James Ishmael Ford has recently written an interesting book called "Zen Master Who?" about American Zen teachers and their lineage. Ford, according to the author's biography, is a Unitarian Universalist minister, currently serving as senior minister of the First Unitarian Society in Newton, Massachusetts.
I'm not sure, but I may have met him. Two years ago or so, someone came through the Zen Center interviewing Zen students as part of his research on a book about American Zen. L. and I talked with him for a while, and he seemed quite intrigued with the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and our lineage back to Soyu Matsuoka.
According to Zen Master Who?, Soyu Matsuoka was a Japanese Soto Zen teacher who spent the last half of his life in America. Of all the Zen lineages in North America, Ford notes, his is perhaps the most difficult to interpret. "Soyu Matsuoka ranks with Nyogen Senzaki and Sokei-an as one of the first teachers to make his home and life work in North America," Ford writes. "He also seems to be the first teacher to clearly and unambiguously give Dharma transmission to Western students."
Matsuoka was born near Hiroshima in 1912 and was one of the Zen priests who came to serve Japanese immigrants in the United States. He was interred during the Second World War, but in 1949 founded the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago. In 1970, he moved to Long Beach. At some point of his life, Ford notes, he became estranged from the Japanese organization. During the years subsequent to this estrangement, her ordained numerous students, some of whom had very little formal or informal training. "As a result," Ford notes, "few teachers in the Zen tradition today, and fewer still in the Soto school within which Matsuoka Roshi taught, accept his heirs to be authentic Zen teachers."
I respect my teachers, I'm proud of our lineage, and I have Great Faith (cultivated with Great Doubt) in our practice. What more needs to be said?
I'm not sure, but I may have met him. Two years ago or so, someone came through the Zen Center interviewing Zen students as part of his research on a book about American Zen. L. and I talked with him for a while, and he seemed quite intrigued with the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and our lineage back to Soyu Matsuoka.
According to Zen Master Who?, Soyu Matsuoka was a Japanese Soto Zen teacher who spent the last half of his life in America. Of all the Zen lineages in North America, Ford notes, his is perhaps the most difficult to interpret. "Soyu Matsuoka ranks with Nyogen Senzaki and Sokei-an as one of the first teachers to make his home and life work in North America," Ford writes. "He also seems to be the first teacher to clearly and unambiguously give Dharma transmission to Western students."
Matsuoka was born near Hiroshima in 1912 and was one of the Zen priests who came to serve Japanese immigrants in the United States. He was interred during the Second World War, but in 1949 founded the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago. In 1970, he moved to Long Beach. At some point of his life, Ford notes, he became estranged from the Japanese organization. During the years subsequent to this estrangement, her ordained numerous students, some of whom had very little formal or informal training. "As a result," Ford notes, "few teachers in the Zen tradition today, and fewer still in the Soto school within which Matsuoka Roshi taught, accept his heirs to be authentic Zen teachers."
"Regarding the Matsuoka lineage, Taiun Michael Elliston and Kongo Richard Langlois were indisputably two of Matsuoka Roshi's long-time senior students, and each has established himself, by many standards, as a legitimate Zen - if not properly Soto Zen - teacher. . . Taiun Michael Elliston founded the Atlanta Soto Zen Canter in 1977, which he continues to lead. As a footnote, it should be mentioned that Elliston Roshi has been working hard to reconcile with the Soto mainstream. It is possible that within a few years, this one branch, at least, of the Matsuoka line will rejoin the normative Soto tradition."Great, but if not, so what? Is anyone questioning the authenticity of our practice or our understanding? Zen has always had its heretics, its radicals, and its iconoclasts, from Bodhidharma himself, down through Hui Neng and Dogen. The American instinct to want to "brand" what is or isn't Zen shows, I believe, a misunderstanding of what the term "Zen" actually is pointing at, and smacks of provincial fundamentalism of the worst kind.
I respect my teachers, I'm proud of our lineage, and I have Great Faith (cultivated with Great Doubt) in our practice. What more needs to be said?
