Fall 2024 Ango Entering Ceremony
Photo by Alexander Mils
Since the time of the Buddha, the sangha has gathered once or twice a year to practice more intensely. During the Buddha’s life, this happened during the monsoon season, when the increasing rains prevented the monks from traveling through the countryside. In Zen, these practice periods are called ango or “peaceful dwelling.” In this talk, Ocean Mind Sangha’s Guiding Teacher Zuisei Goddard speaks to the importance of ango and the role of the shuso or chief disciple, touching on themes of empowerment, self worth, and trust in ourselves and our practice.
This talk was given by Zuisei Goddard. See below for transcript.
Transcript
This transcript is based on Zuisei's talk notes and may differ slightly from the final talk.
Good evening. Welcome to our Fall 2024 Ango Entering Ceremony. As you know, ango means “peaceful dwelling” and that, above everything else, is what these thirty days of practice are all about: creating a place of peace inside us and around us. They’re about creating a buddha field so that when we’re with ourselves or when others are with us, what they experience is calm, is peace, is clarity and a general contentment with ourselves and the world that comes directly from our understanding of ourselves and that world—that comes, not in spite of war and strife and all the harm we’re capable of, but with it. This peace exists alongside the conflict and division, the pain and confusion, you see, and is not overtaken by it.
So, to pay attention, as we will be doing these thirty days, to meticulously pay attention to every aspect of life, means to turn toward what is happening, to be with it, to understand it, and to self liberate it. To free it from the idea of self. This is how peace, lasting peace, is created. And this is very good news, because it means that we don’t wait for our lives to be quiet and peaceful. We can find peace and quiet within our lives exactly as they are.
This means peaceful dwelling is always possible, whether it’s for the space of a breath, or a day. And building on that small space, we create a life of peace. We create peaceful dwelling.
ANGO OPENING CEREMONY
We’ll begin by offering incense at our altars, and formulating in our minds our intent, our aspiration for this month of practice. Take a moment to reflect on this. What do you want for yourself during these thirty days? What is your direction, your commitment, your vow?
As you offer incense, you’ll say that vow, silently or aloud, and my suggestion to you is that you renew it each day. That you keep it alive and at the forefront of your mind. Because then, no matter what your practice looks like, whether you think it’s a little or a lot, it will be fueled by this solemn promise, by this desire to be more free than you were yesterday, last week, last year.
Next, we’ll do three seated bows to one another as an expression of the Three Treasures: the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha in each of us. We bow to the Buddha, the example of Shakyamuni and his life of practice and realization, as well as to realization itself. We bow to the potential and the reality of awakening in each other.
Then we bow to the dharma, which is both the truth of things and the teachings of the path to awakening—the Buddha’s dharma. These include all the many skillful means that we use to be and stay awake, like this one—the skillful means that is ango.
Then we bow to the sangha, to the wish that we be able to support one another with everything that we have, everything that we are, not just for this short period, but always. This is the intent to be, not only our own ground, but each other’s ground on the path of practice.
Now I will read the names of all those who’ve signed up to formally participate in ango, and as you hear your name, please do a seated bow in acknowledgment.
Everyone please Gassho.
We come here realizing the question of life and death is a vital matter. We dedicate ourselves to wholeheartedly practicing the Fall 2024 Ango of the Ocean Mind Sangha. We understand our commitment to this ango, and assume full responsibility for observing it. Please guide us in our practice.
The following practitioners have made a commitment to train in the Fall 2024 ango of the Ocean Mind Sangha:
Katherine Alagna Jess Angelson O
Marguerite Battaglia Secundra Beasly O
Casey Benjamin Komyo Brown O
Noah Chasin Sonkai Christian O
Amanda Duncan Susan Forste O
Elliot Friedman Shoho Fristoe O
Logan Geen Eric Geist O
Zuisei Goddard Kaito Green O
James McCowan Shawn McDonald O
Guy Owen Ryusan Pontolilo O
Kate Rafey Darla Royal O
Elizabeth Weiss O O
Next we would do a chief disciple installation ceremony, but let me remind you that Ryusan continues to be our shuso or chief disciple for this ango, having started back in the spring, leading us through example—not of the study and the sitting and the precepts (although all of that is important), but much more immediately, by living his life with awareness, with careful, loving attention. This is the theme of this ango and of our study in the form of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, The Miracle of Mindfulness.
