Notes From Sings-Alone

It had been a terribly cold winter for the Lakota in what we now call South Dakota. The migrating herds had not returned. The people were beginning to starve. Their tragedy was compounded because the people had forgotten what it meant to be human beings. They were not looking out for each other. They were not living by their own standards of generosity. The hunters were not sharing their kills with the widows and the elderly. For these reasons the animals had not returned…not even a rabbit or Coyote.

One chilly morning two young brothers grabbed their bows and arrows and slipped off into the early morning dark hoping to have success. The sun rose and the day’s first warmth wrapped around them, but they saw nothing. Toward noon they approached the crest of a hill, and getting down on their bellies they inched to the top looking over to see if there were any animals in the valley below. They saw nothing. Just as they were surrendering to another day of starvation, there was movement on the opposite side of the valley…a woman making her way down the hillside. She was wearing white buckskins and moved with unusual grace.

One of the brothers turned and said, “there is a woman without a man I am going take her.” His brother said, “you had better leave her alone because she might be wakan.” “Nonsense” said the brother, and with that he began to make his way down the hillside reaching the valley floor at the same time as the lone woman. She saw him and it was obvious what he had in mind. Strangely, she signaled him to approach her. You can imagine the young man’s surprise at such an invitation and he dashed toward the woman. They were enveloped in a mist and when it dissipated, the woman was standing there with a skeleton at her feet.

The other brother had seen it all, and he was terrified. Imagine the horror that gripped him when the woman signaled him to come down. Afraid to run and afraid to obey, he nevertheless approached the woman. She told him to go back to his camp and Chief Standing Hollow Horn, and tell him that she would be coming to the camp in four days. He was to bring all the people together for she had something for them.

The young man ran back to the village and breathlessly told the chief all that he had seen. The woman was obviously wakan, so the chief sent runners in all directions to bring in the people from the outlying camps. Soon they converged on the main camp where they erected a council Tipi, and rolled up the sides so that everyone could see and hear.

The woman entered the village as promised and walked directly into the Tipi. She sat down and all the chiefs and head men sat in council with her. Everyone else gathered around, pressing as close as possible so they would hear everything.

For several days she reminded them what it meant to be human beings. She gave them the ceremonies to do such as the sweat Lodge and vision quests. Then she said one last thing. The Grandfathers are very happy that you make your prayers with tobacco and a sacred fire. Now they wants you to use this, and she picked up a bundle handing it to the chief. He held it as she opened the bundle and lifted out a stone pipe. The grandfathers want you to use this as a sacred altar on which to burn the tobacco and make your prayers. Furthermore she told him to take this pipe to all the nations as a gift from the Grandfathers.

When she finished, she walked out of the council Tipi and onto the Prairie where she was enveloped in a mist. When the mist faded the people saw a young, white buffalo calf rolling in the dirt. Jumping to her feet she ran off across the horizon. Thus, the woman became known as the White Buffalo Calf Maiden, bringer of the sacred pipe.

That Chanupa Wakan became the central sacred ceremony for the people. It is used in conjunction with everything that we do. Powerful in itself, the Pipe adds power to sweat lodges, vision quests, Sundances, whatever the people are doing. To understand the Red Road you must know about the Chanupa Wakan (Sacred Pipe). Many tribes have and use a sacred pipe, but I come from a Lakota point of view because I was trained by a Lakota medicine man.

The Sacred Pipe came to the people 19 generations ago. 19 generations have passed since the first pipe was given to the people, and that original Pipe is in the care of Orval Looking Horse on the Cheyanne River Indian Reservation in North Dakota.

Now, we turn to technical information about the Chanupa Wakan.

The Pipe bowl is made of red pipe stone which the White Man calls Catlinite. It is dark red, and represents the blood of the people. It is found only at the Pipestone National Monuments in Pipestone, Minnesota. It can only be mined by Native Americans.

The Pipe stem is made of wood, generally sumac. On each stem you will find buckskin, and if it is a sacred pipe it will also be dressd with Eagle or Hawk feathers. There is a whole ceremony around smoking the pipe. Hopefully you will have the opportunity to experience the ceremony.

The bowl is mineral. The stem is wood. The buckskin and feathers are animal. So, you have animal, vegetable, and mineral. The stem is male and the bowl is female. Putting them together means that you have the whole world in your hands.

