I vow to teach the truth of the Tathagata's words. Morning. This morning we have our accompaniment. This morning I want to talk about a little overview of the history of Soto Zen in America, our relationship to Japanese Soto Zen, and the development, the most recent development of our school in America. So I'll need a drink. A practice in America is a lot like the way it was in China during the Tang Dynasty.

[01:16]

Numerous temples and monasteries where there was a teacher and students. and a lot of independence between, of each of the centers. When Zen came to China, I mean to Japan from China, that was still so, but, the Japanese Soto school, which was started by, inaugurated by, or founded by Dogen, and developed by Keizan Jokin Taisho. Dogen brought the Soto school to

[02:30]

to Japan from China, and Keizan developed it. Keizan opened it up and developed or propagated the teaching and sending teachers out to all over Japan to develop their own centers. And a lot in the countryside. And over time, they developed a kind of bureaucracy that tied all the temples together. And today, at least from the middle of the 19th century, the bureaucracy called the Sotoshu Shumucho, has had a very controlling part to play in the temple system.

[03:33]

So, in the middle of the 19th century, the government turned the monks out of the monasteries, mostly, and had them develop temples, which everyone had to register, all the population had to register with a temple. So the whole way that the practice developed from then changed. And there were family temples and then family lineages. And Zazen, which had been at the center of Soto Zen practice, diminished. Temples still have Zendos, but nobody does Zazen in them. Very few. There are some training temples, and the two head temples, Eiheiji and Sojiji.

[04:40]

Eheji was Dogen's temple, Sojiji was Keizan's monastery. Keizan's monastery was down the street from Eheji at first, but then it moved to Yokohama, where it is today. So, there have always been a number of teachers and sincere practitioners in Japan, somewhat independently. And some of them came to America in the early 60s, late 60s and 70s. So we have Suzuki Roshi who came in 1959 and Maezumi came just maybe 1960, something like that, right around that time. Suzuki Roshi was already a well-trained teacher.

[05:46]

Maezumi Roshi was very young, but he trained himself and he went back to Japan and trained with his teachers there and came back to America. and developed the Los Angeles Zen Center. So there were a number of priests who came, but the priests, you know, were sort of independent. Soto Zen priests were independent and acted independently. And from the Japanese point of view, were kind of mavericks because they operated outside of the system and were not taken seriously. But in America, they were taken very seriously by the students. And they saw America as a fertile ground for the teaching. because of our innocence, so to speak.

[06:49]

We didn't have all the cultural baggage. So Suzuki Roshi never tried to load the cultural baggage of the Soto school on us. He gave us a very simple practice. And when people come here, they think, oh, this is very Japanese or something. But to Suzuki Roshi, it was not at all. This is very formal, but it's not formal, actually. I mean, it's not overly formal. So, yes, it's formal, but in a relaxed way. So, when the teachers came to America and students came to the teachers and formed Zen centers, And through the 60s and 70s, the teachers and their students pretty much stayed together.

[07:55]

They didn't cross boundaries with other Zen centers. Sometimes, we knew who people were, but there was very little cross-acculturation between the centers. People stayed with their teacher to develop the teacher's teaching. and to develop those centers and gain some confidence and understanding. Then later in the 80s, students began to investigate the other centers and more cross-acculturation, but still it was very little. Then in the 80s, we started to have a relationship with the Shumucho of Japan. I was one of the people who, I wanted to go to Eheji and Sojiji and do Zuisei. Zuisei, when one has Dharma transmission in our school in Japan,

[09:01]

your teacher gives you dharma transmission and then you go to the head temples, Sojiji and the Eiji, and you do a ceremony called Zuisei, which is a kind of confirmation from the school, and then you pay your respects to Dogen, the founder, at the founder's temple. And that confirmation is, I think, important. And the ceremony is like a kind of honorable position. You put on red slippers and a red robe and you do the morning service. And it's kind of an honor to do that. And they treat you very well. So it's very unusual. It was very unusual for foreigners to do that. But we kind of worked our way into it.

[10:05]

And a number of us did the Zuisei ceremony. And started to have a relationship with the Soto school, Japanese Soto school. And so during the 80s and early 90s, we had a good interchange, a good dialogue, but it was kind of like oil and water. You know, the cultures were just so different. Japanese have their rules and regulations which pertain to practice in Japan and don't transfer to practice in America. So, working back and forth, trying to make this thing work was, you know, very difficult. And the Japanese, the shumucho, was relating to each teacher independently.

