Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘About this same time, Kodo Sawaki, Roshi, the master of Antaiji Temple, died. He left instructlons that instead of a formal funeral, the monks at the temple and all his disciples should practice a forty-nine day sesshln. And on December the 22nd this began.

I was determined to attend despite my doctor’s orders, and l started out by sitting just one period of fifty minutes a day, and little by little increased the amount of zazen until now I can sit from slx to eight hours quite comfortably. The effect of zazen on my condition has been most remarkable. Far from causing further damage as the doctor had suggested, It has done everything to cure It, and I am quite confident that within two or three months l can return to Eiheiji. 

After three weeks of sesshin at Antaiji, I couldn’t be more grateful that I did injure my back. Unless I had done so, l would never have come to know Antaiji In the way l have. This temple l find truly remarkable. There has been no sutra chanted in this hondo for over ten years. It ls essentially a laymen’s temple, and people come from all over Japan to practice zazen. Their practice of zazen is beyond my praise. When they practice sesshin, not this long sesshin, but the three day weekend sesshin, they sit steadily for eighteen hours, In pairs of fifty minute zazen and ten minute klnhln (walking meditation). Of course they must stop to take some food, but immediately after the food Is taken, then thirty minutes klnhln and back to the sitting. Here the three priests support themselves only by the practice of takuha (begging). This, I think, is very rare ln Japan now. Everything is conducted on just about the simplest basis you can possibly imagine. There is nothing at this temple to inspire the sightseer or the casual person who might drop ln. There isn’t even a nameplate on the door, and unless you have very good directions, you can’t even find the temple. When you arrive at the door you’ll be greeted simply whoever you are, and invariably will be invited to practice zazen. This is all they have to offer. And the same is true whether the visitor is someone who dropped ln from down the road or one of the important people who come from time to time. (For instance, Prime Minister Sato is coming on the twentieth of thls month.) But day by day sitting in this little wooden building on the outskirts of Kyoto, gazing at the wall with a half dozen or so other people, has really been and will remain to be truly a remarkable experience. I say only half a dozen, but each day there are another half dozen people or so who come from all over Japan to spend a few days at this temple and practice sesshin with us.’ (from Wind Bell)

There is a lot of history in this passage. Graeme Petchey was one of Suzuki Roshi’s earliest disciples, sent to Eiheiji – Dogen’s temple and the main training temple in our lineage in Japan – to further his studies. He injured his back, and ended up at Antaiji; the forty-nine day sesshin to mark Kodo Sawaki’s death was quite an occasion (I remember reading one of Taigen Deshimaru’s books which seemed to imply that he was the only person who sat for forty-nine days, which made me mistrust him).

he also ended up staying in Japan longer than originally intended, and if things had worked out differently, perhaps he might have become Suzuki Roshi’s successor. I remember him visiting Zen Center for a reunion before he died, though he was obviously in decline. I was perhaps drawn to his story as he was originally English as well.