Get it? "Hara" is a Japanese word that refers to your belly and the lower part of your chest, about where your diaphragm is. Some Zen teachers tell you to "Keep your mind in your hara." I don't. Your mind pervades throughout your body and throughout the universe. It seems silly to try and imagine it being in one specific place. So there's that, and I'm in San Francisco. Haw!
Anyway, they say you're not a real writer unless you can come up with ten excuses not to write at any given moment. This I can do. I am the worst procrastinator in the world when it comes to writing. I will even write to avoid writing, as I am doing now.
I'm still here at the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) and not in disguise. I've stopped shaving with a regular razor and now use an electric one to get that stubbly Don Johnson look. What an 80s reference! Kids, ask mom and dad who Don Johnson was. It's easier and your face feels less frigid with some stubble on it especially up here. What would Dogen say? Feel free to come up and say "hi." Just don't get insulted if I excuse myself to run upstairs and watch my KISS DVDs... I mean write my frikkin' new book.
SFZC is very interesting to me. It's very much a communal, monastic practice and not at all what I'm used to. Here I am, a transmitted Master, and I have no idea half the things they do here. I don't know the chants, I don't know when to bow, I'm not sure what order to leave the room, none of that stuff. Clueless. I just watch carefully and try to figure out what the heck's going on. A hint if you find yourself in a similar situation: Try to stand or sit in the middle. In most places, sitting on the end is best since everybody will have done what's gonna be done before your turn comes. But in Zen places sometimes the order suddenly reverses and, as the Bible tells us, "He who is last becomes first." So the middle is always the best spot to figure out what's going on.
It seems to me the bigger an organization gets the more need there is for rules and for hierarchy. You could not run an organization as big as SFZC the way we run things at my sitting groups. Couldn't be done. SFZC runs very efficiently and shows all the indications that they've overcome their well publicized past troubles and will endure for a very long time.
I think rules and institutional hierarchy have their place. But there are significant differences in how I run things. For example, they do a lovely morning service here every day and I have enjoyed participating in it very much. But in terms of practice it's not really necessary. There is no reason on Earth that chanting sutras is in any way particularly beneficial to Zen practice. But it is very beneficial to building a united community and maintaining an institution. If you're SFZC, these factors are vital to your continued existence. If you're just someone interested in Zen practice, they're not. Understand that -- and I think most of the folks here do -- and the chants and rituals are fine family fun and not at all a distraction. Still, a big group outing to the local ice cream parlor could be just as beneficial to your Zen practice, though considerably more fattening.
OK. Chanting sutras may be slightly better. But don't mistake it for real Zen practice. I see lots more people at the chanting services than in the zendo here and pretty much everywhere else I visit.
Just some quick reflections. Now I'm going to start my real work.
Bye!