[11:09]

You know, so it was very hard to actually communicate. So, what the Japanese shuubensho used to do was they would have what was called a tokubetsu seshin, a special, not like our seshin, but a special practice period. to allow foreigners to do a practice period in Japan to where they would get some certification. Three months practice period. So originally it was one month every other year. which was very tedious and impossible. So then they reduced it to one month. And we had, at Green Gulch 95, we had a Tokubetsu Sashin, where they came here. And they gave a number of us certification at the end. But what they wanted was for us to have an organization

[12:15]

And so they wanted us to have an organization so that they could relate to us. We didn't know, should we have the same organization or should we have a different organization? And so I was very much for us having our own organization that was not influenced by Japan so that we could relate to Japan from our own footing. And so we, during that time, we organized our organization. We called it the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, very kind of non-poetic name. We thought of names, you know, what should we call it? The Soto Zen Buddhist Association, okay. So we, Tetsuya Glassman was the president, and then he decided that I should be the president, and then I was the president.

[13:27]

So it went back and forth between us several times, but we had an ad hoc board of directors, which were the most prominent Zen teachers. And we incorporated, drew up bylaws, and had an organization, but we didn't have any members. We had a board of directors and no members. So we made this effort to get members, but nobody was interested. People were just too busy, and we could never, we could never have a board meeting, because the board members all lived in different parts of the country, and could never get together to have a board meeting. So in the end, I was left as the president with the organization. And for years, maybe four or five years, every once in a while, I'd try to organize a membership and I'd send out letters.

[14:31]

And little by little, a few people would join. We said $25 a year to join. But it just never got off the ground. And then little by little, all those board members quit. So we had a treasurer and myself and the secretary in the end. So a few years ago, the three of us got together and decided we'd send a letter to people directly asking them to be board members and to have a local board. a board that was a Bay Area board so that people could actually meet. So we sent the letters and I asked people pointedly to be members of the board, and they said, okay. And these people got together, a very powerful group of people. They worked really hard, they organized themselves, they reorganized the bylaws, took it all very seriously.

[15:40]

And for about a year and a half, we met very frequently. And we actually got This organization, Soto Zen Buddhist Association, principally was an organization of Dharma transmitted priests in America. I'll explain what that is later. And so we actually inspired people all around the country to join the organization. And then we developed a a ceremony, an American Zuisei, which was not the same as Japan. In Japan, the organization, well, it's sort of like in Japan.

[16:46]

You go to the head temple and you do this ceremony, and then you're recognized. So we created our own ceremony, which was adapted to our own circumstances. And we decided to have this ceremony at what's called the Great Vow Monastery in Oregon, near the Washington border. Skatskanai, it's a little town outside of Portland, about an hour from Portland. And these people, I have a elementary school. That's their monastery. Apparently, this is in farming country, so it's all farmland, and the school was put up because there were a number of children around at the time, but now there are very few children to fill the school, so the county sold the school.

[18:01]

and they bought the school. It's a really interesting place. Kind of really nice. The swings outside. And lots of room for a big ceremony like this and a meeting. So it was very auspicious. And so we got everybody to go up there and we held this meeting and this was last week. And we developed this ceremony, which was an empowerment ceremony called a Dharma, Dharma Heritage Ceremony. And the people who had done, we say in Japan, officiated for the people who were coming up And it was just this wonderful ceremony.

[19:09]

Everybody felt the power of that ceremony. And it was wonderful just to have 50 priests with Dharmanjaya's mission sitting zazen together from different parts of the country. And there's six different lineages, six different sotos and lineages. And everybody was brought together. There was this just wonderful feeling of everybody feeling on the same level and accepting everyone. And there was lots of hugging and it's just like this is what everybody wanted in the end, was to be brought into this one, to come together as one. So, and then we had a conference afterward. And the conference, you know, brought up many issues. There's so many issues that are common to all the lineages in America.

[20:10]

And the future, the near future, is to work on these common issues together so that everyone is on this, you know, we can develop a commonality and our, you know, Like, for instance, like what kind of training should priests have? What kind of training should lay people have? So what are our common goals and the meaning of our practice? So all that, and empowerment for lay people and so forth. So these issues will be, I think, very prominent in the next decade. I was going to say something, I can't remember what it was.

[21:36]

Yeah, I'm gonna explain about dharma transmission a little bit. I don't know about dharma transmission in India, but our lineage goes all the way back to Shakyamuni Buddha. And lineage is very important in Soto Zen, in all Zen traditions. And in China, the teachers would give Dharma transmission to their prominent disciples according to their understanding and their ability. And, This is to keep the tradition of the school being handed down from one to another.