If the Pipe is being offered in a group, we prefer to have everyone sitting in a circle. The person offering the pipe will be sitting facing the sun down. Everyone else will be sitting in the circle leaving, however, a space between the person offering the pipe and the West.

For the Pipe ceremony, shoes are removed as an expression of respect. The person conducting the ceremony is called a Pipe Carrier. He or she holds a position of great honor among the people. The Pipe Carrier will have participated in many Pipe ceremonies and sweatlodges. It takes several years of careful preparation for this responsibility, because the Pipe Carrier must stand in for the Medicine person, and must learn how to conduct all the ceremonies in the Medicine person’s absence.

The Pipe is filled using a special sacred tobacco mix. The leader will express a few words about the purpose of the ceremony. The first smoke of the Pipe is offered to the Grandfathers in all the direction, and then passed to everyone who is participating. The Pipe goes from right to left, clockwise, around the circle. The bowl is held in the left hand (heart hand). It is customary to take several puffs from the pipe, but if one is not able for whatever reason to actually smoke the Pipe, he or she should touch it to the lips four times and pass it on.

The Pipe is used in several ways:

For private meditation and prayer.

For seeking guidance or help with a problem.

In the Pipe Round (third round) of the sweatlodge, if a Medicine person is present, one may ask for help in understanding a dream, guidance about problems, healing from an illness of self or another.

We always warn folk, don’t ask a question if you aren’t ready to take responsibility for what you are given. Don’t ask for guidance and then reject it. Always be careful what you ask for, because you may get it.

I think this is enough for this lesson. I am sure there will be more later about the Pipe, but ask any question you like in the “comment” box under the blog.

Mitakuye Oyas’in,

Sings-Alone

Immediately following this blog is an essay written by our Roshi, Paul Genki Kahn. He presents us with a very thoughtful and scholarly teaching about the way Zen Garland and historical Zen teachers have viewed manifestations from the Spirit world. This is one of those areas in which traditional native spiritual teachers differ from the teaching of our Zen ancestors.

We usually do not go to sweat Lodge or other ceremonies in order to contact Spirits or Grandfathers. We go for purification, healing, and to be brought back into balance with the Creation. However, when they come to us we welcome them and consider it an honor to be in their presence. We call them into the ceremony and accept the fact that they have come. Occasionally someone will be selected by the Spirits to be a medicine teacher/healer. This person will be expected to communicate with the spirits whenever it is important to answer questions or provide healing for an individual or the community. It is a high honor to bear this responsibility.

I think one of the differences between Zen and our Red Road is that we see reality made up of many dimensions. The Grandfathers and the Teachers live in those other dimensions but some of them are quite ready to be of service to us as personal guides and teachers. This is especially true for those individuals who were selected by them and prepared by them to act as mediators.

Ours is a Mitakuye Oyas’in religion. Mitakuye Oyas’in means, “All my relations.” Because we are all related we have the possibility of deep one-to-one contact. Essentially, we are one. In Sweat Lodge we hear the stones sing and we receive teachings from them. In my workshops I send the participants into the woods to experiment relating with trees and bushes and animals. Sometimes they return wide eyed from the experience. These things happen and they bear witness to a oneness. We are Mitakuye Oyas’in. We are one.

But this is not the same as the Zen concept of true reality which exists beyond the dimensions of our phenomenal world. Read our Roshi’s comments very carefully. Buddhism teaches that all our dimensions of reality are real, true, and to be appreciated. And Buddhism teaches that all our dimensions are delusions, unreal and enlightenment involves moving beyond this world of phenomena into the realm of pure essence for which we have no clear words of description. Both statements are true.

When I went on the Hill, Vision Questing, and the Grandfathers came to talk with me, this was an incredible honor and they bestowed on me an incredible responsibility. When the Grandfathers come into ceremony we consider it a blessing and an honor. I think Roshi Genki would agree that it is an honor, but it is something that we acknowledge, and then get back to zazen, opening our hearts to an illumination beyond the common dimensions of reality.

Having said all of that, the idea that the Buddhas and bodhisattvas are chanting the Sutras with us pleases the heck out of me.

Mitakuye Oyas’in,

Sings-Alone

By Roshi Paul Genki Kahn

As I understand, during the chanting of the Heart Sutra in Red Path Zen Sangha, several participants heard “extra voices” joining in. There is much to examine here and much to understand. Zen has a certain way of dealing with these things. This may differ from other traditions. Zen Garland allows us to share the nature of enlightenment while having some different practices and approaches, unified in our shared understanding and commitment to Zen enlightenment.

