Fri, 31 Jul 2009
Requiem for a Zen Center
I popped by the web site of the Burning House Zendo and was sorry to see that they're closing their center on Harford Road and looking for a new place to practice. The same thing happened to the Gampopa Center back in May. Not only that, Lama Phurbu Tashi lost his home. It's only becuase of the kindness of a sangha member that he's not living out of a dumpster. The Burning House Zendo is affiliated with Eido Shimano Roshi and his students, meaning that it's traditional Rinzai Zen. I'm a traditionalist too. (Hey! That's one thing the Karmapa and I have in common!) If you don't know Rinzai Zen, that's the school where the meditation practice is concentrating on koans. (That's where you concentrate on an unanswerable question like, "How do you find a place to park in Fells Point on a Saturday Night?") until you come to some understanding: ("There's no coming or going, especially at rush hour.") Anyway, Baltimore is a pretty conservative town and not fertile soil for the dharma, as I've sadly noted over the last thirty years. Zen, especially, has had a hard time establishing itself here in Baltimore. Both Buddhism and the Occult have a low level presence in Baltimore. I could tell some stories from thirty years around the scene, but that will have to wait for my memoirs, which will have to wait until I become famous and someone wants to read them. I have never set foot in the Burning House Zendo, which is hust as well, as Pete told me that they are posture nazis. Which I suppose goes along with the traditionalism.
Here's a story that illustrates why I no longer post at E-Sangha. Alex tells how a simple question he raised about some mantra totals was shut down for not being sufficiently respectful or some such reason.
