Thoughts on economics, ethics, gender, climate, language, Zen, and a few other things…
The traditional Zen emphasis on patriarchal lineage is problematic. What if we recognized all who have nurtured us instead?
We are able to practice Zen today because of many the people, places, and communities that sustained the tradition in the past. We do well to remember and honor our Zen history. In the commercialized Western culture in which I live, it’s far too easy to become enamored of Zen as “the next new thing!” We may lean towards forgetting that it’s an ancient tradition.
Yet the way in which this honoring is traditionally done in Zen is highly problematic.
Continue reading “Ancestry Without Lineage”We have met with seemingly endless retaliation for calling attention to abuses of power in Zen. Yet we are surviving and flourishing.
It’s been a crazy time, since my last post. That post, and another attempt of mine to engage in discussion about abuses in Zen, brought forth an unexpected firestorm of angry responses from the three other teachers at Greater Boston Zen Center.
Continue reading “The State of the Sangha”A Commentary on N. M. Baker’s Opening to Oneness
There is much to recommend Nancy Mujo Baker’s new book on the Zen Precepts. And there are some passages I am concerned about. In this, the second of two posts, I want to explain why I find a few passages that touch on abuse of students by teachers to be alarming.
A Commentary on Nancy Mujo Baker’s Opening to Oneness
There is much to recommend Nancy Mujo Baker’s new book on the Zen Precepts, Opening to Oneness. And there are some things to be concerned about. In this, the first of two posts, I’ll share my concern that students may be misled about what Zen teaches about “oneness” and “suchness.”
The story of the Buddha’s Enlightenment is usually told as a quest story with a lone hero. What does that miss?
On the first night of our sesshin (residential retreat) celebrating the Buddhist holiday of Rohatsu, we read a pretty standard, simplified recounting of the story. It starts with Siddartha Gautama riding away from his family and palace and ends with his transformation into Shakaymuni Buddha. The plot is pretty familiar, really.
If Zen teaching transmission is not synonymous with enlightenment, and not centrally about mystical power, authority, leadership, or the content or style of teaching…what, then, is the key feature?
In the final analysis, it seems to me that Zen teaching transmission is primarily of teaching responsibility.
The teacher giving transmission believes that the person named as a successor can be trusted to continue the manifestation of the Dharma, and to open the path for others to the best of their ability. They can be trusted to put the teaching of the Dharma and the well-being and development of students above their personal interests. They can be trusted to serve the Buddha by serving the sangha in a teaching role. The successor merits such trust when they truly take on and fulfill these responsibilities.
Continue reading “What is Transmitted: (6) Responsibility”Perhaps Zen transmission has to do with the content or method of instruction…
While one might think that, since the word Dharma is often defined as “the Buddhist teachings,” that “transmission of the Dharma” meets the passing along of a set of scriptures. But this has never been true, even from the beginning.
According to the old stories, Shakyamuni Buddha’s disciple Ananda, who apparently had a great memory, was able to remember every talk the Buddha gave word for word and so preserve the teachings. But Ananda was not the one who received “Dharma transmission” from Shakyamuni. The next successor in the lineage was Mahakashyapa, who smiled when the Buddha held up a flower. Mutual recognition (see Part (2)) occurred between Shakyamuni and Mahakashyapa, and it was Mahakashyapa who led the community after Shakyamuni’s death.
Continue reading “What is Transmitted: (5) A Set or Style of Teaching?”Zen teachers are looked up to as spiritual leaders and guides. Does a teacher’s authority extend to all decisions affecting the community?
In the Asian monastic traditions, the question of succession often included the question of who would be the next abbot of the monastery. The abbot was the head of the whole shebang, not only the top spiritual teacher but also the top authority regarding the day-to-day functioning of the institution and planning for its future. Yet this model is problematic, even in the cultures in which is originated.
For example, many Soto Zen students know that Eihei Dogen and his Dharma descendent Keizan Jokin are considered the first founders of the Soto school: Dogen for the original formulation, and Keizan for spreading it through Japan. But Keizan wasn’t even born yet when Dogen died. We usually don’t hear about what went on in between their times.
Continue reading “What is Transmitted: (4) Leadership of the Sangha?”Traditionally, teaching transmission adds one’s name to the list of Zen “patriarchs.” Perhaps this isn’t the greatest image for here and now…
Lineage charts (kechimyaku) play important roles in Zen ceremonies. These purport to show a direct line of transmission all the way from Shakyamuni Buddha, through ancestors in India, China, and elsewhere, and ending with the recipient of the chart. A red “bloodline” connects the names. The word patriarchs, from the Greek for “ruling father,” is traditionally synonymous with ancestors, since all but some very recently recognized ancestors are men.
Students receive a lineage chart when we receive the Buddhist precepts (ethical teachings) in the ceremony of Jukai. The relevant use of the term transmission for this discussion, however, is at the ceremonies of teaching transmission from a fully transmitted teacher to their “Dharma heir.” A teacher who receives full transmission becomes an “ancestor” themself if they convey teaching authority on to further “heirs.”
Continue reading “What is Transmitted: (3) Patriarchal Authority?”Zen teachers are said to have received “mind to mind” transmission. What does that mean?
We speak of “mind to mind” transmission of the Dharma. This can be confusing. I remember hearing that a rumor circulated among the students of a well-known abbot: The act of teaching transmission, supposedly, involved the teacher pouring something special into the successor’s brain by means of them sitting for a long time with their heads pressed together.
Even if we aren’t as literal-minded as that, the fact that teaching transmission traditionally happens in a ceremony conducted at midnight, privately and in the teacher’s own quarters, may get us thinking that some thing in the mind has been mysteriously transferred.
Much more helpful, I believe is Keizan’s phrasing (see Part (1)) of “mutual recognition” in the room. In modern lingo, we might say that the teacher and student have found themselves to be “on the same wavelength,” and that transmission involves formal recognition of this.
Continue reading “What is Transmitted (2) A Special Mystical Power?”
Julie A. Nelson 