Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘I often think of the early beginnings of Zen Center at Sokoji Soto Zen Temple in San Francisco. Sokoji was very important to us in those early days, and I think it remains symbolically important for us even today. In fact, the role of Sokoji in the development of Zen Center has become a kind of koan for me. In those days Zen Center occupied only a corner of Sokoji. It was, however, adequate for our size, and we felt quite at home in sharing space with the Japanese-American congregation there. We also shared in having the same teacher, Abbot Shunryu Suzuki, who was the head of both Sokoji and Zen Center. There was then some inner sense of unity between the two groups. As Zen Center grew, our differences became greater, and the two groups separated. The reasons were various, but I would say it was mostly because of a difference of views in regard to practice. At Zen Center we were very enthusiastic about zazen, and it was very difficult for us to conceive of real ren practice as being anything else. The Japanese-American congregation at Sokoji, on the other band, seemed to share almost none of our enthusiasm for zazen. They instead emphasised religious ceremonies and temple social life. Nor were they unique in this respect, since their practice was actually representative of the average Soto temple in Japan. Sokoji practice was then quite different from our own. In general we didn’t really understand what it was all about, nor did we really appreciate it. Nevertheless, there seemed to be good reason to believe that the Sokoji side of practice represented at least half of actual Soto Zen. What that other half was all about became quite a koan for me. My koan was greatly reinforced because our teacher, Abbot Shunryu Suzuki, obviously felt some really fundamental concern not only for zazen, but also for the Sokoji side of practice. Very important to him too was his home temple in Japan, where again there was little zazen. At least half of bis life was devoted to a practice of which most of us had little appreciation or understanding. For such reasons, I felt that I understood onjy some of the zazen half of his teaching. In struggling with my koan, I kept on expecting some revolutionary insight appropriate for the New Age generation. After quite a few years, I have come up with a not-at-all revolutionary answer. In fact it is so simple, I can’t help wondering if maybe I am very slow in understanding what was very obvious to almost everyone else from the very beginning. What then is the other half of our practice? The Bodhisattva Way, just as simple as thaL At root that is what Sokoji is all about. I’d even go so far as to say that is what most of Soto Zen in Japan is all about.’ (from Wind Bell)