By ANGIE PARRISH

FCM Executive Director 

Fred and I recently returned from a wonderful week of practice and connection with both the Zen Center of Oregon (ZCO) and the Oregon Community of Mindful Living. 

In this article, I’ll share about our experience with ZCO, with a follow up article about the Community of Mindful Living.

Heart of Wisdom Zen Buddhist Temple in Portland, OR

By way of background, several years ago Fred reconnected with Roshi Hogen Bays, a Dharma brother from the early 1970s at the Rochester Zen Center (RZC).

Both left RZC as young men in their 20s, and although each followed his own spiritual and personal path, their lives today are similar in that both Fred and Roshi Hogen have founded and now lead Buddhist communities. Seeing the benefit to both communities of sharing teachings and experience, each enthusiastically invited the other to visit and teach at his Dharma center. 

 

As a result, Roshi Hogen visited the Florida Community of Mindfulness (FCM) in March for a week of talks, a weekend retreat, and informal get-togethers with various members of our community. Those of us who had the opportunity to hear and interact with Roshi Hogen were touched by his teachings and his generosity in sharing his years of experience in creating the Zen Center of Oregon, which includes both an urban Heart of Wisdom Zen Buddhist Temple in Portland and the Great Vow Zen Monastery in rural Clatskanie.

In turn, Fred and I were invited to visit the Zen Center of Oregon (ZCO) this month, where Fred shared his Dharma wisdom in many creative ways and we had a very rich exchange of experience with Roshi Hogen and his community.

 

Visit to ZCO’s Urban Heart of Wisdom Temple

We began our visit at ZCO’s Heart of Wisdom Temple in Portland, where we participated in meditation followed by Fred offering aDharma talk to ZCO’s lay community. As with FCM, there was a mix of ages and experience, and the audience engaged with Fred around several topics related to the Seven Points of Mind Training.

At the annual meeting held by ZCO’s Board of Directors and membership, we enjoyed hearing about their programs, community and plans, both for Heart of Wisdom Temple and Great Vow Monastery. 

 

While ZCO follows many traditional Japanese forms in terms of meditation and chanting, we learned that their programs are very similar to FCM’s in many respects. For example, they place strong emphasis on the Buddhist precepts, setting aspirations, developing concentration, practicing the Four Immeasurables, mindful eating, and more.

And, similar to FCM, their community is nurtured and supported largely by selfless service from many warm and dedicated lay individuals.

 

Visit to Great Vow Monastery

After several days in Portland we traveled to Great Vow Zen Monastery, ZCO’s residential community of lay and ordained people engaged full time in Buddhist practice. The practice heritage of the monastery is the Soto/Rinzai lineage of Taizan Maezumi, Roshi. 

 

Great Vow offers residencies, retreats, and workshops that are open and available to everyone. The monastery was created 20

years ago through the purchase and conversion of a discontinued public elementary school, and is located 80 miles northwest of Portland on twenty forested acres overlooking the Columbia River flood plain.

It includes a large meditation hall, guest and resident dormitories, dining hall, and a large organic vegetable garden. Within the forest is Great Vow's famous Jizo Garden, a memorial garden for people who have died, and the newly dedicated Shrine of Vows, a place where people leave tokens of their deep aspirations.

 

Roshi Hogen and his wife, Roshi Jan Chozen Bays, are the spiritual directors and head teachers of the monastery with teaching assistance from other ZCO teachers, both lay and ordained. Roshi Chozen is a physician and has written a number of highly regarded books on various aspects of mindfulness and Buddhism, including two books that we have used for FCM classes and practices: Mindful Eating, and The Vow-Powered Life. 

 

During our stay at Great Vow, we were able to fold into the daily practice and routine of the ZCO residential community. There are currently 13 women and men in residence – mostly in their 20s and 30s – with a daily schedule of silent meditation (“zazen”), chanting, Buddhist study, work practice and community living. The experience of this group ranges from lay members who are exploring this path to fully ordained Zen priests. 

 

Great Vow conducts at least one seven- to ten-day retreat (“sesshin”) per month in the monastery’s formal Zen tradition. When not in sesshin, each day typically begins with wake-up bells at 4:50 am, followed by zazen, chanting, temple cleaning and breakfast, which is often in the Oryoki tradition. Many of you may be unaware of what Oryoki means. Often translated as “just the right amount,” Oryoki is a highly choreographed ritual of serving and eating food. It was certainly a new experience for me, and despite a few “I love Lucy” moments, with the help of the residents I participated in and enjoyed this ritual, which also is a very efficient way and non-wasteful way of feeding a large group of people. 

 

Work periods and short chanting services continue throughout the day, with zazen and chanting closing the day. We also were treated to a lovely soft chant by the residents when they performed “lights out and closing rounds” each evening at 10 pm. 

 

During our time with Roshi Hogen, Roshi Chozen and the residents, Fred and I had a number of very interesting and meaningful exchanges about the development of Buddhism in America. Over the past five or so years, Great Vow has invited teachers in other traditions to lead retreats on topics such as Dzogchen and Mahamudra. As well, more secular teachers such as Byron Katie have conducted workshops and retreats on topics that are often related to emotional healing. 

 

The group was very interested in the three-path developmental model that Fred has created for FCM, and there was a rich discussion around the inclusion of teachings from different lineages and traditions within one community.

 

Our stay at Great Vow was both very simple and powerful for me. With no outside distractions and such a strong container for practice, one can appreciate the capacity for deepening that is offered by monastic living. And, being a practitioner who lives in the wider world of beings, I am very happy to bring the fruits of this experience back to our lovely lay community at FCM.