Grazyna Perl JDPSN, Paris Zen Center excerpted from a workshop at the Whole World is a Single Flower Conferenc

Bon Yo Ja Mi,  Zen Master (Perl, Grazyna)

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traveling zen
Grazyna PerljDPSN, Paris Zen Center
excerptedfrom a workshop at the Whole World is a Single Flower Conference
Welcome everybody. We have our workshop in a very busy place here. That is quite
good, because we are going to talk about our practice being independent from our outside
situation. Traveling Zen-that means being in train stations, airports, different houses
and strange places, sometimes not very comfortable places. This is very good practice. I've
sat Yong Maeng Jong Jins in a preschool, a music school (with the lessons going on next
door), sornebody's small apartment, and once even in a cafeteria.
I did most ofmy training here at Providence Zen Center. It is a very beautiful place.
From time to time, like this weekend, it gets very busy. Most of the time it is very quiet
here, and it has perfect conditions for practice. Since I've been living in Europe, I've
missed this Zen Center a lot. However, when you travel, the practice situation is very
different.
"Traveling around" practice helps us because our everyday life is not quiet and does
not have perfect conditions, although we wish it did. Europe is small, but contains
many different countries, different cultures, different languages, people with different
life experiences, and cities with different architectures. But even so, while traveling, I
discover that in the end every sangha is the same!
In my first year of traveling, when I visited the Zen Centers for the first time, I was
truly amazed. In Barcelona, I met a girl who looked almost exactly the same, acted
almost exactly the same, had the same kind of emotional approach to life as a girl I had
met a month earlier in Prague. Then I went to Berlin, and there she was again! This
made me think. .. how does it happen, what does it mean, what is this thing that is the
same for everybody? And I'm sure you know it as well as I do.
In the United States there are three main groups: Asians, Africans, and Caucasians.
There are differences in skin color, cultural background, education, and the way we
were raised in our families. Then when we meet, we connect and understand each
other. It can happen only when there is openness. Closed, attached, holding mind can't
connect.
An open mind is very beautiful. We call this intuition, acceptance, tolerance, and
without thinking, and all of it is truth. This kind of experience is don't know mind,
without thinking, and baby-like mind. [At this point the infant daughter ofa Su Bong
Zen Monastery student laughed loudly, and everybody laughed.} As you can see, the baby
already understands. This baby has no opinions, is not checking and is not
complaining. She has a very simple and open mind.
In the many countries in Europe, not all of the sanghas have a teacher, so the
students travel as well. One of the Zen Centers will schedule a Yong Maeng Jong Jin
and someone in Austria will say, "Ah! There's a Yong Maeng Jong Jin in Budapest!
(or Prague! or Bratislaval) Let's go!" And five people go. Very often, during Yong Maeng
Jong Jin in Paris, the entire Brussels sangha comes. The same happens with the Cologne
and Amsterdam groups. There is a lot of support between groups, and often you see the
same people among the Yong Maeng Jong Jin participants. In January there is a retreat
in Brussels, in February there is one in Cologne, and in March we will meet in Paris.
18 Whole World is a Single Flower Conference 1999
Traveling Zen is not only "teachers" traveling, but the whole sangha traveling, and love,
compassion, and help traveling!
Student: I had a problem; in New York the Zen center was five blocks from my
house, very convenient. I went to Korea and I couldn't practice as much as I was used
to. It was so formal, that I didn't feel as comfortable there as on l-ith Street. So my
practice became very weak. I talked to the teachers about it, and they said this was
making a hindrance. Actually it was just a transition.
Perl PSN: Thank you for saying that. It's an important point, because here sits a
Chinese woman living in Wales and you're a Westerner who was living in Asia. Here
we have different cultures and perhaps culture shock. It's difficult for everybody; that's
why it's necessary to look at things from inside. I'm a European and a Westerner.
Originally from Poland, I lived a long time in the United States, and then I went back
to Europe and live in France. When I went to Asia, it was again very different. In those
transitions I experienced many kinds of cultural shocks. But all of it, all of these
differences, are only on the outside. It is important to understand that these different
cultural situations are not better or worse, they're just different.
Inside we are all just the same. We all want to be happy, we all want to be loved, our
stomach calls for food in the very same way. Even outside we are the same: two legs,
two arms and one head-Asian person and Westerner, French and Russian, Polish and
American. It doesn't matter.
Zen Master Seung Sahn came from Korea and he brought many practice tools­
Korean tools-and he gave them to us. As with everything that is happening in our
life, it's now up to us how we use them.
You all have these tools, you understand them, and you are using them. The
traveling of students and teachers is another tool. You meet many people. Some of
them you know quite well, some less well. You might not see somebody for one year, or
one month, or a few days. In the meantime, a lot can happen and change. In other
words, you have to really put it all down to have a relationship. An artist would prefer
to talk with another artist, an engineer with another engineer, a woman with another
woman, and a man with a man. We all have our interests, likes, passions and hobbies.
But in the end, there are only human beings talking to other human beings. When the
dualistic ideas are put down, our true nature connects.
When you enter the Zen center, you say hello, you bow ... and that's it. You are
already among friends, among family. Immediately there is relationship, friendship,
jokes, or serious talk. There is connection. We all already have very strong dharma and
karma connections. Thanks to this practice, it manifests itself
I hope you all will have a chance to come to Europe and participate in some of the
retreats, and meet all the dharma friends I have been so lucky to meet. Thank you
very much.
1999 Whole World is a Single Flower Conference 19


Traveling zen

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