Seung Sahn

Bobbie Rhodes – Zen Master Soeng Hyang – told me this story about the Korean teacher, Seung Sahn:

“This time we were driving from Boston to Providence, and it was in the evening, in the summer, and a bug hit the windshield. I was driving, and he was sitting in the passenger seat. And the bug looked like it was still alive. But I knew, by the impact, that it must have died. But it was moving from the wind, and he thought it was alive. I said, ‘No, I think it’s dead, Soen Sa Nim.’ He said, ‘No, I think it might be living.’ I said, ‘No, I think it’s dead.’ And he goes, ‘Pull over!’ He almost screamed with so much urgency. ‘Pull over!’ So I pulled over on 95, a major highway, and got out of the car. I lifted the bug off the windshield and showed it to him. It had died. But it was amazing how much he cared about that bug. That was his heart—you know—that was the kind of heart he had. Not to harm. That’s what he always taught. Try to help. Try to relieve suffering.”

Cypress Trees in the Garden: 16, 160, 161-63, 168, 173, 196, 197, 201, 213, 219, 221, 317, 423-37

The Story of Zen: 307

Richard Baker

Richard Baker was Shunryu Suzuki’s only direct American heir. He guided the San Francisco Zen Center through an expansion that was extraordinary. But then a combination of factors resulted in his dismissal from the center by the board of directors. Jan Chozen Bays remembers that after he left San Francisco, he stopped in Los Angeles.

“Right before everything fell apart, Baker Roshi came to ZCLA. And Maezumi Roshi and Genpo and Tetsugen and all the guys happened to be gone, and it was just us girls running the Zen Center. And I remember sitting down with him, with a couple of other women, and we had this very down to earth conversation in which he said the most interesting thing. Talking about the empire he had built and that we had built, he said something like, ‘You know, everything is impermanent, and it may all come crashing down one day.’ Well, in retrospect, he had left the San Francisco Zen Center and everything was coming crashing down. We didn’t know that, but he said it with such poignancy and emotional depth that I realized, ‘Something’s wrong here. He’s not happy.’”

Cypress Trees in the Garden: 16, 25-27, 31, 32, 33, 35, 59, 149, 242, 276, 277, 279, 410

The Story of Zen: 266-69, 271, 277, 301, 306-07, 309, 312-20, 345, 346, 351-53

Dainin Katagiri

Jack Kornfield tells this story: “Zen teacher Dainin Katagiri Roshi . . . lived with his family in Minneapolis at the center of a large Zen community. When he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, many students came to help, but they also were frightened and confused at the thought that their teacher was subject to ordinary human frailty. One day he called the students to his bedside. ‘I see you are watching me closely. You want to see how a Zen master dies. I’ll show you.’ He kicked his legs and flailed his arms with alarm, crying out, ‘I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!’ Then he stopped and looked up at them. ‘I don’t know how I will die. Maybe I will die in fear or in pain. Remember, there is no right way.’”

[Dainin Katagiri portrait by Molly Macnaughton]

 The Third Step East: 215-30; 136, 212

The Story of Zen: 275-80, 319, 352, 413, 414

Philip Kapleau

During an introductory workshop at Philip Kapleau’s Rochester Zen Center, one of the attendees stated with confidence, “All religions are one.”

“One what?” Kapleau inquired.

[Philip Kapleau portrait by Molly Macnaughton]

The Third Step East: 199-214; 9, 36, 39, 103, 117, 154-55, 158, 159, 161, 185, 224, 244

The Story of Zen: 6, 21, 92, 225, 244, 254, 292, 296-301, 302, 313, 314-17, 355, 359, 386, 424, 429, 431, 435

Walter Nowick

After serving in the US army during the occupation of Japan, Walter Nowick returned to take up the study of Zen at one of the most severe monasteries in the country, Daitokuji. When, years later, Sean Murphy asked if he had not found the conditions there daunting, Nowick told him: “If you want to play the piano in a certain style . . . you find the person who teaches that style best and do what they say. If you want to do something else, you do something else. But if you want to learn what they have to teach, you follow their directions.”

The Third Step East: 183-97; 9, 73, 84, 217, 229, 230]

The Story of Zen: 239, 247, 290-95, 355, 371

Taizan Maezumi

While reading the Buddha's biography, one of Taizan Maezumi’s female students learned that for a long while the Buddha had resisted allowing women to join the sangha. Finally, pressured by his attendant, Ananda, he conceded and permitted them to do so. “But,” he prophesied, “as a result, the Dharma will last 500 years less on this earth than it would have otherwise.”

The student was shaken by the story and asked Maezumi his opinion. He remained silent for a moment, then remarked, “It was worth it.”

[Taizan Maezumi portrait by Molly Macnaughton]

The Third Step East: 165-82; 9, 119, 161, 220, 231, 232

The Story of Zen: 5, 78, 269-76, 284, 286, 302, 304, 307-08, 309, 320-23, 336, 337, 343-49, 350, 353, 354, 356, 363, 414, 424

Eido Tai Shimano

Tai Shimano told his students that his introduction to Buddhism occurred while he was still a schoolboy in Japan during the war. A teacher copied out the words of the Heart Sutra on the blackboard and taught the students to recite them. It was enough to stir his interest. After the war, Shimano entered Empukuji in Chichibu, where his family had moved to escape the bombing raids on Tokyo. The teacher there was Kengan Goto, from whom Shimano received his Buddhist name, Eido; it was derived from the first syllable of the names of the two monks who brought Rinzai and Soto Zen to Japan— Eisai and Dogen.

The Third Step East: 155-61; 55, 56, 115, 117, 118, 119, 147, 152, 153, 181, 212, 230

The Story of Zen: 5, 6-7, 233, 240, 242-44, 283-84, 286, 299, 301, 306-07, 311-13, 330-35, 338, 350, 367, 371, 397