Upaya

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

My last two days were spent at Upaya Zen Center, a monastic cluster of unasuming adobe buildings, people, trees, flowers, birds, and programs. I went there to meet Joan Halifax Roshi, someone I have admired and followed for years. I also met Sensei Beate Genko Stolte, their co-abbot.

My aim was to get a better understanding of Upaya, its programs, and how it functions. I wanted to learn about their chaplaincy program, in specific. On first approach, the center appears unkempt. Gardens seem untended, pathways are encroached somewhat by flowing plants. My son, a French Chef, explained these were classic french style gardens. And my discriminating mind found a bell.

We are both from a Soto tradition, yet there were many differences in our practices. Some subtle, others not so subtle. Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka Roshi taught a Zen that was clear, direct, and unadorned. We sit facing a wall. In daily practice, we recite minimal sutras (one, the Heart Sutra), the Sanki rai mon (three refuges) and the Shi gu sei gon mon, (the Four Great Vows), and that's about it. Sanpai (three prostrations) and Tekkesa Ge (the robe verse) are private matters. Lineage recitaton is not done.

The service at Upaya is both elegant and classic Soto. Zazen, followed by the robe verse (repeated three times), followed by sanpei, a sutra chant, a recitation of the lineage, homage to heirs, again sanpai. It is good to know how these things work for just such occasions as visiting a monastery.

Still, I find the direct, simple Matsuoka style refreshingly humble. Our practice centers have used sanpai by the officiating priest at the beginning of services, but not always. We do these prostrations in the privacy of our own zendo and in front of our own alters. At my home Zendo, we come in, stand by our cushions, the priest offers incense, we recite the Three refuges, the great Heart of Wisdom sutra and take our seats for two periods of zazen with kinhin in between. At the conclusion of the second sitting period, we recite the Hannya Shin Gyo, the Four Great Vows, offer incense, bow, and take our seats for tea service and teisho.

One is not better than the other. Neither are correct or incorrect. It is in the doing.

Engaged Zen is a practice, not a thought or a set of rituals. We practice in the world for the benefit of the world.

Upaya is a wonderful training center. Its Teachers are warm and welcoming. Its staff and the practitioners are hard working and dedicated to the Great Way. This was clear.

I saw possibilities for developing similar programs here in southern New Mexico. I would like to have a Zen Center once again to house training and practice. streetZen is clear and direct. Visiting the sick is clear and direct. Much of our work does not require a building. In fact a building seems to get in the way of the work and some even see it as a substitute. On the other hand, a building offers a refuge and a place to conduct classes.

We are looking for such a building as I write.

If you would be interested in helping, please email me. Regular donations are essential. Generosity is our first paramita. It sustains us: both in the giving and the receiving.

Nine bows to Upaya, its Founding Teacher, and the many lives and many hands that went into its creation and go into its continued practice.

May you each be a blessing in the universe.