I’ll return to that and the reason I chose this book, but let me first say a little about about this role of the shuso.
You know, it seems to me that there is one phrase in the English language that is most harmful, three words that in varying scales lead to most if not all the conflict we see in the world. And this phrase is: Why not me?
Here, in our little corner of the world, in this little world called the Ocean Mind Sangha, I may ask someone to take on a particular roll and perhaps someone else, either aloud or in the privacy of their own mind, thinks, Why not me? It seems almost inevitable in us human beings, this impulse to compare, to measure. We want to know where we are, where we stand, in relationship to others. We triangulate in order to figure out our own location, and that’s fine. The problem is that when we do this, very often we find ourselves lacking. We find ourselves not quite measuring up. And this by no other measure than the one we’ve made up.
The fact that Ryusan is shuso this time around does not in any way mean that I prefer him to any of you, or prefer his practice. His role does not in any way diminish who each of you are. I so wish I could take this knowledge and put it directly in your heart, so you wouldn’t worry, you wouldn’t fret, you wouldn’t create suffering for yourself. But I can’t.
It’s so painful, isn’t it, this comparing mind, this separating mind, this mind that labels and categorizes? It’s so painful. And I can’t convince you that it has no bearing on your own worth, but what I can do, is set your minds at ease once and for all. Becoming a student, taking the precepts, becoming a senior, aren’t about moving up. It’s not like you’re in a video game and you’ve moved on to the next level. If anything, it’s a movement in. What it means and the only thing it means—is that you get to serve more.
So: I want to become a student—I will serve. I want to take the precepts—so I remember to serve. I get to a point where I go from being a junior student to being a senior—so I can serve. As for being a teacher—forget about it! Serve, serve, serve. It has nothing to do with a title, nothing to do with position, nothing to do with moving up or down a hierarchy. It only has to do with fully embodying the teachings in your life, doing the best you can, as long as you can, to be Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Do you understand?
To my delight—but not my surprise—this is exactly what Ryusan has done. He didn’t like doing zazen in front of the computer (I get it; I felt the same). Yet he became shuso and he began to show up for daily zazen three times a week, so he could sit with us. Some time for us, some time for him.
He stepped forward at one point and said Zuisei, what can we do to help you prepare for sesshin?; we want to do stuff. I didn’t ask him, he stepped forward and asked. He also started a sitting group in his town. And he spends time talking with, mentoring, some of you, just as I did for him many years ago when we were both at the monastery. He has a partner, a son, a job, a dog, his life and still, he asked himself and then he asked me, how can I serve? I didn’t ask him to be shuso because of the koans he’s passed or the things he’s seen or the dharma books he’s read. I asked him because I see him doing his best to make the dharma his life (meaning, to let there be no separation between his practice and his life). So this is a form of recognition for that effort, sure. But only because he was already doing it, and the recognition helped him to take another step.
Please, please remember the forms we use are meant to liberate us, not to bind us more. I don’t do what I do to make your life more difficult. I want you to be free. So if at any point you perceive any of our forms as binding, let me know, let’s talk about them, let’s see if we can untangle what was never tangled but appears to be so.
I’ve told you the story that many years ago, I was working on Mu, which is usually the first koan a student is given to work with in Zen. And because it’s the first, it can be quite challenging. It’s like learning a whole different language and you can’t even read the words. So it takes time. And I’d been working on it for quite a while, was very frustrated, but wouldn’t give up. At the time, we sat in hierarchical order at the monastery: non-students, students, jukai, students, seniors, those who were working on the breath, shikantaza, koan study.
And, after being a student for a while, I took the precepts, and the very next sesshin, I was put behind one of my best friends, who’d taken the precepts a little before me, and who, it turns out, had seen Mu, while I hadn’t. And I was devastated! Devastated!
So I called my brother and I said, This happened! My best friend! I’ve been working on it for years?! Why her and not me?! And Derek was quiet on the other end of the line, and then he said, very softly, “But, I thought it was not about that…?” Uh…. Thank you for your teaching.
It was not about that; I forgot, I got caught. She had seen it, I had not; that was all there was to it. So then I got down to work.
Ryusan is serving as our shuso this ango, and at the end, during our in-person sesshin, he will give his first talk on a koan, and he will challenge the rest of us to dharma encounter. I did this last ango, but this time it’ll be him instead of me.And guess what? He will not in any way try to impress us; he’ll just be himself. Because that’s all he needs—that’s all he ever needs.
This ango, the focus of our study is Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness. In three sessions, starting next week, we’ll make our way through this text which takes us back to the fundamentals of practice, to the simple but not easy practice of paying attention—paying careful, loving, patient attention to each aspect of our lives.
And the reason I picked this book now, was because I wanted to pair it with our study of loving-kindness. Let me remind you that awareness can be broadly divided into three aspects: samadhi or concentration, which is the sharpening factor of awareness. It’s the ability to return every time we’ve wandered, to put our mind where we want and to keep it there. There’s sati or smrti, mindfulness, which is the seeing factor. It shows us what it is we’re focusing on: is this my breath or a thought? Is this a thought I can let go or I thought I need to pick up?Do I need look at it, be with, and then let go? Then there’s upekka or upeksha, equanimity, the balancing factor of awareness. It keeps the mind stable enough, clear enough, to let the seeing and the concentration happen. If, to these three factors we then add loving-kindness, we’ll have the careful, loving attention I’m referring to. And it makes our practice much, much easier, because instead of being fueled by a cold or harsh discipline, it’s fueled by care.
(That would make a nice bumper sticker: “Fueled by care”)
This ango we’re going back to the basics with these two studies: loving-kindness and attention. And they’re basic in the sense of being foundational. Everything that comes after is built on these as the base, and not just the base but the lifeline. So they’re like the dharma: good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end. You can never be too loving, too mindful, too caring, too aware. When you don’t know what to do, turn toward loving kindness. Practice it with patience and attention, for yourself and others, for your practice, for your failings, for that part of you that thinks why not me?, and let that loving-kindness, that loving mindfulness, show you that it is you. It’s always, no one other but you.
Many years ago, almost thirty years ago now (geez!), I realized I wanted to become a monk, but when I asked, I was told me I had to go live a little first. I was very young. And so I was given to understand that it could take a while. And I remember thinking, “Okay, I can’t become a monk right now, but I am one—I’m sure of it—so I’m just going to live like one.” And I did. For the next ten years, until I could become ordained, I lived as a monk in my mind, in my actions, in my life.
It is always you; don’t give your power away. It’s yours and it’s not for the taking
So, we start these thirty days empowered and full of energy and aspiration. Tomorrow we start our evening sits, every Tuesday and Thursday from 7-8 pm until October 15. On Thursdays I will do daisan, face-to-face teaching, and on Saturdays during our sits. Please continue to bring your own study, experience, and reflection of the precepts to our private sessions. Bring your study of our text, bring what you’re seeing in your zazen, and most importantly, bring yourselves—all of yourselves, so we can truly meet eyebrow to eyebrow, as the texts say.
Also, although we’re not formally doing art practice together, Kate has offered to lead a session this Sunday the 22nd at 10 am (you can use the Daily Zazen link for it if you’d like). And here, my only comment is to remind you that art practice is the study of the self through art. It’s the study of the nature of the self and the expression of that study and realization.
And coming back to that basis: zazen. Come to sit in the morning, come to sit in the evening. Join Komyo and Sonkai during the mid-morning sit or on the weekends. Come to the Half-day sit this Saturday or to part of it. Sit on your own, outside in the woods, try sitting early or late—times when you normally don’t sit—and see what happens. See what happens when your zazen is fueled by care, when you do it because you want to and not because it’s the next thing on the schedule. Llet it become the refuge that it truly is.
Let me end with a tradition I began two angos ago, of quoting this phrase by the poet and Zen practitioner Jane Hirschfield: a “monastery of consciousness.” Let us, through our careful, loving practice these thirty days create a “monastery of consciousness” within and without.
With ango we’re creating a boundaried space, a time with a beginning and end, so we can enter more fully into that place that is without boundaries, without edges, where nothing begins and nothing ends because there is just life lived, one moment after the next—life lived fully, wakefully, in peaceful dwelling.
May our lives go well.
Explore further
01 : The World Between Breaths: Mu and Buddha Nature, by Zuisei Goddard
02 : Ango: Orchard Grasses, by Linda Shinji Hoffman
03 : On the Practice of Retreat by Rev. Shoren Heather
The Fall 2024 Ango Entering Ceremony, a dharma talk by Zen Buddhist teacher Zuisei Goddard on the spirit and practice of ango, “peaceful dwelling.”