Jizo Project     Catherine Cascade

Zen Kitchen     Bill Devall

Bodhidharma on Park Ave      Catherine Cascade

Time For A Change      Message from the Board

Book Notes      Bill Devall

BPF at AZG      Mitch Trachtenberg

Coming Home      Mark P.

3 Haiku, Drifting Off      suzanne m.

World of Possibility      Mneesha Gellman

Catherine Cascade

Spread out across the long work table, draped across the pink futon and the backs of folding chairs, and standing vigil along the windowsill above the low check-out table, Jizo images drawn on muslin panels and folded from red origami paper filled the AZG library this spring and summer. Sangha members and friends joined with thousands of people from twenty five countries and every state in the U.S. to produce one Jizo for each person who died 60 years ago when the U.S. bombed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Jizo Bodhisattva is a beloved cultural icon in Japan, found in temples and roadside shrines, in comic books and on key chains. S/he is considered the guardian of children, especially those who have died, women, especially those who are pregnant, and travelers on both physical and spiritual journeys. She has vowed, “Only after the Hells are empty will I myself enter Nirvana,” and is said to join beings in whatever hell realms they may inhabit to relieve their suffering.

“Jizo is also said to be the patron saint of lost causes, because Jizo never gives up,” and for this reason Jizo is the perfect symbol for “the seemingly hopeless cause of world peace,” according to Jan Chozen Bays, the American Soto Zen priest who set the Jizos for Peace Project in motion.

Together with others from the sangha at Great Vow Monastery in Clatskanie, Oregon, where she is co-abbot, Chozen delivered well over 270,000 Jizo images to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the August 7th and 9th anniversaries of the bombings—including a garland of origami Jizos and a quilt-like banner composed of muslin panels created at AZG. Depicting hundreds of Jizos in guises from the whimsical (a fireman, a donkey, synchronized swimmers, a winking face) to the traditional (a monk standing in the fires of hell), the AZG Jizos were as varied as their creators, whose ages ranged from 13 to 77. Some used fabric markers to create scenes full of Jizos with a message of peace across the top, while others quietly folded red squares of origami paper into small, squat figures, and drew faces on them as diverse and expressive as the faces in a crowd on the Arcata plaza.

Jizo Bodhisattva (Sanskrit “Kshitigarbha”—“earth womb”) represents the energies of compassion, optimism and courage—the part of us that is moved by the suffering of others, the part that is willing to take risks and endure hardships if necessary. The making of Jizo images is a form of meditation practice in which one silently repeats a mantra while creating each image. The practice is intended to help awaken the energies of Jizo Bodhisattva in us so that we may then manifest those qualities in the world. Somewhat to Chozen’s surprise, the practice—and the project—spread quickly and seemed almost to take on a life of its own.

The first Jizo images created at AZG were done during a Silent Sesshin work period on April 23. This was followed by a Saturday when people from other Buddhist sanghas and peace groups were invited to join AZG sangha members in the library to make Jizos, as well as additional work periods during the mid-May sesshin led by Angie Boissevain. By that time, we had 25 muslin panels—enough to construct a banner. It was Milli Quam’s first full sesshin and, at five days, a long one. An accomplished seamstress, she received permission to shop for fabric and devoted every work period during the sesshin to completing the banner. It was framed in bright blue with red and purple ribbons delineating the rows of muslin panels—a beautiful presentation for the hundreds of Jizo images drawn on them.

On June 10, a group of sangha members suspended the banner between two bamboo poles and joined the Women In Black and Veterans For Peace in their regular Friday evening peace vigil on the Arcata Plaza. Then the banner, together with a garland of origami Jizos, was sent off to Great Vow Monastery for delivery to Japan.

Since that time, we have hosted another Saturday for people from the community to join us in making Jizos, and individuals have taken materials home to work with when their schedule permits. Another banner is now under construction and the remaining origami Jizos await willing hands to string them into additional garlands. These images may be sent to Japan or, with the consent of their makers, may be displayed at peace events here in Humboldt County.

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Bill Devall

When Rose Brewster asked me to be cook for one day of sesshin with Alan Senuake as visiting teacher, I accepted her invitation because I knew I would be practicing at my edge. Our beloved Maylie Scott constantly encouraged us to practice at our edge. However, I didn’t realize how I would be at the edge and on the edge when I accepted Rose’s invitation.

