Kaitlan Shaub
Introduction
Located in historic Syracuse, New York, the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji is a zendo committed to the practice and dissemination of Zen Buddhism. What began in 1972 as a small group of graduate students with an interest in meditation quickly evolved into an authentic center of Zen teaching and practice known as Hoen Zendo. Under the direction of Shinge Roko Sherry Chayat Roshi, Hoen Zendo became the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji in 1989. The center has actively expanded its role in the Syracuse, New York, and national Zen communities through programming such as hosting a national American Zen centennial conference in 1993 and through its expansion to a large facility in historic Syracuse in 1996.
All meditation sessions at the Center are free and open to the public. According to the visitors’ webpage, “you can practice meditation without subscribing to any particular set of beliefs, so people of all faith backgrounds (and no faith background) are welcome” at the Center (Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji). However, donations and membership are encouraged to sustain the Center’s practice. Membership fees are income-dependent and begin at $10 a month, and only members may request to become students under the direction of Shinge Roshi. More formally, the Zen Center of Syracuse supports lay practitioners, members, students of Zen, and sangha. Members and students may also apply for residential training at the Center to become ordained in the tradition. Applicants for residential training are accepted only by a unanimous decision of the current residents and head clergy, and upon acceptance are held to high commitment standards.
The Zen Center of Syracuse undertakes a wide range of teachings and practices, including daily meditation, monthly dharma study, meditation courses, and meditation retreats a few times a year. The Zen Center also offers Tibetan Buddhist services once a week. Classes and programs are offered in the Forman House, the main structure of the Zen Center property, and meditation sittings are held in the renovated carriage house.
The Zen Center of Syracuse actively engages the Syracuse community by extending classes and hosting guest lectures. Members of the sangha teach classes on meditation “at children’s residential centers, agencies, the county justice center, Auburn Prison, and after-school programs,” along with many others (Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji). The Center’s project in conjunction with Auburn Correctional Facility established the Sho-Shin Sangha at the facility in 2008. The project sends Zen Center members to lead meditation classes, chanting instruction, dharma study, and Buddhist ceremonies at the facility to teach “effective methods of dealing with stress and anger in everyday life” (Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji).
Tradition and Foundation
The Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji subscribes to the Rinzai School of Zen Buddhism. Zen Buddhism, unlike other traditions, focuses away from studying sutras and other literatures and instead emphasizes direct experiential aspects, notably meditation and directional teaching, to realize the inner Buddha nature. The Rinzai School, a Japanese lineage, uses zazen, or seated meditation, koan study, and exhaustive personal instruction from a Master to directly achieve Enlightenment through the realization of our true nature.
Shinge Roshi’s short introduction to Zen, “What is Zen?,” outlines the tradition and beliefs of the Center. Shinge Roshi posits that “There is no dogma or doctrine. Zen is the direct experience of what we might call ultimate reality, or the absolute, yet it is not separate from the ordinary, the relative” (Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji). The Rinzai tradition, focused on direct experience and realization of the Buddha nature through intense meditative practice, is evident in the practices of the Center, outlined in “Practices” below.
Although the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji was not directly founded by Shinge Roshi Roko Sherry Chayat, it quickly fell under her direction and would not be what it is today without her involvement and teaching. Shinge Roshi was the first spiritual director of the Center, and in conjunction with the Venerable Eido Tai Shimano Roshi, created what is now the Zen Center. Eido Roshi dedicated the original Hoen Zendo, a small room of Syracuse University’s Hendricks Chapel in 1973. After moving from the Dai Bosatsu Zendo Monastery to Syracuse in 1976, Shinge Roshi led Hoen Zendo’s practice until 1989 when it formally became the Zen Center of Syracuse and she became its official spiritual leader. Shinge Roshi was fully ordained by Eido Roshi in 1991, then acknowledged as a teacher of the Dharma in the Rinzai tradition in 1992, and installed as the official abbot of the Zen Center in 1996. In 1998, Shinge Roshi received the Dharma transmission from Eido Roshi, and she became the first American woman to receive such a transmission. In 2011, Shinge Roshi was appointed the Abbot of Dai Bosatsu Zendo Monastery. She has been an active member of the Zen Studies Society since she began her practice in the late 1960s.
