{"id":1954,"date":"2011-02-27T14:47:05","date_gmt":"2011-02-27T19:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1954"},"modified":"2011-02-27T14:47:05","modified_gmt":"2011-02-27T19:47:05","slug":"zen-going-to-the-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1954","title":{"rendered":"ZEN, GOING TO THE DOGS"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a nice enough morning doing \u201czazen\u201d with my local Zen group (i.e., our weekly 2-hour meditation and chanting service). During the usual coffee hour that follows, one member was lamenting the loss of his family dog, a 9-year old Boxer. Another member was talking about his new family member, a 2 month old German Shepard. Sunrise, sunset . . . the cycle of life in the canine world, just as in the human. <\/p>\n

We also heard about the recent \u201cdisrobement\u201d of a prominent Zen priest<\/a> out in Salt Lake City, Genpo Roshi, because of a sex scandal. Yes, another Zen teacher taking advantage of the sweet and vulnerable young things that look up to a wise man in uniform (the black robes affected by some American Zen teachers, following Japanese tradition). Turns out that \u201cGenpo\u201d (really, Dennis Merzel, born in Brooklyn) was a big-wig in the \u201cWhite Plum Lineage\u201d; hey, that’s my sangha’s lineage! That’s why our local \u201csensei\u201d was a bit upset about it. <\/p>\n

As far as I’m concerned, this is not terribly surprising. America has suffered a flood of Zen teachers over the past 50 years, some imported from Japan and some home-grown. Right from the get-go of the American Zen wave, various \u201cteachers\u201d got into trouble. Some died of alcoholism (e.g., Roshi Mazeumi from Los Angles and Trungpa Rinpoche in Colorado), and others got caught making whoopee with the pretty, young students (e.g., Eido Roshi, Richard Baker and now Merzel). Just because a group of old Zen teachers decide that a person is \u201cenlightened\u201d does not guarantee true mastery of the body and soul. (And too bad if Zen teachers deny that there is any \u201csoul\u201d; maybe if they’d recognize it, they could keep their zippers closed when they need to).<\/p>\n

Following the Buddha or following the Christ — it doesn’t make much difference. Men entrusted with the Sacred Teaching still fall back into the mud. (And those responsible for their entrustment too often work to cover it up and hide it from the public; both in the Catholic Church and in the Zen community). In the end, we all must stand or fall on our own legs, whoever our priests and teachers are and whatever they taught us. The Apostle’s Creed, the Heart Sutra \u2013 not much different from toilet paper. If we do manage to find and hold on to integrity in our lives, it’s probably because of our own inner core (yes, our \u201csoul\u201d), our own \u201cdirect line\u201d to the transcendent.<\/p>\n

If you can find a Zen teacher with a soul, a Zen teacher who shows you that you too have such a \u201cdirect line\u201d (and maybe your pet dog does too!), then consider her or him the pearl of great price. (As to Carl, our own local sensei \u2013 I have hopes for him, but stay tuned for further developments).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a nice enough morning doing \u201czazen\u201d with my local Zen group (i.e., our weekly 2-hour meditation and chanting service). During the usual coffee hour that follows, one member was lamenting the loss of his family dog, a 9-year old Boxer. Another member was talking about his new family member, a 2 month old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1956,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions\/1956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}