There aren’t sufficient words in order to express the respect and gratitude for the opportunity to be in the presence of dear friends of Upaya Zen Center and Roshi Joan Halifax, experiencing core teachers and temples throughout Japan. Practicing and showing up with my whole heart is what I’m here to attempt as I write you.
Since returning, I cry more often and easily, as though I’ve become more porous and alert to the mundane instances of beauty.
Lilies breathing their last breaths in the vase in front of me, at the home of the woman in hospice with whom I’m sitting today—she and the flowers are elegantly fading.
Peter Levitt reading his poetry in his haiku class, episode 2300 of the Upaya Dharma Podcast. “Practice being good friends with all aspects of your mind,” he says.
Sitting at Ozu, our local Japanese eatery earlier, bearing a box of fresh yatsuhashi from Kyoto, watching the staff receive the soft pillows of subtle red bean paste sweetness, “oishi, oishi.”
Photo below taken at Issho Fujita’s country temple by Noah Kodo Roen, Upaya Zen Center
This month, I’ll continue offering all writing freely, comments open. If you wish to contribute, your subscription is donated to causes benefiting women and children. Gratitude for your consideration; button below means 20% off to thank you.
Early in the trip, we visit Reverend Fujio, current abbot of Kencho-ji, dedicated to ameliorating incidences of suicide in the country. As a crisis of disconnection surges in Japan, the movement of Socially Engaged Buddhism is taking root; Fujio-san’s work caring for those considering suicide, as well as those who’ve lost family members to suicide is formidable. Once a businessman in New York, now living at Kencho-ji, Reverend Fujio offers virtual practice to folks who’ve shut themselves in, who attend his virtual zazen as their avatars.
He shows us a diagram, a mind map of a sort, defining Zen as standing practice, lying down practice, sitting practice and moving practice. Each one includes several other iterations. As he opens Zen practice to everyone, we can feel his intent and commitment. He offers us postures to help us sit more comfortably and with dignity. His cues will wend their way into practices to come; the sit after moving with him steadied us.
Thank you, Reverend Fujio, Abbot of Kencho-ji
Jonathan Watts, another of Roshi’s wise colleagues, author of a series of books entitled Engaged Buddhism in Japan (Sumeru Books), accompanied us on several stops in Kamakura, elucidating the history of the evolution toward Social Engagement in Japan. His work focuses on five sub-movements in Socially Engaged Buddhist activities: End-of-life care, suicide prevention, disaster relief and Buddhist chaplaincy, poverty and homelessness, and anti-nuclear activisim and holistic development. A knowledgeable student and humble teacher, Jonathan walked us to Kotoku-in to circumambulate the Buddha there.
Ascending toward Hasedera, a Kannon temple, we found ourselves encountering thousands of Jizo Bodhisattvas—in gardens, wearing hats, bibs, standing sentry, receiving water over their heads, protecting the children, the travelers. The energy here was palpable; I found myself honoring friends who’ve lost children and my friends whose children are struggling.
Entering the dark of the temple (no photos permitted), we encounter a dimly-lit, enormous golden Kannon (Kuan Yin in Chinese, Avalokiteshvara in Sanskrit). larger than I’d imagined, surrounded by guardian deities, tears streaming down my cheeks. Another softening within me, a sense of homecoming.
The next day brought us to a different sort of practice, a slower pace at a beautiful, humble mountain temple with Reverend Issho Fujita, whose appreciation of his connection to Roshi Joan and Upaya is felt.
Photo at Issho Fujita’s country temple by Noah Kodo Roen, Upaya Zen Center
Slightly renegade, Issho-san’s dignified work of focusing on the land of which he’s a steward, quietly tending to the community who sits with him, touches us all. His 2023 dharma talk at Upaya, reprised during our visit, has a significant impact on my understanding of practice. Speaking on zazen as different from meditation, he clarifies (as Dogen did) that zazen is not about achieving a certain state, rather, it’s about harmonizing body, breath and mind via three practices:
Releasing, receiving and appreciating.
Top and bottom, during lunch at Issho Fujita’s country temple by Noah Kodo Roen, Upaya Zen Center
In italics are the lines from Moon in a Dewdrop to clarify this model, in case you’d like to study Dogen’s teaching more deeply.
Each points to a new way of seeing and being in the body, in practice.
RELEASING | Letting go of the body weight for grounding; exhaling as an offering. Just set aside your body and mind, forget about them, and throw them into the house of the Buddha. The house of the Buddha is the ground of being, the direction for the release, the cultivation of stability.
RECEIVING | Receiving the supporting force of the ground for uprightness; inhaling as a gift, fully receiving whatever reality brings. Then all is done by Buddha. The support of the ground is the basis for a sense of security.
APPRECIATING | The ease of being one with the ground, the pleasure of breathing, the wonders of this world. Without effort or calculation, you are free from birth and death and become a Buddha. Be movable without moving. Be still without holding. The less we do, the more deeply we see.
Harmonizing with the ground through our posture, with the air through our breathing, with our sensory inputs via our mental state, we simplify and deepen, quietly and surely. We become good friends with our mind, over time. With practice, we experience zazen to be the way into ease and joy in our lives.
More to come next week. Thank you for your presence here.
This month, all writing free; comments open and encouraged. When you choose to contribute, your subscription is donated to causes benefiting women and children. Gratitude for your consideration; button below means 20% off to thank you.
Thank you for sharing your Zen path with us, Elena. Reverend Issho Fujita's video helped me a lot with my zazen practice. And I have also read the books of Roshi Joan Halifax. Thank you very much.
Gratitude for ALL of this and sharing your heart and ‘softening’. I love that word and have adopted it as a practice in life.
I have 4 generations of suicide, including my daughter…. To know that there are others holding this space for us all is a true gift. ‘Sitting with dignity’… 💚more words to live by. 🙏🏼 peace to you and All