ZCLA: Field trip to Zen Center Los Angeles

Roshi Jeff Albrizze (PasaDharma.org), CC Liu, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; ZCLA video 

The Los Angeles/Mexican Day of the Dead/Japanese Obon Festival, ZCLA, 2012 (filmed and edited by Nicholas Tana and Denise Acosta, posted Oct. 29, 2013).

ZCLA

PasaDharma Zen sitting group will carpool from Pasadena (Del Mar at Hudson) at 7:45 am, Nov. 10, 2013, to the Zen Center of Los Angeles (ZCLA, 923 South Normandie Ave., 90006-1301) in the Miracle Mile district just west of downtown to see the British-born Abbot Charles Tenshin Fletcher Roshi (Yokoji Zen Mountain Center, California).

• 8:30-9:00: Chanting "The Gate of Sweet Nectar" (please bring canned food offerings for hungry ghosts and to benefit needy families in the area)
• 9:00-9:35: Zazen (silent seated meditation)
• 9:35-10:20: Kinhin (walking meditation)
• 10:45-12:00: Dharma Talk by Roshi Fletcher
• 12:15-12:45: Snack (usually bagels and locks)

ZMC

Drive or carpool. Wear dark, loose, comfortable clothing free of distracting colors or logos. Please refrain from wearing excessive perfume, cologne, or jewelry. FREE. No fee for participating but donations to the center are accepted.

(ZMC.org) Year-round Zen Buddhist training center located in SoCal mountains east of LA

Tenshin Roshi (zmc.org)

Zen Center Los Angeles (ZCLA), Buddha Essence Temple, founded 1967 by Taizan Maezumi Roshi, has provided teachings and the opportunity to practice Japanese-style Soto Zen Buddhism in an American context for all who come through the temple's (gateless) gate. The mission of the institution is to know the self, maintain the precepts, and serve others by providing the teaching, training, and transmission of Zen Buddhism with a vision of an enlightened world in which suffering is transcended, all beings live in harmony, everyone has enough, deep wisdom is realized, and compassion flows unhindered. ZCLA honors and actively welcomes diversity with regard to religion, race, gender, age, mental ability, physical ability, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic background. ZCLA programs include introductory classes, sesshin (sitting intensives), workshops, training periods, and face to face meetings (dokusan, interviews) with Abbot Wendy Egyoku Nakao and other center teachers. Zazen and koan training in the Maezumi-(Bernie) Glassman lineage is practiced.

(ZMC.org) Short film: "Yokoji Zen Mountain Center" day-to-day life prior to the forest fire and flooding at Yokoji ZMC in the San Jacinto Mountains, Southern California.

KOAN: One Finger Zen

Dhr. Seven, Roshi Jeff Albrizze (PasaDharma.org), CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly, The Book of Equanimity, Case 84 "Gutei's One Finger"; The Gateless Gate (Mumonkan)

Alt pop idol Avril Lavigne, following Zen Master Gutei's example but misunderstanding which digit he used, points out the path: middle finger, middle way.

 

PREFACE TO THE ASSEMBLY

Zen zero (Stanoin/etsy.com)

One hearing, a thousand awakenings;

One understanding, a thousand [results].

A superior person with one realization takes care of everything.

Mediocre and inferior persons, though they hear a great deal, mostly don't have faith.

Let's try to show the most accurate, simple point and see.

MAIN CASE

Attention!

Great Zen Master Gutei, whenever he was questioned, simply raised one finger.

APPRECIATORY VERSE

Eminem's Lose Yourself is Buddhist?

Old Gutei's fingertip Zen.

For thirty years, inexhaustible

Truly a person of the Way has limitless stratagems,

But common people can't see it in front of them.

What is gained is so utterly simple,

Yet expedients become endless in number.

Thousands of lands and seas swallowed up by a hair-tip.

Boundless dragons falling into whose hands?

Ninko's holding the fishing pole is appreciated.

I, too, raise one finger and say, "See?"

 

Tenryū-ji (天龍寺) is the head temple of the Tenryū branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism in Kyoto, Japan, founded by Ashikaga Takauji in 1339 to venerate the Buddha Gautama. More

 

Which finger?

Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps (trans.), Mumonkan, "Gutei's Finger"

Juzhi Yizhi (Gutei)

Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would raise his finger.

Gutei heard about the boy's mischief. He seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and ran away. Gutei called out and stopped him. When the boy turned his head, Gutei raised up his own finger. In that instant the boy was "enlightened."

When Gutei was about to pass from this world, he gathered his monks around him. "I attained my finger-Zen," he said, "from my teacher Tenryū, and in my whole life I could not exhaust it." Then he passed away. 

Mumon's comment: Enlightenment, which Gutei and the boy attained, has nothing to do with a finger. If anyone clings to a finger, Tenryū will be so disappointed that he will annihilate Gutei, the boy, and the clinger all together.

Gutei cheapens the teaching of Tenryū,

Emancipating the boy with a knife.

Compared to the Chinese god who pushed aside a mountain with one hand,

Old Gutei is a poor imitator.

It is due to this story that Gutei has commonly become known as Gutei Isshi, meaning "Gutei One-finger."

Fall Zen Retreat with Brad Warner

Dogen Sangha Los Angeles

Author Brad Warner (There is No God and He is Always With You, Hardcore Zen, etc.), an ordained Zen monk and former punk rock musician, will lead a three-day intensive at the Mount Baldy Zen Center in the forest above Los Angeles Nov. 8-10, 2013. Includes zazen (sitting meditation), dokusan (interviews), chanting, hiking. Also yoga with Nina Snow ($350). See videos