Kneeling on the Commonweal stage in his voluminous robes, giant horse-tail hair paintbrush in hand, Zen Priest Shodo Harada Roshi swished down the page with black ink. His gravelly, Samuri-like voice rang out like a bell: Fu Ni Myo Do! More Japanese words, and then fellow monk, the wise Chi san, translated for us, “This is the mysterious path of not-two.”
The dance continued for an hour: the Roshi painting and speaking, Chi san translating, and a parade of assistants presenting the floating papers to the audience, then walking them down the aisle to hang in the back of the room. Roshi and his group were, indeed, moving as one mind, and inviting all of us—almost 100 at The New School event that autumnal morning in September—into the circle with them. Potent phrases filled the air in Japanese and English:
…Though the moon goes down, it never separates from the sky… …Every day is a good day… …Serene mind is not moved around… …Sitting in the moon water do jo….
We were in the presence of a master. Shodo Harada Rōshi is a Rinzai priest, author, and head abbot of Sōgen-ji—a 300-year-old temple in Okayama, Japan. He has become known as a “teacher of teachers.” Shodo Harada was born into a Zen temple in 1940 in Nara, Japan; while still in high school he encountered his teacher, Rinzai master and Japanese calligrapher Mumon Yamada. After college he began his training in 1962 under Yamada.
In September 1989, Harada came to the United States to provide instruction for students and in 1995 founded One Drop Zendo (or Tahoma One Drop Zen Monastery) on Whidbey Island near Seattle, Washington, where the practice mirrors the practices found at Sogen-ji. He founded Enso House, a Zen hospice, in 2001.
In Commonweal Gallery, after the calligraphy demonstration ended, the stage was re-configured and a conversation with Michael Lerner began. Michael asked, “Roshi, what is death?” And the conversation meandered from there to the condition of fear, the preciousness of life, the Roshi’s view on the true nature of being, supportive ways to sit with the dying, and the Roshi’s many projects, including the Tahoma Zen Monastery and Enso House. The words and calligraphy were beautiful, but more precious was what happened in the room, within each one of us, as we were invited to become part of the circle. Another fine moment at The New School at Commonweal.
—Kyra Epstein
Listen to The New School podcast of the conversation on their website.
