2016 SZBA Conference Report

Most of us arrived on Wednesday in time for two simultaneous informal sessions, one for the full members and one for the associate members. After the informal sessions, we had a moving Opening Ceremony.

Thursday began with welcoming words from SZBA president Hozan Alan Senauke, reviewing our 20-year history and acknowledging the strengths and challenges of our present organizational circumstances. The day continued with a workshop on the Right Use of Power led by Peg Syverson & Tenku Ruff. Our good dharma friend Gengo Akiba Roshi, the Soto Zen Sokan or Bishop, made presentation on the Tempyozan monastery project moving ahead steadily in Clear Lake, California.

The afternoon session concluded with a memorial service for Shunbo Zenkei Blanche Hartman, Shofu Myozan Dennis Keegan, and Koko Dave Hazelwood, SZBA members who had died in 2016. We chanted the Lotus Sutra’s “Life Span” verses remembering our absent friends’ vivid examples:

In order to liberate all beings,
as skillful means I appear to have entered nirvana;
yet truly I am not extinct,
ever dwelling here to voice the dharma.

That evening David Loy, scholar, activist, and Zen teacher gave the keynote presentation, “Hearing the Cries of the World,” addressing the intersection of Dharma, ecology, and activism, urging us to commit ourselves to lead our communities into social action.

On Friday morning Peg Syverson and Peter Overton facilitated an interactive visioning session, introducing the Appreciate Inquiry method. The group took some initial steps to discuss and explore the direction and vision of SZBA, based on where we are in our organizational history and in this moment of Zen in the West. Generation X priests met for a breakout session over lunch. Afterwards, Thomas Bruner led a workshop on fundraising for Zen centers. The afternoon featured breakout sessions on the sewing practice and furthering the conversation with David Loy. In the evening Dai-en Bennage offered women members a seldom-seen Ananda ceremony, honoring the monk who opened doors to women monastics during the Buddha’s time.

Saturday’s business meeting heard reports from standing committees, as well as from Associate members and the Gen-X breakout group.  Four TED-style talks included: Hogen Bays—“Nothing is Amiss: the Foundation for Social Action;” Tenku Ruff—“Cultural Competence Across Generations;” Koun Franz—“Race/Diversity/Privilege in the Sangha;” and Ben Connelly—“Working with Police departments with Mindfulness and Meditation.”

On Saturday afternoon we concluded our work with the Dharma Heritage Ceremony and closing ceremony, followed by a banquet and an evening of cultural sharing—songs, poems, skits, and even calligraphy. The Dharma Heritage Ceremony widened our Soto Zen priest circle to include:

And on Sunday we forgot to rest. Some left for long afternoon and evening flights home. Others had a chance to visit Zen centers in and around Minneapolis, deepening friendships and dharma relations.

This report only touches on the rich discourse and warm fellowship of SZBA’s biennial gathering. We recognize as well, that many of our 300 members were not able to attend. We look forward to seeing you in the fall of 2018.

All We Have To Do –
A Reflection on the Keynote Presentation
by David Loy

All we have to do to destroy the planet’s climate and biota and leave a ruined world to our children and grandchildren, is to keep doing exactly what we’re doing today, with no growth in human population or the world economy. Just continue to generate greenhouse gases at current rates, just continue to impoverish ecosystems and release toxic chemicals at current rates, and the world in the latter part of this century won’t be fit to live in. But human activities are not holding at current levels. They’re accelerating dramatically. (James Gustav Speth, The Bridge at the Edge of the World, 2009)

We are all in a big bus that’s speeding very fast toward a precipice. In the last election two people were fighting for the steering wheel. The winner plans to step on the accelerator, but would the other have stopped the bus? Maybe she would have slowed down a little bit…

Suppose Hillary had won as expected. Would we have sat back on the bus more comfortably into our seats? Does that point to the silver lining of the horrendous cloud that now hovers over us? We are shaken out of our comfort zone. Indifference is no longer an option.

Or is it? Some practitioners have discovered their own personal solution: when the news makes us anxious, we meditate, letting go of our thoughts and feelings, and after a while we feel much better!

A more appropriate response is the bodhisattva path, which may be the most important contribution of Buddhism in these difficult times. Bodhisattvas have a two-sided practice. They continue to meditate, cultivating their own self-transformation and equanimity, but not because they are self-centered: that equanimity enables them to respond more compassionately and wholeheartedly to the social and ecological challenges facing us today.

Because of their spiritual practice, they are able to deal better with the frustration, anger, and burn-out that activists are susceptible to.

Most importantly, the bodhisattva path cultivates the ability to act without attachment to the results. This is counter-intuitive – “we need results!” — and dangerous if misunderstood, because it can encourage half-hearted commitment.

Consider the distinction between a 100-yard dash and a marathon. When you’re running a 100-yard dash, the only thing that counts is getting to the goal line as quickly as possible, whereas with a marathon it’s one step at a time. Tada, “just this!” In each motion nothing is lacking. You are completely one with every moment. You don’t need to be thinking about the goal, but you’re moving in that direction.

