Japanese Zen Practice in America

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ah shame
and the time
this
hazard to have a planet back
when is periodic
do
oh
i bet killer
quite a lot can tango i rent
ah great big hear a lot of
here and i know my support
who was visiting
center and then his data and became a priest
is still hot
ah he had said sanga not
san francisco
speaker i asked felt the name of
the south it's so yeah
the only valley or the north ridge a van park or something like that
so
thank you for coming
ah i'm just the the the resident priest janitor your pathetic room not really the head of the psychotherapy
i'm just there
people were come
around and sit in the morning and in the i've noticed few
amanda that's very nice for me i i enjoyed very much
the landlord is got the place up for sale now
and so ruin had to find new quarters of after file and we've been looking for space in the yeah
cole valley neighborhood near for things and center businesses are over the they they agreed in the allies to treat or uncool street and
attention since i thought it would be nice if we had as and over there
so it may be that eventually we'll get there aren't enough see what happens everything changes over time
many way we started the in
fairmount street in august
and been going ever since
except for the few days said to
december and in april that i had to go to ceremonies and tessa herb has been open on time
it's very interesting experience to do everything yourself to could take care of the ashes in the incense in shave the candles and sweep the floor and in the
do the whole retained to all the services and to over everything
it's a marvelous or permit to practice with with the assistance of people who will come and sit in the morning
anything
maybe it feels very good then i am i could learn
i was talking with a friend of mine yesterday who is just back from a trip to he was off to hong kong and clinton in the
thailand i suppose bangkok i don't even mentioned with place in thailand but anyway he was quite interesting to see how people there were practicing
and he attended day yeah an ordination in thailand better the ordination amongst
and he was sir
delighted about how relaxed everything was sitting the people who were just the a regular temple members who had come to watch the ordination were sitting in one part of the place and they were
yeah they are in there we would talk to each other of abandoned and the people who were being are to angry sitting in another place never must know how they would talk to each other little better than the monks were chanting and little bit and
it was all very easy and pleasant nsa's or people were sitting like we said i was written things that it's much nicer than everything much more relaxed calm
so and people who have visited the the gold mountain monastery tell me that too
the turn master guan doesn't approve of of this posture in
thanks of people at a sip more
soft
loose
and come this way like like the pictures you see in the and the
palm sweltered that the practice of chinese buddhism or the pictures in the print molar book about chinese monasteries people are sitting
rather we would think you're with a bent back or droopy shoulder for it
and that to cursor i was trying to explain about how the all this was partly culture don't currently
a different kind of
posture on purpose in the
that aren't way of sitting trying to sit with your back straight
the with your chin down and so on it's i can do it must but anyway
i try to do it that funny way the dog and describes and actually causes an indian yogic a posture
the buddhist borrowed from the shi'ites i think in a case of shiva said this way
in order not to be disturbed and cursive people came out and disturbed him then he would wake up and start meditating and he wrecked the universe and in a great fit of dancing in brooklyn and so it was best to probably to let him alone but they had that fake they did have to wake him up on
time to marry him off to the to manage the the daughter amelia
and as said there were quite dreadful consequences when he and they did wake him up and me married him often he had two children and one was sir
ganesh and one was sir
what to love god i can't think of his name
no love love really love eros in great care in in japan is called eyes and meal
in his first looking fellow a red led to
yes eero like cupid
yes him
ganesh of course was the unfortunate when somehow or another he disturbed his father one vitesse father sliced his head off and and then he heard the his wife coming poverty in all
bush fix up the kid right away so he's a
a here decapitated and passing elephant and and jammed onto his son's body and the
there it was an can have a name
how her body i don't know what she said that point average income elephant headed child but ganesh it became a gross very popular the a t and action
the overcomes obstacles is at it to getting through all obstacles and it's also the god of businessmen and and the records keepers and sauna
gives like candy to body
well this searchable business sir
got started day because she wanted something and he started meditating
and
a
the purpose of meditating and in his case was to compel the other gods to do something new he was gonna sit real hard until something gave away
and the in the middle of all sorts of difficulties in the hardships and so forth he was set and finally he got his way
