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Dharma Protecting
Bodhisattva Kuan Kung keeps a watchful eye on the Dharma
Meeting.
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Readers unfamiliar with Ch’an (Zen) training
sessions as they are evolving in temples in the Wes will be
interested in the 1969 Summer Sutra Study and Meditation Session
held at the Buddhist Lecture Hall in San Francisco. The general
principle guiding the two six week sessions was, "Apply your own
effort to cross yourself over. Don’t be lazy."
What crossing over was done? The first efforts
were concentrated on rough habits such as smoking, drinking, taking
drugs, anger, and arrogance. Initial small successes aroused an
eagerness to move quickly into the work of the session, fixed by a
tight schedule.
Morning Schedule |
| 5:30 - 6:30 |
Recitation of the Leng Yen
Mantra, The Great Compassion Mantra, and The Heart Sutra.. |
| 6:30 - 7:30 |
Meditation |
| 7:30 - 8:00 |
Vegetarian breakfast. Soon
after the session began cultivators stopped
eating breakfast because it interfered with morning meditation.
This time was used for study. |
| 8:00 - 10:00 |
Meditation |
| 10:00 - 11:00 |
Individual study |
| 11:00 - 12:00 |
Vegetarian lunch followed by
temple cleaning. |
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Afternoon Schedule |
| 12:00 - 1:00 |
Review of previous day’s sutra
lecture. Resolution of doubts about difficult Principles. |
| 1:00 - 2:00 |
Meditation |
| 2:00 - 3:00 |
Introductory course in the
translation of classical Chinese. The Sixth Patriarch's Sutra was used for a text. |
| 3:00 - 4:00 |
Meditation |
| 4:00 - 5:20 |
Student Lecture. Four advanced
disciples delivered lectures designed
to give students a view of the
expansive realms of the sutras, as well as to provide schooling
in fundamentals. Lecture material was drawn from:
The Lotus Sutra; Ti Tsang Sutra; Chapter 81 of
The Avatamsaka Sutra, "The Practice and Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva"; and
The Heart Sutra. Students were
required to hand in written comments on the principles covered in each lecture. |
| 5:30 - 6:30 |
Meditation |
| 6:30 - 7:00 |
Class in written and oral
Chinese conducted by Master Hsuan Hua.The Shurangama Sutra was used for a text. |
| 7:00 - 9:00 |
Sutra lecture. Tripitaka
Master Hsuan Hua lectured on the "Practice and Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva" from The
Avatamsak Sutra during the first session, and
on The Sixth Patriarch's Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra during the second 42 days. |
| 9:00 - 10:00 |
Recitation of
The Diamond and Heart Sutras in English. |
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10:00 ... |
Free time for individual study and meditation. |
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Students were given a three hour free period on
Saturday morning, called the "shower holiday". Again on Saturday
afternoon a three hour period was used by students to complete
essays on various topics taken from lectures.
In addition to the rigorous schedule, there
were other factors, which contributed to the cultivation of
patience. The entire twelve-week session took place in a fourth
floor city temple. Strict regulations prohibited unnecessary chatter
and casual coming and going. Twenty-five people working together at
close quarters provided many opportunities to transform hearts of
jealousy, anger, and pride, into hearts of friendliness,
even-mindedness, humility, and perhaps the beginnings of an unmoving
heart in the midst of conditions.
"Well," you wonder, "How did Westerners react
to all this hard work, tension, and lack of privacy?" You may think
that they wished to run away from Buddhism. Not so. At a ceremony
ending the session, all those who had participated, but who were not
yet formal disciples, took refuge. Those who were already disciples
took precepts, and many who already held precepts took more.
Plans for the 1970 Summer Sutra Study and
Meditation Session will be announced in the next issue of Vajra Bodhi Sea.
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