Our ordinary notions of Time and Space are very limited, and erroneous. When we sit zazen or chant sacred texts, all great Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, all spiritual masters sit and chant with us. This is not a metaphor or a romantic notion. There are special devotees of certain mantras and sutras on various planes of existence chanting so always; and we can sometimes find ourselves in those sanghas.

We all look for Ego affirmation, and appearances, strange powers, voices make us feel that “something important is happening.” The problem is that this affirms small self, my adventures, my progress, me, me, me. One very high perspective while chanting is to hear no voices at all.

Zen priests have long histories of removing demons and demonic presences from people, areas and villages in China and Japan by preaching to the demons and giving them the Precepts. Buddhist priests have pandered amulets and done rites of protection, rites to bring rain and good harvests. They have practiced various forms of healing, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, spells and incantations.

Zen Masters are familiar with all the usual mystical events and powers. The path has so many byways and wonderful tours and vistas, folks wander all over entranced. We go with Mr. Natural: “Keep on Truckin’.” When mystical events occur or supernatural powers present themselves, the Zen way is to let it flow through, not make much of it, and keep centered on the unitive focus of practice-enlightenment in this very moment as it flows. We consider walking, talking, listening, speaking the miraculous actions of Buddhas.

Our job in Zen is to end separation, duality, to find Big Self and maturethat Self in the Practice of Presence. Then there’s nothing special, and everything is special. All views, revelations, visions, states of consciousness, spiritual experiences short of enlightenment are considered delusions in Zen. They are called MAKYO or hallucinations. This does not mean that they are not phenomenological experience, and real in that sense, but the problem is that that they are partial and can reinforce ego and separation. I am appending below Yasutani Roshi’s comments on Makyo. We do not deny mystical experiences and powers, are present to them when they occur, and move on without clinging.

 When Eihei Dogen was dedicating a new temple in Japan, flowers fell from the sky. 117 people signed a document swearing that they witnessed this event. This document from around 1244 still exists. Yet Dogen never spoke of it to his students or mentioned it in his writings. Most spiritual masters will not even speak of their own awakening experiences. This is for three main reasons: the experience is a memory and distraction from being in Presence, which is Enlightenment; secondly, Buddhas do not have to know they are Buddhas (Genjo Koan); thirdly, each person’s experience is personal and different, and hearing someone else’s can confuse us and distract our attention from our own practice.

Huang Po (Obaku), one of the greatest Chinese Zen masters, a Buddha, and teacher of Rinzai, was once on pilgrimage to Mt. Tiantai, when he met another monk. They talked and laughed just as though they were old friends. Their eyes gleamed with delight as they then set off traveling together. Coming to the fast rapids of a stream, the other monk walked across the top of the water, just as though it were dry land. The monk turned to Huang Po and said, “Come across, come across.” Huang Po yelled back, “Ah, you self-saving fellow. If I had known this before, I would have chopped off your legs.” The monk cried out, “You are truly a vessel for the Mahayana. I can’t compare with you.” And so saying, the monk vanished. (Zen’s Chinese Heritage, Ferguson, p. 133)

Uchiyama Roshi became a monk on the outbreak of W.W.II. He and his fellow practitioners were nearly starving to death. He loved becoming Head Cook so he could take some extra food for himself. Then he read the following story about Wuzhao, which he tells in his commentary on Eihei Dogen’s “Tenzo Kyokun,” “Instructions to the Head Cook.”

“One day Wuzhao was working as the tenzo in a monastery in the Wutai mountains , when the Bodhisattva Manjushri (The Supreme Incarnation ofWisdom) suddenly appeared above the pot where he was cooking. Wuzhao beat Monjusri with his cooking ladle and drove him away. Later he said, ‘Even if Shakyamuni were to appear above the pot, I would beat him too.’” This really taught Uchiyama Roshi the spirit of being a cook, and the spirit of Zen practice-enlightenment, how to apply zazen to practice-enlightenment in each and every moment.

At Zen Garland in the fourth part of our Morning Service, we chant “The Beneficent Chant for Protection from Harm,” during which the officiating priest does special mudras and visualizations to invoke help from Dharma Guardians. In the dedication, however, we recall that we ourselves should become Protectors and Caretakers of Creation.

I hope this clarifies how we practice in Zen, and a bit of why we do as we do.

Blessings,
Roshi Genki