Taizan Maezumi-roshi, my first teacher, at Zen Center Los Angeles
Originally the Emblem of Soji-ji Soto Temple, this symbol now
represents the White Plum Sangha.
Joko Charlotte Beck, as she appeared at ZCLA, 1979-1982, when she was my immediate teacher
The White Plum Sangha [excluding Joko] as they were about 1982; [L to R] Chosen Soulé Bays, Tetsugen Glassman, Maezumi-roshi and Genpo Merzel
Zenshin Philip Whalen, my ordaining teacher, Hartford Street Zen Center, San Francisco [in the Lineage of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi as descended through Richard Baker]
Wild Geese
Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles in the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you about mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
This is how Maezumi-roshi looked when we met, working in the garden at ZCLA, in the late 1970's.
Those of us who have studied with Asian teachers have been extremely lucky, because they bring with them all of the cultural nuances of the Dharma as it is practiced in its native environments. Their knowledge is subtle and natural. We humans relate to "foreign" practices through what we "know," at least, as we begin to understand them; for example, we relate to renunciation in Buddhism by associating it with Puritanism, because that is what we "know." As Zen becomes an American practice, we learn to remove these associations, hopefully coming eventually to a 'cleaner' understanding. Yet the value of direct transmition from Asia cannot be underestimated for its intimate worth.
The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh
