Читать книгу A Straight Road with 99 Curves - Gregory Shepherd - Страница 4

Greg Shepherd was in Zen retreats between 1972 and 1973 at the Three Cloud Zen Center (San Un Zendo) in Kamakura, Japan, that I also attended when we were both in our early twenties. We would line up in single file seated on cushions on a walkway just outside the Zen hall, waiting for our turn for a one-on-one interview (dokusan) with the Master. Often he would be seated right in front of me, clutching a book covered in dark cloth but which I knew for sure from its size and shape was the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate), a collection of koans used in Zen practice. After those retreats, a number of us gaijin (non-Japanese) participants would gather in someone’s apartment for beer and munchies. Greg was easily the life of the party with his contagious sense of humor and his guitar-accompanied renditions of Cat Stevens and the Beatles.

I had always wondered what happened to him through all these years, as he bade farewell and disappeared from the Zen scene in Japan soon after that. We had exchanged greetings indirectly and sporadically through his brother Paul, who arrived in Kamakura shortly after Greg left and with whom I continued in Zen practice under the guidance of Yamada Koun Roshi, until the latter died in 1989. So for me it was a great surprise and joy to receive the draft of this book out of the blue from Greg himself. As I began poring through its opening pages, I could not put it down and read through to the end in one sitting. It filled in the picture of what had gone on during those intervening thirty-something years. I am deeply moved at this candid and unabashed account of the twists and turns of Greg Shepherd’s spiritual journey, not only because it evokes familiar scenes in a place that is still close to my heart, and recalls people I continue to cherish, but also as it resonates deeply with what I have learned in taking this path of Zen.

And what have I learned through all these years in this path? As Greg himself writes toward the end of this book, Zen is not a religion, nor a set of doctrines to adhere to (or not). It is an invitation to a simple practice of sitting in stillness and calming the mind, which thereby allows us to open our eyes and see things as they are. One may go through ups and downs in a journey with ninety-nine curves, but at the end of the day, Zen practice enables us to see through the deceptions and ideal­izations of this little “I-me-mine,” and allows us to accept ourselves just as we are, warts and all. In doing so, we find ourselves at peace, at home in the world, and with a heart able to embrace all beings in lovingkindness and compassion. Try it and see for yourself!

RUBEN L. F. HABITO

Maria Kannon Zen Center

Dallas, Texas