Practices
In accordance with Zen Buddhist practice, meditation is the dominant practice at the Zen Center. Members and visitors are asked to arrive early, refrain from wearing distractions such as perfume or jewelry, silence mobile devices, wear “clean, dignified and restrained” clothing, and not bring non-vegetarian dishes into the Center (Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji). Zazen, or meditation sitting, occurs Sunday through Wednesday once each morning, and Thursday twice a day with a second sitting specifically designated for first-time visitors. Zazen is preceded by chanting services on all days but Tuesdays. On the Sunday of the first, third, and fifth weeks of each month dharma talks (called teisho) are available. Dharma study is available one Sunday per month during a two-hour session, and children’s classes are also available.
During the second and fourth weeks of each month, Dokusan is available to students on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Dokusan is the private interview between a student and the Zen Master that is crucial to the Master’s evaluation of the student’s understanding of his or her practice. This is also the time that the student may raise questions regarding his or her practice, including koans.
Crucial to the Zen Buddhist practice are traditional and intensive meditation retreats, called sesshins. Sesshins are necessary to become ordained in any capacity, and include daily teachings and dokusan. The Zen Center offers four three-day, in-house sesshins a year. Its close affiliate within the Zen Studies Society, Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji monastery in the Catskill Mountains, offers six sesshins a year.
In addition to Rinzai Zen teachings, the Center offers Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist practice once a week on Saturdays. The practice was designed in 1997 by Domo Geshe Rinpoche, a recognized reincarnate lama of the Gelugpa school. The practice is currently led by a student of the late Domo Geshe Rinpoche, Andy Hassinger.
Two meditation courses are available, one for stress reduction and another for a more serious introduction to meditation practice. Yoga is offered twice weekly on Fridays and Sundays. The Center also holds special events and ceremonies according to Zen Buddhist traditions.
Views
The Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji and its closest affiliates, the Dai Bosatsu Zendo monastery and the Zen Studies Society, take overall liberal stances on different issues facing the Buddhist community.
Firstly, the Zen Center community is incredibly accepting and inclusive of other religions and people of diverse backgrounds. In her introduction to Zen, Shinge Roshi claims that “fundamentally, we are all buddhas – Jewish buddhas, Christian buddhas, Hindu buddhas, Islamic buddhas, Ashanti buddhas, Haudenasaunee buddhas, secular buddhas” (Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji). She even goes as far as to say “We don’t make a big deal about it; we don’t even call it religion…When the Dalai Lama was asked about Buddhism, he simply said, ‘My religion is kindness’” (Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji). Additionally, the Zen Studies Society Ethical Guidelines includes a zero-tolerance clause of any “disrespectful or preferential treatment towards anyone on the basis of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, physical disability, income, or national origin” (The Zen Studies Society). While the Ethical Guidelines do not govern the Zen Center, their close affiliation indicates the inclusion of diverse populations.
Secondly, the Zen Center is accepting of sexual relations in both its clergy and its lay population. Shinge Roshi herself is married and has a son, and she is the abbot of two temples. Additionally, in the Ethical Guidelines, the third of the Ten Important Precepts is “Be faithful and loving in your relationship; do not succumb to lust” (The Zen Studies Society). Further in the Guidelines it describes that teacher-student, student-student, or resident-visitor sexual relations are prohibited not because intimacy is prohibited, but because “the monastery is not the appropriate place for developing an intimate relationship” (The Zen Studies Society).
Sources
“The Zen Studies Society Ethical Guidelines.” The Zen Studies Society Ethical Guidelines. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.
“Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji.” Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.