Matthew Lee
12/5/2022
Overview
Established in the late 1990s, the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community is a Buddhist community based out of Buffalo, New York. They are a direct affiliate of the Mountains and Rivers Order, a Western Soto Zen Buddhist organization established 40 years ago whose lineage traces back to the Soto Zen master, Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi, Roshi. The Mountains and Rivers Order is based in New York, but they have affiliates around the world. Buffalo, New York is a majority white community of about 275,000 people, with only about 10 percent being first generation immigrants. As such, it gives the impression of a very well-rooted medium sized American town. Though there are clearly other religious communities present, Buffalo is predominantly Christian.
About Zen Buddhism
Zen（禪）derives from the Chinese chánnà, a transliteration of the Sanskrit word dhyana, meaning “meditation”. Zen Buddhism is a tradition whose origins can be traced back to Bodhidharma, the 28th patriarch in a lineage extending back to the Buddha himself. Bodhidharma was said to have brought Zen Buddhism to China in about the 5th century CE. His style of Buddhism revolves very heavily around meditation (hence the name), with one of his more famous teachings being that of “wall-gazing”, as Bodhidharma thought it best to engage in a practice-based Buddhism and thus to “dwell steadily in wall-gazing, never confused by written teachings”. Over time, these teachings gradually evolved into a school which taught a very close relationship between practice and enlightenment, resulting in an emphasis on meditation.
The Lineage
The Buffalo Zen Dharma Community is an affiliate of the Mountains and Rivers Order of the Soto Zen tradition. They do not cite a specific founder of their community, only that it was formed from a group of like-minded individuals living in Buffalo who wished to practice Zen Buddhism. They do list Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi as the present leader of the Mountains and Rivers Order, seemingly treating him as also the leader of the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community.
Shugen received dharma transmission from the founder of the Mountains and Rivers order, John Daido Loori, Roshi. Daido established the Order in 1980, originally as a Zen arts center, but he later decided to focus more on the spiritual aspect of it and established Zen Mountain Monastery. The name “Mountains and Rivers” comes from a 13th century sutra written by Zen master Eihei Dogen, titled the “Mountains and Rivers Sutra”. Daido studied under Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi, Roshi, whose monastic lineage can be traced back all the way to Eihei Dogen himself.
With such a rich lineage, one might expect the teachings of the Order to be quite rigid. However, such teachings are the opposite of what Daido intended. Daido wanted to make the dharma accessible to a western audience and placed a large emphasis on creative expression as a part of spiritual practice. Today, the Mountains and Rivers order incorporates Daido’s own teachings: the Eight Gates of Zen. As such, the Mountains and Rivers Order and their affiliates (such as the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community) maintain a vibrant community of practice and have a framework for practicing Buddhism which incorporates elements of traditional Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen elements with more modern and westernized ideas and practice. They brand this form of Buddhism as “authentic” yet distinctly Western, which might be appealing for those who wish to practice Buddhism without being subjected to too much cultural change.
The Community
The Buffalo Zen Dharma Community practices in Westminster Presbyterian Church located in downtown Buffalo. While they share this space with the church, it appears to be a comfortable and sustainable relationship. The Community has no publicly available membership information, but the photos they have posted on their website and facebook pages show a relatively small community of predominantly older, white individuals. The Community meets on Tuesday evenings to practice zazen (seated meditation) and engage in fellowship. They also have a monthly half-day meditation session during a weekend, as well as other non-regular events ranging from nature walks to community engagement. Based on their website, their doors are always open to newcomers, and they encourage newcomers to try out Zen meditation on their own so they don’t feel too lost when they pay the Community a visit. They list members of an organizing council and their contacts, seemingly not having a single identifiable leader or much of a hierarchal structure outside of the parent Mountains and Rivers Order, which coincides with the core values of the parent organizations of the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community; they encourage equality and community above a rigid hierarchal structure.
Presumably as a function of them being a relatively small community, their online presence is not very strong; most of the events listed being at least three years old (as of December 2022). Of course, this coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic and indeed, the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community halted their in-person activities from the start of the pandemic to October 2022, opting instead to have their mediation program online via Zoom.
As of October 2022, in-person events have resumed, and the community is once again meeting in the hall of Westminster Presbyterian.
Relationships
The Buffalo Zen Dharma Community and the Westminster Presbyterian Church have a close relationship, with events of the Dharma Community being listed on the church website as church events. Westminster Presbyterian supports interfaith collaboration very openly, which is a precept shared by the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community; their website discussing the “spirit of ecumenicalism”.
However, the strongest affiliation that the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community has is with their parent organization, the Mountain and Rivers Order, from whom they receive resources and guidance. This includes online events through the Order for those who interested in practicing Buddhism during the Covid-19 pandemic. Funding for the Community seems to come from donations, but nowhere do they explicitly say from where it is sourced. They are also affiliated with the Network of Religious Communities, a Western New York based non-profit dedicated to fostering inter-religious acceptance, cooperation, and understanding.
The Buddhism of Buffalo Zen Dharma Community
As established by the founder of the Mountains and Rivers Order, John Daido Loori Roshi, one of the principal teachings for the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community is the notion of the “Eight Gates of Zen”, a system designed to simplify the understanding of Zen for a Western audience. The Buffalo Community’s website lists these eight gates as: meditation (zazen), studying with a teacher, Buddhist academic study, liturgy, right action, art practice, body practice, and work practice; most of the emphasis is placed on the meditative aspect, as per the fundamentals of Zen. The Community’s regular Tuesday meetings focus on this aspect, with the primary activity being seated meditation called zazen. They trace this meditative tradition back to the Buddha, of course, stating that the Buddha sat in meditation to ultimately realize his enlightenment.
The website of the Mountains and Rivers Order lists one of its goals as helping its students to realize their own enlightenment and its place in the modern world, a goal which the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community shares. As an affiliate of the Mountains and Rivers Order, the Buffalo Community shares the same standards of training and practice and the views of the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community seem to be those of the Mountains and Rivers Order. Because of the shared organization, members of the Buffalo Community have access to programs at the Zen Mountain Monastery, the home of the Mountains and Rivers Order. As such, they take periodic retreats with the Zen Mountain Monastery in keeping with the Mountains and Rivers Order’s goal of helping their members attain enlightenment.
Sources
“Buffalo Zen Dharma Community”, Buffalo Zen Dharma Community buffalozen.org. Accessed Dec. 2022.
“About”, Zen Mountain Monastery. zmm.org/about/mountains-and-rivers-order. Accessed Dec. 2022.