and so he's always pictured as this aesthetic
holy man sitting in full lotus posture and is lots and lots of hair on piled up on top it had never cut his hair and they presumably across he has lots of magical power stirred up there
and the anyway the idea of
meditate was a magical act of compulsion to have something happened to make a difference in the world and so he accomplished it well dressed the even long before chivas time people were meditating and victor in a case the the buddhist the took over that posture
from the shi'ites and they also took took over these beads like i was telling raul and car alicante borrowed these things as well
the to count everything to count prostrations or to count montrose or to count circumambulate runs around a stupor
a very solid reasons
the
adapted them to the disk usage
a battery on a practice also emphasizes this straight back posture and of course the
more advanced virginiana meditators or are doing what they called mahamudra irma a t meditation which is very like us and it's a meditation without a specific image in mind or without a specific
direction of a kind you just you sit with the with emptiness and are empty and try not to be distracted from it by any
memory or a reflection or idea
so this is probably a how come they
the business of straight back city
came across but turned certain as guessing bennett
in any case in china they certainly after a while we're getting into sitting room soft
and and in the go into my friend a by entirely their english the same way although the seated buddha images from thailand shown sitting quite strict
do not leaning like the japanese buddhist figures lane little bit like this
ah but a way that my friend was saying these people risked having a good time and they weren't stiff like we are and they weren't on grim and during and the japanese
as a woman again i say
assisted
cultural differences not to doesn't have any into buddhism is is the way the people are used to sitting and standing i said i doubt very much that you could persuading in a chinese folks to sit caesar for example sit on their knees and listened to a lecture the way we didn't turn to see a ceremony of and it stand up
and when they were eating they apparently set it to benches with tables and from them and if you visit the mambo koji temple at the oba cousin
headquarters sir
near the village of gucci outside of kyoto or you'll see that can dining hall or there's a rather high narrow tables and long benches sir alongside them amongst sit down although the eclipse for three bowls say it
don't do it in the center
ah
shauna ali's a funny year local differentiation on
the thing though about sitting straight is in the but the in tibetan
ah system as they say is the direct way to enlightenment immediate enlightenment right now
you are doing them a hammer to or mahamudra meditation this is very dangerous but it's the way to the quickest way to enlightenment quickest way to become totally sprung as sir to practice that kind of objectless vegetation that you should do with
the teacher shouldn't just go off and do it
ah they don't explain to my toy
but to any any case so
as a record we're recommending for swift action and of course in the in the sense girls as they developed in china the business of zen was too especially in the at school was to obtain satori and to get a big
kind of for
intuition or flash by working very hard on a on by you know take and keeping at the same time keep things posture very carefully and
working closely with the teacher doing science and with the teacher all the time and doing lots of session and so on
for with the object and night of the obtaining the sudden flash of insight and scraped her
experience and that there may descriptions of course if you've looked in the such a book as as philip kaplan said the three pillars and send for example
ah there are accounts by various westerners and other people who had this kind of experience may we tell about how nice it was and how they sweated and cried in montana
the and
their lives presumably or changed after afterwards towel saw great
these are way of doing zones and it's much simpler
and there's no carrot on this stick the stick instead comes down on your shoulder if you go to sleep and there's no current type to and you don't have anything to chase
ah because dogan says when people are already enlightened there's no enlightenment to go out after is not a over there someplace you can walk to the tassajara and the minute you get there and sit down you the enlightenment starts coming on and but that you are already
the there that wherever it is you are and whoever does you are you are buddha already
and so you're already enlightened and so there's nothing for you to worry about flashes and so on then you you might have all sorts of visions or a pleasant experiences or insights are so on in the process of you practice but that isn't emphasize to its emphasis is to just sit
and to do the seven and shut up its category roshi substance shut up
of his marvelous advice
we are i talk too much certainly
the and as hard to pick up on that idea that there's nowhere to go and there's nothing to get out of it and term that you already are as funny as you're going to be right now
