I.
The Hazy Moon Zen Center is a Buddhist Temple and training center located in Los Angeles, California. The center is housed in a residential, lower middle-class neighborhood just west of the heart of LA. The exterior of the house is in a quaint, Tudor style, but the interior is very much designed to embody the clean simplicity of Eastern aestheticism. The walls are all painted white, with either beautiful wooden flooring or beige carpeting. There are some red accents in the space, but the vast majority of the decor is simple and neutral. This interesting contrast reflects the transplantation of Buddhist practice into an American neighborhood and is also indicative of the general ethnic composition of the center’s practitioners.
II.
The Hazy Moon Zen Center has a sister relationship with a temple in Tepoztlan, Mexico, called the Black Scorpion Zen Center. This space was erected by a priest of the Hazy Moon Center initially as a mountain retreat for her and her daughter. However, it became a much larger project than intended and eventually grew into a huge space with glass walls and scenic views. The priest for whom it was built, felt that “it wanted to be a zendo [meditation hall]”, and formed an inaugural retreat, or sesshin, with the teacher of the Hazy Moon Center in 2008. The two spaces are now described as “two aspects of the same place”.
III.
The Hazy Moon Center practices a form of Zen Buddhism known as Soto Zen, which emerged out of China eight hundred years ago, and is one of several Buddhist schools in modern day Japan. The Soto Zen denomination was brought back from China by their founder, Koso Dogen Zenji. His fourth successor, Taiso Keizan Zenji, made significant contributions to the school after his death. While Dogen focused mainly on the enlightenment of the monastic elite, Keizan is credited with popularizing it for the common man. The Shakyamuni Buddha is the main focus of Soto Zen worship, and they place a large emphasis on meditation. Dogen taught the practice of “just sitting” and proper posture and practice for meditation. He believed that most people simply go through the motions of meditation, but don’t engage in it fully, and therefore will not receive the true benefit. For Dogen, true meditation was synonymous with enlightenment, instead of being the means to reach that goal. When you meditate, you are finding your true Buddha nature. He expanded his teaching to include meditation in all activities and to take the mindset of zazen (zen meditation) into everyday life. Once popularized, the Soto School became known as the “farmer’s zen” in contrast to the “artist’s zen” of the Rinzai School. Another core feature of the Soto School is the emphasis on passing the teachings from one teacher to one student, which is an important aspect of the community at the Hazy Moon Zen Center. Soto Zen appeared in North America in 1922 and the Soto Zen Buddhism North America Office was established in Los Angeles in 1937.
IV.
The teacher at the Hazy Moon Zen Center is Nyogen Roshi, and was one of a dozen students permitted to carry on the teaching lineage of Maezumi Roshi. Maezumi Roshi is considered a very significant figure in 20th Century Zen Buddhism, and spent 27 years imparting his wisdom to Nyogen Roshi. Maezumi Roshi was born into a temple-household and was ordained as a Soto monk at age 11. He subsequently became a Dharma successor in three Zen lineages. After arriving in Los Angeles, Maezumi Roshi ordained around 70 priests and passed the Dharma onto 12 successors. He founded six temples, in addition to the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values in order to spread Zen throughout the west.
V.
Daily zazen meditation is the cornerstone of the Hazy Moon Zen Center’s activities. It is important to note that this form of meditation differs primarily from others in that it is not considered the means to the end of enlightenment. There are very detailed instructions regarding the posture one is supposed to assume in order to meditate in this way, but the zazen mentality is supposed to be transferred to all of life’s activities. On most days the center offers meditation sessions at 6 AM and 7:30 PM that both last an hour and fifteen minutes. In addition to these meditation sessions, the center offers regular classes in order to lead students through their practice. The introductory classes are offered weekly and focus on the general practice and benefits of Zen Buddhism and are followed by a Dharma talk and vegetarian lunch. This class has a suggested donation of $20, but it appears that like most of the rest of the center, this particular class is donation based. While the introductory class lasts only 2 hours, the next level is a half-day program that focuses more on the actual practice and includes an instruction manual. This class has a fee of $30. In the pictures featured on the website, the practitioners are dressed in black robes with priests wearing a colored sash. They are seated in perpendicular rows on dark mats with cushions under their tailbones. While the traditional prescribed posture involves either the full or half lotus position, it is clear that some older adults need to modify their posture by sitting with their knees forward and toes pointed backwards. The practitioners’ hands are lightly touching one another on top of their legs slightly in front of their navel. This posture is designed to promote maximum ability to clear the mind.
VI.
The Center also holds weekly Dharma talks which are administered by the center’s teacher, Nyogen Roshi, and other community leaders or priests. There are dozens of these talks available on the website in both audio and video format. The topics of these talks range from how to best practice Zen, to more innovative ideas like the compatibility of neural science and Buddhism. In one of his talks, Nyogen Roshi discusses the fundamental importance of the teacher to student lineage in the Soto tradition. He believes that it is essential to learn from a teacher, to sit in a room with the teacher instead of simply forming new communities without any heritage. Nyogen Roshi’s speaking style is dynamic and his inflection reminds me of the way in which any other sermon might be delivered. The student talks tend to be centered around testimonies of their practice in their own life, or a unique perspective on zazen practice or Soto belief. All these talks occur in the Hazy Moon Zen Center and appear to be delivered from a seated position with a small podium placed in front of the speaker. The attendees seem to be practitioners and those who have attended the weekly meditation classes that immediately precede the talks. The talks are also open to members of the community that are curious about the Buddhist practice.
VII.
Another facet of the Hazy Moon Zen Center’s operation is their very active retreat schedule. The retreats, known as sesshins, can span from one day to longer than a week, and the Center claims to offer more retreats than any other Zen center in America. The day-long beginner retreats offer instruction on meditation and include shorter 20-minute periods of meditation. They offer residential and non-residential retreats that include food, community support, and one-on-one meditation instruction. They offer these retreats for $30 a day for members of the Center and $40 for non-members. The Center also holds monthly one day retreats for the gay and straight Men’s Meditation Group. They find great benefit from forming a sangha with members of the gay community, and practicing together.
VIII.
The Gay Men’s Meditation Group is just one of the ways in which the Hazy Moon Zen Center blends ancient Buddhist tradition and modern Western context. The majority of the practitioners at the Center are caucasian Americans. Their teacher, Nyogen Roshi, is a caucasian male, but his teacher was a prominent figure in Japanese Zen. There is an underlying notion in the Buddhist world that immigrant Buddhist communities are in some way more authentic than their Western convert counterparts. This idea of passing down the teaching from one enlightened mind to another, and in this case directly from a prominent Japanese Zen teacher, likely lends a sense of authenticity to the community. While this community seems to mostly focus on the practice of meditation, without monasticism or other cultural aspects, the practitioners do wear robes and the leader is not elected democratically. They also hold ceremonies that “connect [them] to the ancient lineage of Mahayana Buddhism”. In my opinion, the key indicator of the cultural blend at the Hazy Moon Zen Center is that the meditation schedule and retreats are created in a way that they can be flexible around practical life commitments like work, school, and obligations that are only compatible with non-reclusive practice.
More information on the Hazy Moon Zen Center can be found at: http://hazymoon.com/
More information on Soto Zen Buddhism can be found at: http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/eng/index.html