I have cooked in the kitchen at 740 Park Avenue for years with our cooking group for the night shelter for the homeless project. I cooked each year at Big Flat during our annual sangha retreats at that fabled place.

I prepared for the sesshin led by Alan by participating in the zen kitchen workshop offered by priest Mary Mosine at 740 Park Avenue on July 29, 2005. In her workshop she emphasized several principles. Cooking for sesshin is not like cooking for our friends in our own homes. In our own homes we cook for our friends because we enjoy preparing and serving food, and if our friends compliment us on our cooking we are happy. We frequently prepare more elaborate food when cooking for our friends.

Cooking for sesshin means letting the cooking do us. The cook is not trying to impress anyone. Cooking is our practice during sesshin. Keep temple cooking simple. If a certain dish we are cooking for the temple is ruined because it is burnt or the flavors don’t come together, either eat it or put it in the compost and go to plan B, another simple dish. Take care of knives. After we use a knife in the zen kitchen wash the knife, dry it and put it back in the knife rack, even if we pick up that same knife the next minute and use it for more chopping. We are chopping breath by breath. If the prep cooks have an injury such as a cut on the finger or a burn while cooking, put the food in the compost and start again. Look at all the ingredients before beginning to cook. When in doubt, ask for advice but remember, beginner cooks can receive advice that makes the situation worse rather than better. For example, during Mary’s cooking class I volunteered to cook rice. Cooking rice seemed simple to me. However, I had never cooked brown rice. I asked how much water and oil to put with the rice. I followed the advice I was given by a sangha member and the rice burned. I was then told by another sangha member that I had not used enough water with the brown rice. The rice was burned but we ate it anyway.

Temple cooking has three dishes. Rice, a main dish and usually some vegetable as salad. Mary taught us how to grate raw beets and mix them with orange zest and orange juice. At her workshop we all agreed that the raw beets provided excellent taste. However when I asked Alan Senauke if he would eat raw beets he told me he had a childhood aversion to beets. I revised the menu and decided to fix cole slaw. That seemed simple, chopping cabbage and adding a few spices. Not so simple. Milli Quam and I were adjusting the seasoning on the cabbage and could not get a satisfactory balance between sweet and sour. However we served the cole slaw and people ate it during sesshin.

The sangha was given some vegetables from the garden of Arcata educational farm to eat during sesshin. However we needed more vegetables and different vegetables and tofu. Milli shopped for the required items on the day before the beginning of sesshin. We decided to cook stir fry tofu and vegetables Italian style the way Mary taught us during her cooking class. Seemed simple. However,  it was more complex than we anticipated.

I arrived at 740 Park Avenue at 9am the day of the sesshin. “Oh you’re early,” Milli said. “I didn’t expect you before 10am.” I learned from my experiences in cooking for the homeless night shelter that what seems like simple tasks usually take twice as long to complete as I had anticipated they would take. Our goal, on the day of sesshin, was to have all the food for lunch prepared and ready to serve at 12:10 when the bells announced the end of service and the sesshin participants left the temple and began arriving in the zen kitchen.

Following Mary’s advice I prepared my list of vegetables to chop and what size to chop them, one and a half inches, one inch, one half inch depending on the vegetable. I had all the vegetables chopped by 11am. I was feeling good about myself. “Everything is under control, Bill.” That is what I kept telling myself.

I put rice and the proper amount of water in the rice cooker. I began to cook vegetables in the wok. I was watching the clock and adding vegetables in the order Mary taught us. First carmalize the onions. Cooking the onions just right in olive oil is the basis for the stirfry dish.The goal is to cook the vegetables just enough. If they overcook, they are soggy. I added the chopped carrots because they take longer to cook than other vegetables. Add eggplant then broccoli, and then tofu. Finish with tomatoes because they become mushy if overcooked. I was watching my breath and I thought I had the zen kitchen under control. However the cooking was doing me. I wasn’t doing the cooking. I learned that letting the cooking do me is to fear I am losing control. I was stepping in the spices as Mary taught us. Put in a small amount of spice, taste and adjust spices. I kept telling my “self” that the cooking would do itself. That was my practice. However, at 11:50am I was struck with a panic attack. The seasoning for the cole slaw wasn’t coming together. The onions took longer to carmalize than I anticipated. I felt rushed and unsure. The sesshin participants would be in this kitchen in twenty minutes and I literally began to sweat in my armpits. “Keep your focus, Bill. Keep your focus. Just breath, Bill.” I kept repeating that mantra over and over again. I went to plan B, put the cover on the wok and let the vegetables steam to cook them more rapidly and then remove the cover and continue stirfry.