because we we like being americans we like to think about how we're going to get better at how we're going to improve with time we work real hard at something we're going to be get more and more wonderful
and we have this idea of progress in our culture and in our in the way we've been brought up release the way i was brought up his you're supposed to get better day how does it to a meal korean but nineteen twenty two came out with the idea about how every day in every way i'm getting better and better and better and tell yourself that
a or similar ideas a little boys all are encouraged to believe that they'll grab the president one day
earn if they're not president of gotta be young ignace paderewski and play the piano quite wonderfully or something like that to in any case or not just going to be
who they are they're gonna be something better
well ah
this is a tiny obstacle are receptive or good
ah the first the first function that obstacle is to show us the to we are not good at harrah's buddha over here
this particular image sure
yes sir i think suppose be lecturing as was been teaching
kind of moderators get them
i'm in the buddha is as a gentleman that these knobs on his head and in a bump between his eyebrows in the
funny round fat shape and many images showing with works between his fingers coziness in the official description see he has webbed fingers and a has a and on his feet he has magical markings and wheels and things
and then long descriptions of the physical appearance with buddha ice arms hang down his hands hang down below his knees said he didn't
various other strange anatomical are descriptions
ah rather ape-like actually
ah in any case we look at ourselves we don't look to a like and and certainly we don't have hair it's all made into little lumps and
we don't glow in the middle of the forehead very well and least not usually
well and so we say how can i can be good i'm sorry i'm just josh length and
and nobody's going to imagine for a second time food
well in a park part of the difficult it is said we don't look up and say there's has over there
ah we don't recognize folk who were seeing outside of ourselves as good
and that's who everybody else is actually
everybody is buddha everybody or if she can't make that think about everybody being overlooked testify
a bodhisattva
any case but you the person's and animals and trees and that that you see our put it
and after a while it gets a little more possible maybe to think that
think of yourself in some abstract way not only practical way but certainly in they've been some abstract way as buddha and that by sitting you are
manifesting your good nature like dogan says you are says one is doing on doing zazen your
in your being
showing off your good nature or for people to see
the and
that's difficult because hacking is saying something just sitting still is doing anything absolutely just sitting there collecting dust and probably going to sleep than one thing or another are worrying are wondering about all sorts of things and seeing movies and some friends in to ah
that certainly can't beat the activity of a burden to sit there wishing that the bell would ring and your legs with stop hurting your backward stuff for the whatever the that's certainly not what buddhists thinking about food is concerned in this image and
how to shape up in the get sprung from their various
kinds of karma various kinds of past hang-ups troubles and suffered
and he said i didn't i'm just folks in the you folks can do it too
and
all this is something for us anyways something in a book or it's something that happens in china happens in india and something like that and and we are clearly not chinese or indians or something else and
ha this week or so we have the identity crisis we can fix we look at ourselves we we don't know who we are her but we ought a beer with certainly doesn't match up with idea of buddha but what is buddha what is this idea thing well it's something about realize
zing something to my understanding some kudos as means out of the word boat ancient wisdom isn't it
some kind of funny
ha
we say wisdom beyond wisdom prajna parameter
something or not in the book
ah
hey yeah
knowing beyond knowing something like that
anna
it's something that you
experience something that you learn and experience and
the the actual
experiencing oven
is indisputable on you are you understand something and then has been a lot of time trying to explain it and explanations or may be understandable but term not very useful to people so they have to be
other ways of fear of getting what is this buddha thing across to anybody while i was the thing that good is famous for him is that he was able to explain
what happened to him and how
people can do it now they can become buddha realize their own buddha nature themselves without any further ado and actually you have to do this yourself nobody can arrange this for you they can think he explained how to go about it
but
unless each person
puts out the time and energy to her
get added to nothing will happen now nobody will know anything about anything except accepted they're tired her that they wish that there were some place else want something
and the
teaching of
buddha
is very very simple
and i have a
pamphlet spent half a dozen pages it was composed by a
buddhist nun from sri lanka and and published by some some company and ah
yeah
ceylon and and distributed free
