From Social Action

Sometime in 1989 I went to an event at a Buddhist temple a few blocks from ZCLA, the International Buddhist Meditation Center (IBMC). There I heard about the Buddhist Sangha Council of Southern California. They called themselves “the first permanent cross-cultural, inter-Buddhist organization in the United States”, although being Buddhists they should have known that nothing is permanent. 

I was strongly attracted to this group and immediately wanted to join, especially  since there were no members from the Japanese Zen tradition. The online document says “The Council is composed of ordained monks, nuns and ministers from all the major Buddhist traditions: Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana, and from all Buddhist ethnic origins: American, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, European, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Sri Lankan, Thai, Tibetan and Vietnamese.”  I wanted to join but I was told it was only open to “ordained Sangha” which to them meant celibate monks and nuns.

One of members took me aside, Ken McLeod. He explained to me that he never ordained, but to be able to join the Council he had asked his teacher, Kalu Rinpoche, to sign a Minister’s Certificate, which he did with no problem. Ken gave me the wording that he used, and I modified it slightly for my situation. 

Since I had completed my three months as Head Trainee the previous year, Maezumi Roshi decided he would use the minister certificate as acknowledgement for lay practitioners who pass that milestone.  So the certificate wouldn’t be something special and unique to my situation, when the Head Trainee finished his term after mine, Roshi designed a ceremony in which he acknowledged three of us: myself, my predecessor, Grover Genro Gauntt, and the current lay Head Trainee, Charles Goshin Naylor.

I make this long aside into the details of how I was able to qualify for the Sangha Council because it involves two ways that I was trying to influence the development of Buddhism in the West. First, I liked the idea of being part of an ongoing Inter-Sangha group probably unique in the entire history of Buddhism. But secondly it dovetailed with a pet project of mine, to try to develop a viable lay lineage within Soto Zen. It seemed to me it would eventually happen, but I felt the lay minister certification would be an opening that might accelerate the process.

In any event, I went to meetings for about three years, established fiendships with a range of Buddhist pioneers,  and found the whole experience very enriching.