Scene 1: Zen in America is now live on a zoom channel near you. It is go-time and our host is carefully admitting students to the online monastery. Practice periods used to be face to face events, 90 days, sitting, working, eating gruel. Colored rocks tumbled to smooth jewels in muddy water. It takes time to appreciate the dharma through living in community.
The pandemic changed everything. There are hundreds online. Boom time for teachers talking dharma. We who in the future shall become Buddhas and ancestors are waiting, online. Phase 1. Live from a major Covid epicenter. It is dusk and night is coming. We the ancestors hear sirens in the background. Our teacher is talking of Covid and compassion. More sirens. The ancestors, on hearing the sirens, understand these are sirens of blackness, “the entire earth is utterly black.”* The path is difficult to see because our zoom boom teacher has neglected to mention happenings outside his door.
What is neglected? The ancestors hear sirens in the background and understand. A short distance away from the zoom room NYPD sirens scream toward crowds of Black Lives Matter protestors. Sure, compassion. Tonight, we, like the nation, have blackness on our mind. Please, talk with us of our ignorance about blackness. We need this. Even a brief acknowledgement that the city is on fire. Thank you.
This is a first entry in a series of posts about race and dharma.
*Daiichi koku manman means the entire earth is utterly black and is from a document known as Zenrin Kushu. Koan students might be familiar with this. The zenrin kushu is scholar/monk Ijushi’s compilation based on previous work by Toyo Eicho (1428-1504). See Zen Sand by Victor Sogen Hori. The phrase, the entire earth is utterly black is suggestive of ignorance that blocks the path. I have used the phrase here to doubly signify ignorance and the urgency of addressing our collective ignorance of blackness.
The photo: Protesters take over the roadway of the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn New York City during a protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd on Sunday, May 31, 2020. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)