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ABOUT SZBA

 

 

 

The Soto Zen Buddhist Association represents Soto Zen in America on the national level. As the buddhadharma settles ever deeper into North America in the practices and teachings of Soto Zen, the national organization becomes increasingly valuable. The whole purpose of the SZBA is to support and encourage the people, teachers and practitioners alike, who are doing this incomparable practice. There are two kinds of members. Soto Zen Buddhist priests who have received dharma transmission, formal authorization to teach and to carry the dharma forward to a new generation of practitioners and priests, are full members. Ordained priests in training with full members are associate members.

 

LIKE A TREE

 

Soto Zen in America is growing vigorously. The senior priest-teachers are the deeply committed heartwood of this growth and of this organization. The first and most essential root nourishing their efforts is each teacher's own wisdom and compassion, expressed in the okesa, the buddha robe, and in dharma transmission. The second great root is the limitless field of merit that is the many sanghas and priest-disciples. The third great root is the lineages, precious networks of mutual support.

 

THE NATIONAL LEVEL

 

The SZBA is developing as the fourth root, encouraging the whole. It is a way for the individuals and lineages to interact throughout North America. It is already a way for teachers to connect with each other, and in time it will also be a way for the sanghas and lay practitioners to study and work together. It provides needed backup to what the various teachers and lineages are doing. The further we go into meeting the needs of Soto Zen as American practice, the more exciting and useful it becomes.

 

THE TRADITION

 

The fifth root is the long history and tradition of Soto Zen as well as the whole stream of dharma going back to Shakyamuni Buddha. The Soto lineages in North America all came here from Japan, and many teachers have individual and lineage connections with Japanese Zen and with the Soto Shu, Soto Zen's organization in Japan. The SZBA intends to relate to the Soto Shu with mutual respect for the sake of true dharma. [See the About Soto Zen page for the teachers who brought lineages to this country. > about soto zen

 

HISTORY

 

The SZBA was established in 1996 as an organization of senior Soto Zen priests active in North America. The full-member priest-teachers are the primary decision makers of the association. Its past presidents were Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, Sojun Mel Weitsman, Myogen Steve Stücky, and first woman president Jisho Warner. The current president is Eido Frances Carney. After a few years of slow growth, a dynamic board formed in 2002. Some accomplishments since then are the registry of teachers and centers, the addition of priests-in-training as associate members, the growth of membership to approximately two hundred, the first national meeting in 2004, the Dharma Heritage Ceremony, the development of the Soto Zen Training Institute with the first national training seminar for priest disciples, and the planning for the second national meeting in October, 2006. For a brief history of Soto Zen > view About Soto Zen.

 

CURRENT WORK

 

The SZBA, its board, and its committees are now working on questions including how to have a useful ground of shared standards for priests, and how to include lay teachers in a meaningful way. Association-wide trainings for priests began this fall. For the larger community, this website makes the locations of teachers and centers available, and is beginning to offer Zen teachings.

 

Every two years there is a national meeting for all the full members of the SZBA, where they bring their collective wisdom and experience to bear. The important new Dharma Heritage Ceremony is celebrated at the national meetings. >view Dharma Heritage Ceremony

 

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

 

There are many important questions that lend themselves to a national Soto response through the SZBA, like ethical standards; interfacing with chaplaincy, prison, and pastoral-counseling certifying organizations; training for priests and laity; dialogue with other religions and with science; support for the separation of church and state; roles in the SZBA for associate members and laity; discrimination within Buddhism and in the larger society; social action to reduce suffering of all sorts; environmental action; and making Soto Zen teachings widely and freely available.

 

 

 

 

FOUNDATIONS

 

We are deeply grateful to the Zen Masters who established Soto Zen as a living practice in North America.

Their foresight, courage, wisdom and loving kindness has begun the flowering of Zen

in our small corner of the earth. Without their great efforts we would not be here now.

 

The founding teachers of current lineages in SZBA

 

Shunryu Suzuki

Jiyu Kennett

 Taizan Maezumi
Kobun Chino Dainin Katagiri Tozen Akiyama
 

Links to Articles by Foundation Teachers

Shunryu Suzuki | Jiyu Kennett | Taizan Maezumi | Kobun Chino | Dainin Katagiri | Tozen Akiyama

 

Shunryu Suzuki

Beginner's Mind

People say that practicing Zen is difficult, but there is a misunderstanding as to why. It is not difficult because it is hard to sit in the cross-legged position, or to attain enlightenment. It is difficult because it is hard to keep our mind pure and our practice pure in its fundamental sense. The Zen school developed in many ways after it was established in China, but at the same time, it became more and more impure. But I do not want to talk about Chinese Zen or the history of Zen. I am interested in helping you keep your practice from becoming impure.

 

In Japan we have the phrase shoshin , which means "beginner's mind." The goal of practice is always to keep our beginner's mind. Suppose you recite the Prajna Paramita Sutra only once. It might be a very good recitation. But what would happen to you if you recited it twice, three times, four times, or more? You might easily lose your original attitude towards it. The same thing will happen in your other Zen practices. For a while you will keep your beginner's mind, but if you continue to practice one, two, three years or more, although you may improve some, you are liable to lose the limitless meaning of original mind.

 

For Zen students the most important thing is not to be dualistic. Our "original mind" includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself. You should not lose your self-sufficient state of mind. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.

