. Out on the grounds, teams worked on continuing to construct our "dead hedge" boundary fence and the bamboo fence around the moss garden, along with the age-old and endless practices of weeding the moss garden and mowing the lawn.

Throughout the month, practitioners also gathered a few times at the sesshin vegetable garden up the road from the temple to construct a bamboo trellis for the peas, thin radish, carrot, and lettuce seedlings, hill the potatoes, plant cucumbers and tomatoes, and spread Sanshin lawn grass clippings as a mulch and a good nitrogen source. A few crops should be ready for harvest in time for June sesshin!

Clinging peas

Coming up

"Six Points" discussion evening: On the evening of Thursday, May 23rd, we'll carry out the second of a series of informal discussions exploring Sanshin's six points of practice in relation to our ongoing focus this year on lineage & legacy. Following a period of zazen, we'll explore our second practice point, which comes to us primarily from Uchiyama Roshi's teaching and practice style: keeping forms simple.

We'll see what it means to keep forms and ceremonies simple in order to understand what we're doing and why, and to maintain their connection with zazen. Rather than being merely performances, our forms arise from the practice needs of the sangha intersected with the deep traditions of Soto Zen. How do we practice with ritual in a way that supports our practice without engaging the ego?

Virtual and in-person participation is welcome; no registration required. We'll sit zazen at 6:30 pm EDT, and discussion will follow from 7 to 8. For a complete schedule of the year's discussion evenings and more, visit our lineage & legacy webpage.

June sesshin: A few spaces remain open for the 5-day June sesshin (June 4 - 9), which we'll carry out in the heart of our annual three-month practice period, or ango. Sesshin at Sanshin is an opportunity to practice without distraction. We set aside the usual activities -- or entertainments -- of temple life, like work periods, meetings with teachers and dharma talks, and focus completely on zazen. This sesshin-without-toys style of practice was created by our founder's teacher, Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, and practiced at Antaiji in Kyoto, Japan. We carry on and offer this tradition of our lineage here at Sanshin. LEARN MORE AND REGISTER

Ryaku fusatsu in June: Ryaku fusatsu is our monthly ceremony of renewing our aspiration to practice with the sixteen bodhisattva precepts. Our next one happens Monday, June 17th, at 7 pm EDT and the ceremony typically lasts about an hour. Hosshin Shoaf will officiate. All are welcome, in-person and virtually, whether or not you've formally received precepts.

American religious landscape

Religion and feelings of closeness: Religiously unaffiliated Americans are far less likely than their affiliated counterparts to feel close to others in the U.S. (51% vs. 73%), according to a new Pew Research Center analysis. This pattern is mirrored in other measures of religiosity. For example, Americans who say religion is not too or not at all important to them, or who never attend religious services, are generally less likely to feel close to other Americans. Religiously unaffiliated Americans are also much less likely than those who are religiously affiliated to feel connected to others in their local community (43% vs. 60%).

This pattern aligns with previous research on interpersonal connectedness and philanthropy among religious people. Religious people tend to be more likely than nonreligious people to volunteer and give to charity – though they prefer that these activities benefit others within their own religious groups. READ MORE

Sanshin Network

Regular updates from Okumura Roshi's Japanese ordained students: Jikei Kido, Issan Koyama, Jisho Takahashi, and Esho Morimoto have begun to offer regular updates on their teachings and practice lives, on a shared "Linktree" webpage, here. (Their site will also be linked from our Sanshin Network page). The project is an evolving continuation of the regular updates previously offered by Okumura Roshi himself for friends and practitioners in Japan during his time as Sanshinji's abbot. This group's upcoming posts may be of particular interest for practitioners in Japan, Japanese-speaking practitioners living elsewhere, or anyone who is interested in the practice perspectives of these Japanese and Japanese-American practitioners with significant experience of Soto Zen in the United States, in large part through Okumura Roshi's teaching and practice at Sanshinji, and who are now living and practicing throughout the United States and in Japan. Some content is in Japanese and some is in English. Currently, new material is posted about once a month, and they hope to increase this over time.

Jukai-e in Belgium: Four people received the precepts from Mokusho Depreay at Daishinji in Mons, Belgium: Serge Etsudō, Lauriane Dōshin, Nathalie Jikidō and Sandra Shijun, in the presence of the sangha, friends and family. All of them had spent the last few months sewing their rakusus at the temple.

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We're grateful for the financial support of our many friends and community members worldwide. Your generous support will be used to make sure Sanshin-style teaching and practice remains available. Thank you!

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