interest in a few pages they tell you all and only have to know how all the rules are all of the
a basic care know how
practicing buddhism
so as not all they heard
but still it causes than you know lots of questions come up and lots of problems can
ah
that obscure these very simple
rules are very simple ideas about how to live and how to take care of yourself and take care of other folks be careful how you doing anything
it's very hard to sort out the practicality of it from the rather a heady philosophy it goes with it on
the the zen people as in school a curse tried to cut through the heavy philosophy pardon safe place
if you wanna do buddhism what you gotta do is to do thousand and
get past the theory and get past all the ideas and get into the experience of your own nature and the experience of practice in her practice is buddha nature is said duncan says
so you you are
somehow get roped into
parking yourself on this round cushion and looking at the wall and saying
right but happens next when when to stay here
when does the goody arrive
and of course the goody doesn't arrive and he it's already here are you didn't notice it
but then how you attract your attention toward noticing the good he is sick or radio couch as we have a lot more things to worry about
and we have the have many many habits of
looking and various other directions for entertainment and and gratification sorry
instead of looking
at our selves investigating food is we really are we continued to by the scenario that we have created for ourselves in that we use our time as a self description
to ourselves into other people
and get
totally involved in that
and instead of
what's really happening what the world really is doing but other people in doing that we're doing
and so we stumble around and
say what my what's happening
but is this business about to who mine who's sitting in terrorism is one
so we have a wonderful time of confusion than the and trouble
and quite often we we invent marvelous physical manifestations of our own doubt in trouble so we have any trouble and so on and after while at all goes away and then you figure well i'm making progress on getting better i'm able to sit still
the enough and i don't vote asleep so much
and of course is it tough as a marvelous period i think all of us experience when you sit down and you conquer because benefits claimed by under you don't wake up until the bell rings and and that's very nice because you ever
a siesta i am
a little break
and zendo
and then some people some teachers are very true very encouraging they say oh well you know you couldn't sleep better if you were bad and if you had a bad conscience or a bad person that you'd be worried and stay like and so if you're falling asleep at means that you're probably good a pretty nice guy and and that you're probably practicing her
a very well and and sorry that after while you like have you should stay away action
i would be better if you stay way to do thousand
and so you stayed awake and then for yourself today
and with any luck at all you you say well
buddhism is all very nice but in time busy i can't i can't stay interested in this i'm going to go off and finish school or or become an architect or or go to your for any number of things
and so people drop out
ah it's interesting that people often drive back in again just so very good
buddhism is a rather easier to do than a lot of other things and so eventually people come back because it's easy
ah how
we can look at it sometimes as being easy another time times it looked at it as being impossible they impossible private is that that doesn't stop than we don't
get the carrot on the end of the stick for you continue way off past the end
and
that's hard to pick up on the idea of practicing all your life
and many more to come
ah is very discouraging sometimes
i
at some point here i bonding
get to be the boss or i'm gonna get to
via the president of the zen center i want to be queen of the may or something of a sums gotta come out of on this i wanna be perfected being on the all shiny and marvelous
why
have a hard time seeing
the to after you get to be in a perfected the anger have to get to be greener the mayor whatever they're still the next hour and the next moment to take care of and to done one thing or something else
and then
we continue to live
and then
i suppose that if one were to simple minded enough it
being the
president of the board of directors would be enough
you'd say it last i have achieved
what i want it i have gutted i've been where i wanted to go
and on the other hand even simple minded people find it difficult to to think about a
where am i going to go next after and now that i'm at the top for
there's no further top
ha and so am i going to walk down the hill from now on or am i going to stay here until somebody pushes me over and what
and so we have this problem of the ancora me and whatever it is we do our however much we improve ourselves or however much we succeed they're still
usually something more that we wander we discover from that vantage point that there is yet another can go to be rich that we can set out for
as in buddhism if you think about buddhist practice as being endless but in the first place it's not so
that span say when i'm gonna do this and i'm going to continue doing it
and so we use this sat that
