Soto Zen and Rinzai Zen

20 nov 2016
3 minuten om te lezen

I will soon be flying to the US again. I left Upaya Zen Center in July and I will be returning soon. In the meantime I have been in Holland. I spent some time with my family and friends, I attended a 5-day retreat in Cadzand (Zeeland, the Netherlands) with my teacher and with her teacher Roshi Joan Halifax in early september, and a sesshin (a zen retreat) with my teacher in November.

But during these 4 months in Holland I spent most of my time in the two residential zen centers [NL: zen centra waar ook mensen wonen] that exist in the Netherlands.

In august I participated in a month-long sesshin in Zen River, the zen monastery where I lived for 3 months last year. At the end of that period I wrote this post about my experience there.

Most of september and october of this year I lived at International Zen Center De Noorder Poort in Wapserveen, Drenthe, the Netherlands. [NL: Klik hier voor de Nederlandse website.] I had known that De Noorder Poort existed for a long time, but I wasn't really interested because I knew it was a rinzai zen center and since they mainly do koan study there. (There are two big schools of Japanese zen, the rinzai school and the soto school, to which I belong. In rinzai zen the main focus is koan study, click here for more information on koans [NL: klik hier voor een Nederlandse tekst over koans]. And although the tradition of soto zen that I belong to also uses koans I myself had a somewhat complicated relationship with koan study.) When I returned from Upaya in july I knew I was going to go to Zen River in august, but I wasn't sure where I was going to go after that. At first I had other plans. But at some point this summer I changed my mind and thought why don't I try De Noorder Poort. So I did.

And I loved it! I loved the place, the land that surrounds [NL: er omheen ligt] the center, and how integrated the center and the surrounding land is. It is not far from where I grew up and the landscapes are quite similar to my native region [NL: mijn heimat]. Even the dialect that is spoken there is quite similar to that of where I was born and raised. And De Noorder Poort is a wonderful place. It used to be a farm house [NL: boerderij] in a rural area [NL: het platteland]. They have a fairly big and beautiful vegetable garden, I got to work outside quite a lot, which was just wonderful! They've had special kinhin (walking meditation) paths made through the surrounding meadowlands [NL: de omliggende weilanden]., and the outdoors kinhin [NL: de kinhin buiten] in the morning can be truly majestic [NL: majestueus] especially when it coincides [NL: samenvalt] with sunrise. I also really liked the energy of the community and the people who live there, I had a lot of fun there, I felt welcome and at home. The rinzai forms [NL: de rinzai zenvormen] (the rituals, the ceremonies, the chanting and the clothing) were clearly different from the tradition I've been raised in. Still, there were many similarities [NL: overeenkomsten] as well. And I was actually almost a bit surprised at how familiar [NL: vertrouwd] it felt and how easily I could join in and follow along [NL: invoegen en meedoen]. Somehow, I felt a strong zen vibe in this place, which informs all the forms, and with which it was easy for me to connect. [NL: Op de een of andere manier voelde ik daar een sterke zen vibe, die ook de zenvormen doortrekt, en waar ik me makkelijk mee kon verbinden.]

I ended my time there with a 7-day sesshin, my first one there, and it was fantastic! I found the schedule fairly demanding [NL: tamelijk pittig], many hours in the zendo, and pretty short nights. But I discovered that this also helped me, that it really helped to keep the fire of my meditation going strongly. I loved the koan practice and the short interviews with the roshi (3 a day).

It seems that the more I sit, the more clarity [NL: helderheid] there is, and the more beautiful, intriguing [NL: intrigerend] and fun it all becomes. And the more inspired I get. I feel very lucky!