 

If you discriminate too much, you limit yourself. If you are too demanding or too greedy, your mind is not rich and self-sufficient. If we lose our original self-sufficient mind, we will lose all precepts. When your mind becomes demanding, when you long for something, you will end up violating your own precepts: not to tell lies, not to steal, not to kill, not to be immoral, and so forth. If you keep your original mind, the precepts will keep themselves.

 

In the beginner's mind there is no thought, "I have attained something." All self-centered thoughts limit our vast mind. When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners. Then we can really learn something. The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless. Dogen-zenji, the founder of our school, always emphasized how important it is to resume our boundless original mind. Then we are always true to ourselves, in sympathy with all beings, and can actually practice.

 

So the most difficult thing is always to keep your beginner's mind. There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. You should not say, "I know what Zen is," or "I have attained enlightenment." This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner. Be very very careful about this point. If you start to practice zazen, you will begin to appreciate your beginner's mind. It is the secret of Zen practice.

 

 

Jiyu Kennett

Article coming soon

 

 

Taizan Maezumi

 

ON PENETRATING OPENNESS

 

Regarding openness: We have the famous expression "forget the self. " You might not feel there is much similarity between openness and forgetting the self, but it seems to me that they are almost two sides of one coin. When you are really open unconditionally, at such a moment, you

are forgetting the self. If you have something to hang on to, that much you are not open completely. You have something which could be called "the self."

 

When we are really open, forgetting the self, there is no division between inside and outside. That is what openness is, no division between yourself and externals. In such a way, we can appreciate life in its fullness. Such fullness, Dogen Zenji calls "full functioning."

 

This openness is, I think, one of the wonderful characteristics of the American temperament. So the point is, how can we be unconditionally open? We always talk about openness, but what kind of openness are we talking about? It is the same with forgetting the self. It is easy to talk about, but how much do we fully forget ourselves? When we do, that is the state of samadhi.

 

Furthermore, thorough openness itself is the best Wisdom. When you are really open, you are able to be 'one' with another person. It does not matter if the person is a close friend or even a stranger. So how much can we really be open? How completely can we forget ourselves? That is the difficulty. We can explain shikan-taza as openness. Just sit, and when you really just sit, that is the condition of openness. Then, being totally open, your self identifies with the whole space and time. Dogen Zenji says, "On this body, putting the Buddha Seal." That Buddha Seal is that openness. No conditioning. No division between yourself and the object. When you really do that, you become "the Buddha Seal itself, the whole space becomes subtly itself." So how to be open, and if we are that much open, what else do we need?

Kobun Chino

Transmitting the LIght

 

The main subject is how to become a transmitter of actual light, life light.  Practice takes place to shape your whole ability to reflect the light coming through you, and to generate, to regenerate your system so the light increases its power.  Each precept is a remark about hard climbing, maybe climbing down.  You don't use the precepts for accomplishing your own personality, or fulfilling your dream of your highest image.  You don't use the precepts in that way.  The precepts are the reflected light-world of one precept, which is Buddha's mind itself, which is the presence of Buddha.  Zazen is the first formulation of the accomplishment of Buddha existing.

 

The more you sense the rareness and value of your own life, the more you realize that how you use it, how you manifest it, is all your responsibility.  We face such a big task, so naturally such a person sits down for a while.  It's not an intended action, it is a natural action.

Dainin Katagiri

Article coming soon

 

Tozen Akiyama

 

Just Sitting

 

Just sitting is the ultimate way of repentance, repentance for our existence itself.

It is also complete acceptance of our existence.

 

We usually think that we are deluded and that there is an ideal condition somewhere called enlightenment. So we think that if we practice zazen, we can gradually decrease our delusion and finally attain enlightenment.

The truth is not that there is an ideal condition somewhere. All phenomenal things are themselves the ultimate reality, and they are complete as they are here and now. We human beings are also ourselves the ultimate reality and complete as we are here and now. But because we have brains, we cannot help being compelled by desires, which are either to chase after what we think is an ideal condition that is not here and now, or to try to escape from the reality that is here and now. Even when we are compelled by desires, we are complete as we are here and now. If we just sit opening the hand of thought, we are literally ourselves the ultimate reality and complete as we are here and now.

 

Birth-and-death means the life of delusion, which is our daily life in the cycle of joy and suffering, yet Dôgen Zenji says it is the life of the Buddha. If we think that an ideal condition called enlightenment or the house of the Buddha can be found somewhere other than in the deluded life we live, and if we want to go there, or try to reject or get rid of the life of delusion, we lose the life of the Buddha.

 

To part from birth and death does not mean to leave the life of delusion for the house of Buddha, but to live the life of delusion without being bothered by delusion. We are fully settled in the life of delusion. This is the house of the Buddha.

 

Zen has no goal, no merit, no improvement, no accomplishment, no certification. No in these phrases is not "no" in its normal sense. It means absolute no before the separation of goal and no goal, merit and no merit, and so forth. Just sit without being concerned with whether there is any goal or not, merit or not, improvement or not, accomplishment or not, and certification or not. This is just sitting opening the hand of thought.

If we just sit opening the hand of thought, however, we realize we cannot be free from being compelled by desires. When we realize this, we must repent. The ultimate way of repentance is to just sit opening the hand of thought.

 

Just sitting opening the hand of thought is casting body and mind into the house of Buddha, being activated by the Buddha. This is to part from birth and death and become Buddhas. This is the life that has arrived at its real place, the fully settled life. This is the life led and guided by just sitting.

 

Just sitting is the beginning, the middle, and the end of our practice. It is everything.