That is part of what it means to be nonattached to results, yet there’s more to it. Traditionally, the first vow of a bodhisattva is that “although living beings are numberless, I vow to save them all.” I vow to do something that can never be achieved, which means it’s really about a basic reorientation that replaces our usual self-preoccupation: “henceforth the fundamental meaning of my life is working for the well-being of everyone.” Someone who takes that vow seriously will not be intimidated by the comparatively minor task of working with others to save global civilization from destroying itself. The point is, whether or not we become temporarily discouraged, we don’t give up. We get on with it.

But there’s one more thing to emphasize about the bodhisattva path. We naturally want to know what to do, and whether our actions really make a difference; yet today especially the challenge is so big and intimidating that we just don’t know – which can be discouraging, or even paralyzing. For the bodhisattva, however, “don’t know mind” is essential. Enlightenment doesn’t mean “now I understand everything about myself and the world.” It’s opening up to one’s “don’t know” mind. As Robert Aitken-roshi said, “Our task isn’t about clearing up the mystery, but making the mystery clear.”

When we open up to what’s actually happening, we experience a world that’s fundamentally mysterious. But that doesn’t relieve us from the need to understand and act, as well as we can. Our task is to respond appropriately to whatever situation arises, not knowing if anything we do is going to make any difference whatsoever. It’s okay that we don’t know. Knowing is not part of the job description. We don’t know if what we do is important, but it is very important that we do it. Because it’s what we find ourselves called to do.

(David Loy was our theme presenter at the conference. His doctorate is from the University of Singapore, where his dissertation was on Nonduality. He is also a long time Zen student and has been authorized as a roshi, or senior teacher in Sanbo Zen, a lay oriented koan school. David is a prominent social justice activist, with a particular focus on environmental justice.)

Right Use of Power
A Presentation by Peg Syverson and Tenku Ruff

Power is the ability to have an effect or an influence. Every single person has power, but the wise use of our power is not simply a matter of good intentions. We must learn and practice how to use our power skillfully. The right use of power is relational, compassionate, and pro-active. It is a profound teaching on ethics and effectiveness.

Through a combination of presentation and experiential exercises we explored leadership styles, three forms of power, and the four dimensions of the right use of power: being informed, being compassionate, being connected, and being skillful. We described and experienced the concept of the power differential and its implications for Zen practice and teaching. Finally, we introduced issues in non-ordinary states of consciousness, self-care, and resolving difficulties: tracking for difficulties, the de-resourcing effects of shame, and repair.

For more about the Right Use of Power click here to access the website.

TED-Style Talks:

Cultural Competence: Communicating Across Generations by Tenku Ruff

At the 2016 SZBA conference Tenku Ruff gave short talk on how we can better communicate across generations by understanding some of the general characteristics of each generation. How do generations see the world differently? How do our communication styles differ? If we can increase our knowledge of how people from generations other than our own see the world, we can move into communication based on mutual understanding and respect.

A generation is defined as a group of people who are living at the same time and who are within a certain age range. These groups of people have witnessed the same historical events and had similar sociological influences. (See linked pdf.) Our generational characteristics are fairly formed by the time we are around twenty years old, which means we have to work much harder to understand differing perceptions as we grow older. Fortunately, Zen practice provides a framework for working with fixed behavior patters and for expanding our views.

In terms of cultural competence, there are there are 4 components: awareness, attitude, knowledge and skills. Awareness is about becoming consciousness of our personal reactions to people who are different. For example, a Baby Boomer who is aware of their (mis)perception that Generation X members do not work as hard as they do or don’t “have what it takes” has cultural awareness about their reactions to this group of people.

Attitude is how we approach our differences. We should ask ourselves whether we want to learn more, or simply for “them” to be like me? We can ask ourselves, “Am I committed to trying? —and making mistakes?  —and apologizing?  —and learning?  —and trying again?“

Increasing knowledge is an important part of cultural competence. Are our core values consistent with our behaviors? Are we aware of our own blindspots? If so, given that we can’t see blindspots ourselves, who is pointing them out to us and how? Are we actively encouraging feedback—and truly listening to it? Current research indicates that our values and beliefs about equality may be inconsistent with our behaviors, and we may be unaware of it. For example, many people who score low on inherent bias tests tend to do things that exemplify prejudice, like using outdated labels such as “ladies” or “colored”—even though at their core they abhor the idea of treating others with disrespect.

Though communication is the fundamental tool by which people interact, the way we do it varies. Learning more skills to have in our personal toolkit helps us communicate better across differences. For example, people from the Silent Generation tend to prefer the telephone, while Millennials tend to text. Millennials might consider using their smartphone to dial a number and then speak on the phone, while Silent Generation or Baby Boomer members can learn to text and use emojis—perhaps even to have emotionally challenging conversations via text.

In the realm of the Dharma, there is space for difference. Awareness involves noticing these differences, acknowledging them, noticing our own biases surrounding them, and then working with what we notice. If people are seeing things differently, it needs to be examined. Peace can only arise when awareness can hold the space for everything.

Click here to view a pdf of Tenku’s conference presentation

Presented by Peg Syverson and Peter Overton