while attainment when the end of all these lectures defenses and sentient beings are numberless how to it
that's gonna take you a long time you know there is a lot of sentient beings around and infused in starting right now a you know
you're able to enlighten one of them
it's don't take credit for doing
and then there that's only one out of the countless and countless really means without
a number without a calculation nurses
i can't believe how many the answer it
and that's how come it's endless hamingson and was charmed to save all sentiments as lots of universes and lots of world's lots of everything
this as the obstacles sir and lizard
eh number listen without and and so for it
and that have to be uprooted is what the chinese text says your to yank it out by the ritzy
literally
shall we say we vowed to end them her or to overcome them or something like that to a chinese character it means like filling out a week
ah
and then the so that's quite occupied although a of course in the old in the older schools of buddhism for example in terabyte and school of buddhism if you follow certain regime of meditation center and an ascetic life there is appointed which you become our how to become perfected
the and then and stuff
you filled out on the schedule and on the farms and everything is finished
and we don't have to worry about ancient after them
but this mahayana buddhism thing as saying are at his eyes numberless sentient beings as endless messy obstacles and then are all these gates on these waves of studying buddhism and practicing buddhism to be learned
and then there's the buddha's way a tweet saying
i vowed to attain it or not a translation about to become it
ah
a friend of mine translates the last line is i vowed to follow through
two that is to continue
practicing endlessly
ah
and probably that
why it's all like breathing and by the breathing and swim for and you intend to continue breathing and in the same way you have to
decided to wear that you want to continue to practice and so you practicing breathe and all works on a marvelously
if you remember

i don't know whether
we will as we american type creatures will live continue
ah
these borrowed cultural habits
many people are very pessimistic about the future of the buddhism hear about how people are
really are not
ready or people really are not to and really don't want very much buddhism the except us some kind of thing to replace presbyterianism with that they grew
up in so they switch from presbyterianism to buddhism other people figure that to
that it will simply blend in with a with american religion than just become another said
and it will become a peculiar
mixture of american feelings and habits and puritanism
where they approached to buddhism will be very much like the
approach of popular christianity will be all about things that you don't do on that time don't smoke and we don't chew and we don't go with them they do cetera
are all about how certain things are wicked and and you don't do wickedness center if you do wicked things you'll go to hell and so on and actually you could have an evangelical kind of buddhism there would be practically indistinguishable from the evangelical christianity as as it's practice tear every bibles in the home
he works in the great
ashley a popular buddhism in japan that and whispered couple of centuries of rather have a revivalist
i'm kind of for
religion over people
saying a version of the number two are they actually danced to a special kind of dancing and singing to an oak amida buddha
and then there were marvelous preachers who went round and stirred people up all about
how were it was possible for by to be saved and go to the pure land in the west and that every other religion was bad but to
if you just say the number two and a forget everything else it you'll be reborn in the pure land and nice
and that's where all nice people alone

so that in some in some way i suppose it'll be a funny and be of strange compromise for a by american culture will sort of co op too
buddhism and the
naturalized during are melted down into into a totally american and totally innocuous a flavorless active less
religion
which i think would be to bed and which is why i think that we should probably have a few more
monasteries around
i think it's clever to change the name i think we should sit on a sterling think up some other some other fancy name for it like k like can
buddhist park land or something second pink panther buddhist joy les anderson some marvellous thing and featuring the featuring the vegetarian cuisine and also it's whether they make it a little expensive
ah and
to get people into really doing her some monastic practice for violently to keep some shape to the practice of buddhism so it doesn't become
completely
ah
automatic just to wrote
practice kind of thing
somewhere underneath that there has to be the for the japanese cars sugar and have hard practice
somewhere to keep a fiber in the thing to keep it from going on the jelly
then i agree with my friend that way that in many ways we tend to be too
a formal
and stiff in some ways sir way we look at a day lamely yeah
feel that it's hard earned said to foreign
the on the other hand when a person
who had to bend to the new sandow and sector a few times so
sent me a letter
from tulsa her
