Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘I was talking to Nyogen Senzaki one day in LA I was thinking about a topic for my master’s thesis. I was particularly interested in David Hume and the philosophy of empiricism, or maybe a radical empiricism, and I was thinking of writing a thesis on the subject of radical empiricism and Buddhism. He didn’t seem to be impressed by that. He encouraged me to go on about what I really wanted to do. I said I had decided to devote my life to bringing the spirit of Zen to America. Pretty impressive, huh? His response to that was “Bring what?” I repeated. He probably didn’t understand how impressive a statement it was. Same thing. He responded “Bring What?” Suddenly I realized I didn’t have the slightest idea what it was that I was trying to bring to America. If anything. I much appreciated that. Partly because I knew I could have spent quite a few years under the illusion that I was devoting my life to bringing the spirit of Zen to America. I realized that without a teacher, like Nyogen Senzaki, I never would have been jolted into realizing that something was radically askew in my view. He had done that for me. That was very important. Also I had great doubts about my ability to sit in full lotus ever. I had kind of a half-assed half lotus. He not only encouraged sitting in chairs, but actually felt that seiza and full lotus was a foreign imposition upon American culture, and we shouldn’t do it. I appreciated that. I doubted, correctly I think, that I would ever be able to get into a wholesome zazen half lotus posture which would be helpful for my practice, rather than just something required by practice. So far I haven’t been able to do it.

DC: Did Senzaki have a sitting group in LA?

AD: Yeah. He would have brief sessions. You could just come on down. I don’t remember any daily sitting group, but he might have. I didn’t participate in that. I’d go down and visit. He also lived in the Bay Area for a number of years before the War. He used to wander in Golden Gate Park quite a bit. I say the floating zendo. That’s a Nyogen Senzaki idea. That his zendo was wherever he was. Also of course he was for awhile what you would call a floater. He’d get jobs here and there. Bus boys, and stuff, in different places in San Francisco. I was also impressed because I thought he was remaining really true to the spirit of the early days of the farm/monastery here in the Bay Area The one that D.T. Suzuki and Nyogen Senzaki and Goto Roshi and several others — somewhere in the Bay Area they had a strawberry farm…

 Eventually Sasaki Roshi was also part of that strawberry farm. But they all, except Nyogen Senzaki and D.T. Suzuki, sold out, so to speak. And went back to Japan. And got the official credentials. The original idea was that they were going to be something new. As Yasutani Roshi put it, the priest/temple system of Buddhism is the millstone around the neck of Japanese Buddhism. And they sort of felt that way. So they were going to be something new, apart from being Roshis and all that shit. So what happens, Sasaki Roshi goes back to Japan, gets all the credentials. Comes back with the title and the robes and sets himself up in New York. Except Nyogen Senzaki and D.T. Suzuki.’ (from Cuke.com)

I have been drawn recently to some of the extensive interviews David Chadwick carried out with the early practitioners at Zen Center, and how they recollect those times – Ananda Dalenberg was older than most, and had been practising before Suzuki Roshi came to San Francisco. Look out for more of these over the coming weeks.