Living Here Intentionally

Written for Kannon Do Zen Meditation Newsletter 2015.  

Silicon Valley is our home—and it is also our state of mind.  Idealistic, capitalistic, and fundamentally utopian by nature, we gather here to find like-minded people, excite our intellects, and stack our ideas pursuing dreams of personal success and human progress.

We spend much of our time in the reflection of these dreams, living dynamic lives that stimulate and inspire.  And why not feel inspired, even lucky?  We live under remarkably fortunate conditions—our lives are compelling, we drive the greatest economy on earth, and the rest of the world aspires to be just like us.  We are arguably more comfortable than at any time in human history.

Yet even with such extraordinary fortune, some of us lose our bearings in our daily lives or feel that something is missing.  We begin to lack energy or focus, treat others less kindly, or have trouble sleeping.  We find ourselves becoming more interested in topics like “mindfulness” or considering ways to better address matters of the spirit.

These are the conditions that bring us to Kannon Do, and those of us who come find an open and welcoming place.  We soon discover that Kannon Do provides us a unique environment for introspection, community involvement, and the exploration of relationships, interests, and spirituality.

Unlike the popular view that Zen is an effortless, go-with-the-flow endeavor, it is not an “easy” path.  The practice itself takes effort.  Still as we become more fully engaged, the practice does become more effortless and second nature.  You brush your teeth, you kiss your loved ones, and you sit “zazen”.  And the more we practice, the more we are challenged, clarified, and comforted.

In contrast with the way that most of us feed our Silicon Valley dreams with adrenaline soaked activity, our Zen practice is a unique mix of quiet self-exploration coupled with a more genuine expression of ourselves within our families, communities, and world at large. 

Kannon Do offers the silence that helps us distill the many bits of our lives, allowing these fragments to assemble and present themselves in fuller relief to both ourselves and others.  The process is intentional, organic, and dependent on both our meditative practice and our shared experience.  And this combination of inner awareness and external expression provides the grounding needed to live the more authentic and worthwhile lives that many of us so deeply desire.

Bringing Life to Each Moment: A Zen Priest Interview

Written for Kannon Do Zen Meditation Newsletter 2015.  

Om Devi is a Zen priest, ordained by Les Kaye in July of 2000. She moved from the Bay Area to Casco, Maine in 2002, where she lives with her husband, Eric Dibner and their two cats.  This article is a compilation of two extended discussions that we had during the second half of August, 2015.

Dan.   Om Devi, good to speak with you.  How’s the summer going for you in Maine? 

Om Devi.  Well, I’m sitting with our cats in the back of our house, and I’m overlooking field and forest.  And the apples in the orchards are just beginning to ripen.

Dan. Sounds nice.  Would you tell me a bit about yourself and your experience with Zen and Kannon Do?

Om Devi. I found my way to Kannon Do in 1987, but I’d kind of meditated from an early age. I grew up on a farm and dreamt of being a dancer, but I contracted polio so I spent a lot of time roaming the farm, sitting quietly and watching nature.  I had a wonderful teacher in sixth grade, she was well traveled and thought more broadly about the world.  I remember writing a poem in that class about “the beauty of snow on branches”.  Oh, and my cousin is the one that wound up doing the dancing in New York City!

I did some Zen meditation at college, Rochester Institute of Technology, where I graduated as an art major in 1971 and then I mediated at the early Rochester Zen Center. It was at a time when American Zen seemed to me to be almost all men and very disciplined. I felt a bit insecure when I came in with leg brace and crutches, but I wondered how to negotiate the zendo without the brace. I then studied yoga with a master in the Bay Area from 1976 through 1980 , and have practiced Buddhist meditation since. But it wasn’t until 1987, when I did a one day sesshin and had dokusan with Les Kaye, that I felt that I had finally met my teacher.

Dan.  So you’ve done most of your formal Zen practice with Kannon Do?

Om Devi. Yes. Although I’ve lived in different places and sat in other zendos with other people and groups including those of Trungpa Rinpoche, Seung Sahn, Richard Baker, and Joan Halifax, I’ve taken my precepts (Boddhisatva vows), been ordained, participated in practice period at Green Gulch Farm in 2001 and served as Susho (Head Monk) at Kannon Do in 2008.

Dan. How does living in Maine affect your practice?

Om Devi.  Unlike the flow of people that you have in Mountain View, the rural setting reduces the number of people who can practice together.  And practicing alone is harder. I’ve started a group in the area and have people come to my home to sit, but it can be hard to encourage people to practice when they must drive 30 minutes over bad roads to sit zazen.

But this situation does force me look at my attachment to practicing with others.  Actually, we are not alone when we are sitting because as we sit there are others around the world who are sitting as well.

Dan. Are there other challenges for you now?

Om Devi. Any person with a disability has to face the activities of daily living in a very different way.  Cleaning, dressing, everything takes a long time.  Pain, too, can tire me out because my body then wants to rest and sleep is often interrupted by pain. And then winter in general makes it harder to get anywhere. Ice on driveways makes it very tough to operate a wheelchair and driving in snow is also difficult let alone maneuvering out of the van once I reach a destination.  

Dan. So when do you have time to practice? 

Om Devi.  Oh, I practice all the time. For instance, when I wash the dishes I try to make my awareness available. That is the point.  We are not separate from the Zendo.  Dogen said practice is enlightenment and enlightenment is practice. It’s important how we focus on each day. 

For me, my body is a lifelong Koan.  When my body doesn’t work or my wheelchair messes up, I get a little closer to anger flashpoints. The anger is not a problem, the point of practice is to just see the anger before it rises. We don’t want to suppress, we want to observe.  Take a breath and return to the moment. In the process of observing and returning to our moment and breath, the problem gets smaller over time and starts to go away.  More importantly the awareness changes our perspective of the problem.

Dan. What encouragement would you give to someone new to Zen?

Om Devi. Be patient. Don’t have expectations. Don’t bother the thoughts.  Don’t invite them in for tea.  The brain’s function is to make thoughts, so just return to the breath. Don’t count on an outcome.  It’s just this moment that is the reward.  

Dan. What encouragement would you give to someone who has done zen for many years?

Om Devi. Beginner’s mind. Keep going at it. Don’t give up. You never really can leave zen practice anyway.  It is part of you, you can’t leave it. I also think that a teacher is important, because we can become lopsided in our practice. We may not be able to know what to do with some things that arise.  It’s just helpful for encouragement too. And I’ve always felt that Kannon Do makes no discrimination between body and ability. It is a welcoming place.

And, finally, I’d like to offer the same question to others that my teacher would ask of me, “What is the appropriate response at each moment”?