am saying how can you how come you still want to do all those bows on how by his new zendo you could you know why do you wanna do those anyone do nine bows for you while you wear robes and why do you do
we always you to keep on doing it this this old way i should do something else well i don't know if i don't know anything else sir
ah
i suppose i could invent
some kind of the of the order of entertainment earth
there would be different or that wouldn't take so long as think a better known as
basically i think that to what we're doing kind of works and and i don't want to mess with it and eleven i don't feel i don't feel like i have any bright i did replace a lot of it
and i might have later
but to
it seems easier to simply go along with the way i've been taught about how you come into a sender how you found an ice an
how you stand up and hey chant and so
tom very simple
ah
so you have this places set apart for this specific purpose to use for it doesn't
it doesn't change
and for you can come back to and is going to be as it is
it's very odd that we do this is very odd that we have this try to have his unchanging business event even here using tatami to sit on a and having an altar
and so on the earth
yes sir
zod
on the other hand it if you don't
have these different things that the naked form the makers shape of your attention and you're feeling and are going to wobble i think to wander away
and so on the one hand while i'm an open and has always been a a
terrible bohemian type creature who has been against the square world hits on a i have
i think that in in the business of sitting as the letting it all works easier if you have a form
i suppose that the financial change
but to
this should be some there somewhere to hold a framework for people to come back to and and it's very odd that we think about unchanging this because in buddhism to talk all the time about how there is no permanence don't need that have nothing is going to stay how everything's continuously shifting
that's the real nature of reality
and on the other hand here we are repeating
these forms the following in chanting sitting in this particular way
and as i say coming back to people can drop out and people can draw back into it
and it stays there for everybody

anybody can try any medics can
eh
so this this the sub stiffness or formality year or something give people some in to do a since there's no carrots and no payoff and whether even you can bow her
who can to keep your back straight and trials search extensive carried stick up and andrew
and
just try to take it to as it comes try to stay there
try not to wiggle
sometimes it seems like
a person learns a lot and other times it seems like
total zero taking place and you wish yourself away
so it's eyes as struggle
how am i going to get there i am i going to am i gonna do afterwards and so on

so we have now for time
there's this zondo and there sir
a show kong senses
sendo and cinema mountain me than judging them as the page street's and on
ah sahara
the green gulch and
temporarily the from a very temporary the a fair amount of speed blender
funny cages for
to catch you in
hold up so you can sit

said a rigid or sits on anyone said
zeman happens
knowing that nothing is going to him knowing that you have to do it forever
knowing that doesn't stop and start in that instance there
and you can immerse yourself in it
stay there
stay there i think good to some of them told me was this is a hiroshi said do it put you there and let you cook like good vegetables
pot
quietly
if you all nice and soft
ready to
red tears

embryos wanna talk i think i'm tired of tuck
if they have questioned comment
whatever
yeah don't you feel lonely out there
no no some on the rare occasions when nobody shows up i said anyway and then you know iowa
don't think of myself as sitting alone but i think that you know people are sitting here in the street and and tessa her own a gun joji and every replace around the world gary it is a very scrupulous sitting it to
to bring a bone send of they're going to build and still a as soon as the ground dries out another going to start building the ringing phones and of a new building and could get dizzy and
i think there are regular fifteen or twenty regular members now and they have for affiliated themselves with sir robert akin roche's a group so he comes now every every year to do session with him to sunset
so where they're gonna have a regular sendo building to
use this summer they have
so anyway i don't think about sitting
i don't feel lonesome i've lived along great deal anyway
it's a it's a nice feeling once in a awhile to sit by yourself
i think that people are very shy about sitting betting of it's something very special or something is very controlled that you need and sendo to do it in are you need a priest to teach you to watch you are you need to all sorts of things so what you need is so your bottom and a slight support underneath it
sit
and or two thousand and if you can if you've got some incense to burn the violates nice the but you know in in the poems of real com for instance which overtook to hold for three no three books of translation said the foams real
who was a zen monk in japan
in the eighteenth century and he lifted by himself in a little hermitage
and begged for his food and the villagers with to giving food of rice banks and other other friends would bring 'em sock in the great farms together