[22:48]

So in Zen, there's no special scripture. There's simply the teacher handing down to the disciple, and that teacher handing down to the next disciple, and so forth. And that's the way it's always been. So this is called Dharma transmission. And so it's a very important part of the Soto school. And this is carried through also in Japan. and carried into America, of course. Usually we give Dharma transmission when a priest is mature and or is invited to be the teacher of a group so that they can have that

[23:49]

position. But it also means that it makes a person a full priest. So dharma transmission is for priests. There have been some Rinzai priests who, because they felt that the priesthood was corrupt, started giving the transmission to laypeople. But that's unusual. So there's a kind of controversy about, well, should we give dharma transmission to lay people? So this is one of the problems that, one of the issues that people will be talking about. But basically it's for priests because it enables a person to do ordinations. and to have leadership in a group.

[25:00]

In Japan, usually the head of a temple will give Dharma transmission to one person, usually their oldest son. But in America, it's a little different. And Suzuki Roshi didn't want us to do it that way. He wanted us to make sure that whoever received Dharma transmission had maturity and ability and not just pro forma. So that's gone very slowly. Dharma transmission has been received and given very slowly in America.

[26:05]

But I have to say, I've speeded it up. In Japan, a teacher will have one student or two students. But in America, you know, we have all kinds of students. I mean, I have students that have been practicing for 20, 30 years. So, I've given, done dharma transmission for about 18 people so far. More than anybody else in America, I'm sure. I'm sorry. But a lot of, students who have been practicing for years and years, very steadily and very sincerely, and have matured. So I can't help it. I said this to the group up there.

[27:13]

And then Norman Fisher said, yeah, he just gives Dharma transmission at the drop of a hat. So I'm still in the process of doing more Dharma transmission. I just can't help it, you know, somehow. But I've had students, that when I was abbot at San Francisco Zen Center, I had those students who are mature, and students here who are mature, and some Suzuki Roshi students, that he ordained, who never were able to receive Dharma transmission, and they became my students, and I gave them Dharma transmission. I think we need that in America. We need more teachers. Someone said to me, do you think we have too many teachers in America?

[28:17]

I said, no, we don't have enough good teachers. So, this empowering, actually, the ceremony of Dharma transmission is very empowering. No one is perfectly mature. No one is completely mature. But there is a maturity that indicates that a person will continue to develop. There's a line. When they're on this side of the line, you don't wanna do anything. But when they're on this side of the line, you can do something knowing or having faith that that person will mature. and that it just keeps happening. So I have a lot of confidence in all those people.

[29:17]

Every one of them has come up to that empowerment. So this is my little story about how this has happened. And so it makes me feel very optimistic that we've reached this point. And now I retired from the organization. I'm an advisor. I'm just gonna let everybody else handle it. Just make it happen and pass it on to the next generation. Did you have any questions? But a lot that I've just recently read was about how it moved from this place to this place to this place.

[30:28]

And I also heard a little bit about y'all's conference last week. It seems to me like that there's a spiritual part of Buddhism and there's a religious part of Buddhism. And I'm curious about how For example, there's like a Bazen Center. They don't sew rakusus, and they do different things. And I'm curious about how the religious part of Buddhism responds to the other religions that don't do things quite the same, like, oh, this lay person's getting Dharma transmission or whatever. And I guess I'm sort of curious about what the people who have been practicing formally you know, the very religious, you do this, you do this, you do this, you don't change that, what it's like to meet, for everybody to meet, and what's it gonna be like to shift?

[31:30]

The last part of your question is easy. Like, what are these people all gonna do who are doing different things, how are they gonna, that's why you meet, to deal with those ambiguities. But when you use the term religion, I think you're using the term religion to mean formality. Religion is not just formalism. It's a way of believing, for example. If it isn't that, I think that's what I'm talking about when I'm talking about religion. It's that this group believes this is the only way to blah, blah, blah. This group believes this is the only way. Yeah. You know, there is religion which is a belief system. And there is a religion which is not a belief system. Buddhism is a religion which is not a belief system. It's an investigation into reality.

[32:36]

So it's kind of interesting because we tend to think of religion as something outside of reality. I don't know if that means anything to you. But like, you know, outside of reality meaning based on faith. Buddhism is based on faith. But it's faith which is not faith in a belief system. So when you say spiritual, you kind of said spiritual and religious as opposed to each other. But spiritual, we don't use the word spiritual in Zen because spirit and earth and spirit are not two different things. So we don't say this is earthy and that's spiritual. It's all one piece.

[33:40]

whatever we do is neither mundane nor spiritual. Buddha Dharma is faith in reality, and that's a religious path. No, it's because Shakyamuni said, If you want to have understanding, you should investigate. So it's following Buddha's path of investigation.

