#40 SOUTH CAROLINA

The Columbia Zen Buddhist Priory was introduced to me by one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met.   It's hard to explain, but Reverend Rokuzan Kroenke, the only monk at the Priory, led an educational session for three of us who were interested in the practice, and it had a deep impact on me. 

The Reverend spent time with us observing how we sit and had some helpful suggestions to sit at the edge of the cushion or chair (in my case) and that it is OK to curve the back a bit.  He explained Zazen in the Soto tradition as 'just sitting',  OK to notice breath but then let it go and be with whatever arises.   I appreciate also that the Reverend emphasized how hard meditation can be, not so much because is it a complex practice (I mean 'just sit', right?) but because of our misperceptions.  From their intro material: 

Zen literally means meditation, and zazen or seated meditation is the heart of the practice. All beings already have  the same enlightened nature as the Buddha but we obscure it by believing that we are separate, isolated beings. This  makes us very needy and we spend our lives trying to get what we believe we lack, through acquiring possessions,  power or relationships. It is as though we are trying to fill a void inside, but however much we get, the void always  seems to remain. From the Buddhist viewpoint this happens because we misunderstand our own nature.   To practice meditation is to learn how to see beyond one's thoughts and feelings and realize this true nature. There  is a deep sufficiency in all of us and we all have a great capacity to give. These virtues and all the fruits of  enlightenment are already within us but they can only be manifested when we see through our mistaken perceptions.  This is a matter of discovering what we already possess rather than seeking what we believe we lack. This approach is  both affirming and challenging, requiring us to look intently at the reality of the present moment — excluding nothing  and grasping nothing. We need the willingness to see ourselves as we are. Rather than judging what we find, we can  develop the capacity to neither indulge nor suppress emotions, thereby freeing ourselves from the forces that drive us to  act unwisely. Compassion, both for ourselves and all beings, is at the heart of this process.   Through meditation we can discover the Truth directly for ourselves. It is to sit still with an open, alert and bright  mind, neither suppressing nor indulging the thoughts and feelings that arise. In meditation, we learn how to accept  ourselves and the world as it is. Profound transformation becomes possible once we know things as they are.   If we believe we are separate from everyone and everything else, then we act selfishly to get what we want. When  we discover, through spiritual training, that within apparent diversity, nothing is really separate, then we already have  all we need—for we are One with all things. Meditation enables us to know the real nature of our own being.

Rokusan's thoughtfulness continued: "We spend most of our lives falling into a ditch on the side of the road trying to avoid a ditch on the other side." He talked a lot about habits; not to hate habits, and how they are always strengthening or weakening; and it is a leap of faith to let them go; not running away but noticing them, and keeping to the ten precepts of not killing, lying and working with pride and anger.

It's hard to put my finger on what I loved most about Reverend Rokuzan, but he started off stern and was really an embodiment of everything contemplative soon thereafter. He asked forgiveness if he had said anything stupid, which was particularly endearing.

I also appreciated his description of gratitude and I believed him when he said he spends much of the day being thankful for clothing, toilets, food, and so on.

The Zen Priory is an offshoot of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives founded by Jiyu Kennet; a strong advocate for women in Buddhism and author of a strange little book about her enlightenment during her severe illness, it is online at the Internet Archive here.