better in many many the proms are simply about sitting in this little hut listened to a rain are looking at the moonshiner whatever in and the city actually being there and he's very happy he doesn't as he said he may have been unhappy or unlucky finding food that david or whatever maybe he hasn't
unable to get up because he's snowed in and things like that who can't go away so there he has been sitting and being continuing his practice his monk
ah so i and then also being the a priest or monk or veritas that you've got a collar and sweet
i feel connected to
a tradition known to a way of living
and part of that way is sitting think you know the most part of it of that tradition is meditation and i am doing zazen
anime
so i don't feel
cut off her
oh lonesome me
i didn't feel curse years ago and i've worked in look up
luca stations in the the forest service and feel lonesome union
maybe i'm just naturally a hermitage
it's possible

yeah
you think
does
ah
no i don't think so
ah
i think the
i think it's possible that more people today come to zen center who who maybe haven't read alan watts or haven't read the suzuki i-sensys as soon as something like there are which used to be the
the introduction that almost everybody had to the to zen buddhism and they know thirty years ago twenty five and three years ago but too
nowadays there are so many places for people to go and look at her go and try to sit in and saw the
the term people use hear about it from friends who are already there are a hereabout hear about it and then they write off for information or phone up and say what are you doing when can i come and spend what's happening to give lessons or
and so there's a much more direct to
directly available
ah
scene and then owner used to be
when when in nineteen the early nineteen fifties or
the only place that i know of at that time was operating
it was the first and institute america and new york which is a had been founded by
it's okay on a red red fuller sausages husband
and
newgen send zaki well sir
a teaching him in los angeles
and
not very many people knew about either one the i think that we found out about the first and institute through through alan watts personally
and also through their publication than the same notes a pamphlet that came out less on
and people found out about the existence of new guns and zaki partly through are people who had worked with him the and admitting and so for people like and under dalenberg and alfred sige oh albert had had sat with since i can quite a lot him a medic first in the concentration camp in wyoming
ah and
then later albert grossman in the army and was in europe and came back
and then worked with him later but to me anyway thought that was fun that was the only and going are almost to until the later fifties when top say was the priest at so koji and a few people came and got instant in going there and end the working with him
im doing sumi-e painting
an earth as though some would gonna hang around to think about the possibility of doing says and with to i don't think they did very much if anything
so you know the
a buddhism or zen and anyway was still pretty theoretical and in in those days where literary
it was all in books pretty much in there were rare individuals like to buy say who were who would come round or like her hasegawa sensei who taught at the academy of asian studies and the watch himself cursing something better
but it was sir
we we saw had to do with sumi-e painting and with and with calligraphy and with the funny stories about guys a yelling clots and hitting each other
and little poems in the and so it was all
kenneth decorative and she was read a kind of number and gums dumpsters good taste cost no more twitter
and better you know it gradually
through a through where these various contexts service actually started to certain and especially albert was very helpful because he had learned to sit from
send zaki sensei and the so he could show us how you had to sit opponents or prop yourself up if you wanted to sit for a like the time and how to chant the heart sutra in japanese and how to do kin here outside by the fast outdoors
and then had a drink tea and sender
so he taught his those things and then of course during and shortly after that went to japan and began studying first with the mirror roshia shook up aegean and later with the oda roshi has made teacher and i took g and so he found out a whole lot
when a honey and his first trips back here he passed on a great deal of for the dharma right away hemorrhage is very nice that term so gradually it all became was all getting more involved with actual sitting and actually looking around for teachers and
figuring out about this but you're gonna do about that it was not just something in a book that more something you do with your actual body and with your actual mind and emotion than so on rather than something decorative or some sort of intellectual idea

but at the time at the time that i was ordained for example like had really no idea about
but the life of the priest was like i had i had seen many and japan and i had also been able to meet a number of different said masterson avid someone not and in japan with the
they were japanese them as much different kind of thing i i knew that i wanted to be a monk or that i
you know outside of books i had no idea what it would be like and so has been very interesting