The bells rang. It was 12.10. That was it. I turned off the stove, opened the rice cooker and stirred the rice just once. I put the cole slaw on the serving counter. I took a spoonful of rice, a spoonful of stirfry, a spoonful of cole slaw put each spoonful in a separate little bowl to feed the hungry ghosts. Lunch was ready to serve. As cook I took the offering to the hungry ghosts and put it on the altar after participants had served themselves and were seated at the table. We ate in silence. When the priest announced that second helpings were available, I took the offering to the hungry ghosts off the altar and out to the garden where I fed the hungry ghosts.

After the zen kitchen was cleaned and the participants were resting, the priest, Alan Senauke, called me to his room. Oh no, I had another panic attack. What did I do wrong? Did I violate some sacred temple rule?

However, I marched up to the priest’s room. Alan said to me “Just right. Temple food as it should be prepared and served. Just right, Bill.” What a relief. Now I could lie down on the couch in the living room and take a nap before more chopping for supper. After my nap, while sesshin participants were busy outside working in the garden during work practice, I chopped the remaining vegetables, put them in vegetable broth for soup for supper, began cooking the soup on low heat. Rice, leftover from lunch, could be added to the soup for supper. Keep it simple.

After garden work practice the sesshin participants returned to the temple to continue facing the wall in zazen. Milli volunteered to serve the soup for supper.

I got in my vehicle and drove to my favorite beach and sat with my back against a driftwood log. That is my favorite zazen, breath by breath like a cloud in the endless sky, like waves washing onto the shore.

Will I cook again for sesshin if our practice leader asks me to cook? Yes. I like to practice at my edge and let the cooking cook me. Looking at my own panic attack in the kitchen on the edge, practicing at my edge.

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Catherine Cascade

Sometimes it takes so long to find what I’m looking for, that I just give up and wait for it to find me. That’s what happened with the search for a piece of Buddhist art to acquire with the generous ordination gift from the sangha earmarked for that purpose.

I’m not much of a shopper, but I do love looking at art, so I gave it a very good go. Repeated forays into local galleries and the internet yielded nothing quite right, so I called San Francisco Zen Center (they have an extensive collection of Buddhist art) for guidance, but still found nothing that “spoke to me.” Finally I just put the whole matter on the back burner, let go and waited.

When I stopped by Bohemian Books, it was to chat with Marley Newborough and to check out the shelves of Buddhist and children’s books. But one day something else caught my eye, and I stopped in mid-sentence to ask, “Is that for sale?” It was a large black and white woodblock print—one of the finest images of Bodhidharma I’d ever seen. “Well, no, it’s not,” Marley replied. “It belongs to Rick (her partner) and he really loves it.” “Of course,” I said. “If it belonged to me, I wouldn’t part with it either.” I went on to explain my ordination gift search, adding that I was particularly looking for zen art and was planning to hang the piece in the living room of the sangha house where everyone could appreciate it. Marley took it all in and said she’d let Rick know of my interest.

The next time I came to Bohemian Books, Rick was there and together we admired the Bodhidharma on the wall. He didn’t really want to sell it, but said he’d keep the possibility on the back burner and let me know if he changed his mind.

To my great delight, in due time Rick’s meditative back burner cooked up a generous “yes!” and I was on my way to Arcata Framers. Now, with thanks to the sangha and a deep bow to Rick Gentry, Bodhidharma has come to Park Avenue, where he gazes out from the living room wall with the expression of fierce resolve for which he is famous. The image is strong and full of vitality, but what I find most inspiring is a certain flummoxed, almost humorous quality in the midst of the life-and-death seriousness of it all. “Geez! OK. That, too…”

For more on Bodhidharma, listen to Alan Senauke’s study group talk of August 15, 2005, the first in a series of six talks on the zen ancestors, or find the following titles in the AZG library:

      • Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History—India & China
      • Andy Ferguson, Zen’s Chinese Heritage
      • Thomas Cleary tr., Transmission of the Light

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