3 comments:
Interesting, too, that the lineages
Ford recognizes as "legitimate" are
marred by scumbags:
Taizan Maezumi (sex with students,
statutory rape, drowned in a
bathtub while drunk)
Eido Shimano (sex with students as
described in "Original Dwelling Place" by Robert Aitken)
Richard Baker (sex with students,
embezzlement as described in
"Shoes Outside the Door")
... the list goes on ...
and, of course, there is the book
"Zen at War" by Brian Victoria
that describes how many Japanese
Zen teachers were fascists
(Sawaki, Yasutani, Harada, et al.)
Why bother with zazen if it doesn't make one a decent human being?
BTW, the charges against Maezumi
come from Ford's book and, if memory
serves, Sandy Boucher's "Turning the
Wheel" (for the sex-with-a-minor bit).
======================================
"But the gist of the comment seemed to
have been that since some Soto Zen
purists don't recognize the Matsuoka
lineage, I might as well just abandon
it"
What we got here is a failure to
communicate:
Pointing out the serious misdeeds in
other lineages was a way to defend
against Ford's characterization of
the Matsuoka lineage as "inauthentic".
As far as I am aware, there is no
documentation of serious misdeeds
in the Matsuoka line.
And I'll take "inauthentic" over fraud
and betrayal any day.
======================================
"and further all of the other lineages
are even worse, led by scoundrels and
thieves, so it's best to just abandon
the practice of zazen altogether."
In the preface to Katsuki Sekida's
"Zen Training", the writer says some-
thing along the lines of "the proof
is in the pudding" -- it may look like
these zen-heads are wasting their time,
but if you encounter the teachers who
have been sitting a long time, well,
they are extraordinarily kind and
warm people.
So, the end result determines if the
practice is worthwhile. If many
who have been licensed to teach
('dharma transmission' or whatever)
behave harmfully toward others, then
any sane observer would have to
question the effectiveness of this
particular practice.
======================================
"If one is taking on the practice of
zazen for the purpose of becoming a
"decent" human being - or for any
other purpose for that matter - one
has already missed the mark so badly
that the practice has already, in
effect, been abandoned. If I haven't
already made this explicitly clear,
making one a decent human being is
not the purpose of Zen."
-----
"What we find in Zen is that the
essential nature beneath all of this
is good, is kind, and can be trusted.
To be genuine, to be meaningful, to
be kind, we do not have to develop
or acquire anything, we only have to
strip away and get rid of those
accreted layers."
Um, you appear to be contradicting
yourself in the two quotes above.
You might want to do a better job
of sorting out your thoughts.
======================================
"But while I don't know about the
veracity of his other claims"
Nor do I, but please don't shoot
the messenger (who might be female,
you sexist).
"calling the Japanese masters "fascists" "
Just calling a spade a spade.
"and all Zen teachers "scumbags" "
Um, nowhere was the word 'all' used,
although 'far too many' may have been
implied.
"sounds a little over the top. But
even if all of these charges are true,
what does it say other than the teachers
are human?"
They may be human, but since they call
themselves teachers, it is not
unreasonable to hold them to a slightly
higher standard of behavior than is
applied to someone who has never sat.
"I'm just stating that we're all human,
and we've all slipped."
There are differing degrees of slippage:
oops, I lost my temper in traffic
and
oops, I just persuaded a bunch of
gullible suckers to fork over their
money, their minds, and their bodies
for my selfish pleasures, while
making them think that it was for
the benefit of all sentient beings.
P.T. Barnum would be green with envy.
This is a great blog. I'm pleased to know it's here and I'll return to it.
I'm from Atlanta but have yet to attend the Soto Zendo. I have studied Zen now for more than 20 years. I did not have a proper teacher as such. I did have the words of Shunryu Suzuki and about thirty other books. I don't think having a lineage to connect with - obviously - is that important to my study of Zen.
None of this kept me from writing my own book however. I don't think lineage is, and forgive the comparison, any more important than the lineage of Popes may be to someone who wants to follow Christian teachings. Again I know the two are wide apart, but there is really nothing on the level with Zen.
I wrote a book about Zen because it came from me. I sit often and also have mini- and micro-Zazen sessions all the time.
It misses the mark if I speak about the 'improvements' from Zazen because after all I was just sitting to sit. But I could make a list if I chose to and it would include lots of positive things.
I'm just doing each moment as it comes. Through this I'm seeing into my true nature.
Now I'm going to go have a ZenBiscuit with honey on it.
Post a Comment