FROM DRAGON FLOWER MOUNTAIN

Dear Friends,

We have just passed through the darkest time of the turning year, the Winter Solstice and the longest night. Many religions and peoples have placed a Festival of Light at this place as a strong marker of the turning year and as a reminder of the faith and effort needed to "turn darkness into light". For our own will and effort are indeed required to "turn around and look up" to see the small point of brightness in the dark – so small a brightness that at times we have been unsure if we were actually seeing it.

Faith at its minimum definition is, to me, a belief that there is something greater than oneself, something more than what we see, greater than ordinary mind. And, as a result, a way of living in which the "unreality" is seen and exposed by orienting ourselves to the Real – that takes into account that we did not begin our journey with our birth nor will we end it with our death - a life that has enduring meaning and that does not simply end in meaninglessness. The greatest joy and satisfaction in my life has come from "taking the road less traveled" which for me was in choosing to become a monk.

In the middle of this dark time of the year it is traditional for Zen monks, such as myself, to "sit with Shakyamuni" to hold seven days of enclosed meditation ending with the celebration of the Enlightenment.  Thanks to the continued support of the members and friends of Lions Gate Priory and the Edmonton meditation group over many years, our monks, your monks, have been able to do this for the first time on Dragon Flower Mountain and we are deeply grateful to you all.

The benefits of this ongoing support have effects that go far beyond the monastic community. The one hundred and sixty acres of Dragon Flower Mountain serve as an animal sanctuary where medicinal, flowering and food plants are protected and all beings can find spiritual refreshment just from being up on the land. Because of this support we are also able to provide a place of retreat and refuge for monks and laity of the wider Order as well as Canadian members and to train monks so that there will be Teachers of the Dharma for future generations.

Our community here has grown in entirely unexpected ways over the last year and now consists of two Seniors: Reverend Master Aurelian and myself, and two Novices, Rev. Valeria and Rev. Brian.

We look forward to a peaceful New Year 2012 and wish the same for all of you.

With all good wishes and in gasshō,

Kōten

ARTICLE

a story of faith

Rev. Master Kōten

This article is reprinted from The Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives, Summer 1989.

            During the last World War a Chinese woman decided to make a pilgrimage to P’u-t’o Shan, the most important shrine to Kuan-yin[1] in the whole of China.  Her mother had been greatly devoted to Kuan-yin and she learned from early childhood to call upon the great Compassionate One in time of trouble.  Now she was going to make the “journey of her life” to the very house of the Holy One.  So, leaving her husband and children at home and in the company of several other pious women, she set out for P’u-t’o Shan. 

            Along the way the women would stop at each temple to pay their respects and to pray for a good and fruitful journey.

            Upon arrival at P’u-t’o Shan the women separated to make their private devotions at the various temples.

            This woman went to a small side shrine to pray undisturbed.  She lit incense and began her devotions.  Suddenly, there was a noise in the outer court and a group of Japanese soldiers stumbled into the room.  They were drunk.  They came towards her.  With a cry to Kuan-yin for aid she tried to run but was unsuccessful.  The soldiers raped her and then left.  She picked herself up slowly and, when she was able, went out to find the other women.  She did not tell anyone of what had happened and returned home.  She died many years later, her last thoughts of what had happened in that temple.  All the while it was going on she saw the face of the Kuan-yin statue looking down.  The scripture was wrong, Kuan-yin did not come to save her.  She had believed, yet in that moment there was no “great holy power” – only her, the soldiers and the pain.  She died in doubt and confusion, leaving an impurity that was passed down to this collection of karma I call “me”. 

            In the process of converting this karma my understanding of faith has changed.  This woman did not see that her prayer to Kuan-yin was indeed answered but not in the way she expected.  She did not know that what happened to her was the result of past karma – she could have accepted it on that basis but she did not. 

            Sometimes Infinite Compassion means allowing karma to work itself out.  Sometimes we need to know what pain is like before we stop inflicting it on others.  It is not the fault or the problem of Infinite Compassion that beings do not learn but become angry or go into despair. 

            At all times Kuan-yin tells us to look up, as the statue did to that woman.  Indeed that is one of the purposes of a Kuan-yin statue – to tell us to look up.  “I am sick.”  Look up! “I am alone.”  Look up!  “I am weary of life.”  Look up!  “I am in great pain.”  Look up!  Look up! 

            The beginning of the religious life for me was the belief “There must be something” and the refusal to believe that there was nothing, no meaning to life.  Looking up is as this.  There is an Unborn, Uncreated, Unformed, Undying, Indestructible but I would never have known it if I had not looked up. 

            Looking up has for me also meant forgetting my judgement of myself when I do so. 

            Looking up must be pure.  We must never be so ashamed that we do not raise our eyes, for no matter what we have done or what has been done to us that Kesa of Gold Brocade embraces us all in its exquisite folds and nothing is outside of it. 

            Therefore, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.  Who is this King of glory?  The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.” [2]