[34:45]

Linda? Well, I think people have really quite a number of different ideas about the meaning of religious and spiritual. Yes. And right now it's very common for people And by religion, especially when they put it that way, by religion, they mean those things that we don't like about history and religions. And I think that includes not only a belief system, as you said, but also the bureaucracy, the system of handing down authority. That's really important for organized religion. And that's also the way it gets away. I mean, I just gave you a lecture, but maybe I'll make a question. Have you just been creating the nice new bureaucracy?

[35:54]

No, that's a good idea. I want to answer your question there, okay? When I was in Japan at Dogen's 800th anniversary, I gave a talk at Eheiji. And I said that we wanted to create our organization without undermining the individuality or trying to control the individuality of the groups, that each group was independent and at the same time connected. So this is the danger. I totally agree with you. This can be, down the line, this could be very dangerous because someone always wants to formalize and organize and solidify.

[36:56]

And I think that's very dangerous. But our incorporation papers say, at least when we incorporated, that we wanted to not control is not an organization to control anybody. It's an organization to help everyone. Yeah, I understand what you mean. I totally agree, totally agree. You know, when we first started the Berkeley Zendo, we didn't even think about incorporating. And then I got, you know, San Francisco was incorporated and all this. And I thought, yeah, we should probably incorporate. And my wife said, are you kidding? But we did. And we're okay.

[37:58]

We're okay. Yeah. This question of teachers is a bit unclear to me. I come from Rinzai. Rinzai. Yeah, my teacher was Sazaki Roshi, who's still giving koan practice to this day. And I think he came over, you probably know, but he's about 95 now. That's right. And it was fuzzy for me then too, because there was this idea that there's only one Roshi. I don't know who's going to replace him. There's this idea that he has to be replaced, and no one else can be, you know, that he's the Roshi. I don't know. It's all unclear, but maybe you could clarify. This is a mistake that some teachers make. So Suzuki Roshi, the founder is always different than the successors.

[39:09]

When a founder, the founder is always in that position. There's no way out of it. So the founder can retire and appoint a successor. But until that happens, the founder is usually the chief. and everybody relates to the founder. After the founder leaves, then there's another successor, right? But that successor can't act like the founder. The successor has to spread things out more because that's when the place takes on a different character. So, I know that there are teachers who didn't appoint a successor. Kadagiri Roshi didn't. And it just made a mess of everything. And Sasaki Roshi, I think, is having the same problem.

[40:13]

Like, who could possibly succeed me? That's a big problem. That is a problem, yeah. And I understand that. He's 95 and he should do something. Yes, it's very confusing. Is there a distinction between teacher and Roshi? No. Roshi is just a term, a title. Teacher is just a title. The Roshi is the head teacher. So when you give Dharma transmission, as you were talking about, then you've created all these Roshis? No, I didn't. Not necessarily Roshi. Roshi is just a term for an old teacher. You can be 75. When we incorporated, we said, should we use the term Roshi and all that?

[41:19]

And then we said, okay, somebody who has been installed as an abbot and is over 60 can be called Roshi. That's what we said. But that didn't stick because we did away with almost everything we said. But, It's a kind of term that students use for their teacher, for an old venerable teacher. In Rinzai, it's a little different. In Soto, it's kind of like, you know, it just kind of comes about around to that. But in Rinzai, it's more of a title for, you know, a Zen master. But usually when they're older. Yeah.

[42:20]

I just want to say that there are more Buddhist centers in Berkeley than any other city, and that there's more Buddhist centers in California than any other state. Well, California is not part of the United States. And Berkeley's not part of California. Yeah. Well, this is just maybe being a little nitpicky, but I'd like to be able to explain to people who are, for instance, my biological family. I've been seeing a lot of, lately, fundamentalist Christian right-wing folk. And the only way we get along now is not to talk about politics and religion, and we just get along just great. that you were saying that we have faith, but we don't have a belief system, right?

[43:25]

And if we did, except that we believe in reality. And I sort of, I don't mean to push you. I mean, I understand that, but I don't know how I can explain that. if we happen to get stuck in an elevator, my family and I, we run out of everything else. How would I explain this to them? I don't know whether it's possible anyway to talk about it. If you get stuck in the elevator and there's no way out? No way out. Sit down and cross your legs? Sit upright, breathe, and have faith. And just, this is after they've tried to take my soul for the thousandth time. Nobody can take your soul. You know why? You know why? Because you don't have one. That would scare the hell out of me.

[44:29]

You're welcome. Thank you very much.

[44:40]

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