home temple practice
To create a compassionate and open environment for all people interested in the study and practice of Zen; To offer a traditional Zen Buddhist approach to religious practice and understanding as well as other meditative and spiritual practices to help relieve the suffering of oneself and others; To foster the transmission of traditional Zen Buddhism to both lay and ordained students in a western context; and To offer a facility for these and other such activities as the board and teachers may deem appropriate. TTZC Mission Statement
Practicing Zen Buddhism in America has been a challenge since the first steps taken by various Eastern teachers almost 100 years ago. Many of the realities we face are quite different today than in the time and the land that brought Zen Buddhism to our shores. Among these differences is the absence of a strong monastic influence in our culture and the different attitudes between an individual and society, or between that individual and his or her spiritual teacher. In our particular situation at TTZC, after spending a great deal of time looking into the feasibility of having a separate center, it was decided that continuing to develop the Home Temple Model would be more suitable to our particular needs and realities.
Although our community began in 1986 as the Jo Ren Zen Center, we incorporated with the State of California as the Three Treasures Zen Community on December 11,1996. From the beginning we have practiced together as a non-residential Zen community in a home setting, with a strong focus on sesshin, the student/teacher relationship, and sangha. In Vista, Jake's home, the back room is generally set up like a zendo, and he also uses the room as a living space. In Rancho Penasquitos, Nicolee and Barry's home, they convert their family room into a zendo and at the end of the evening, the sangha turns the zendo back into the family room. In both locales, home as temple and temple as home are intrinsic aspects of practice at TTZC. The physical transformation of space encourages students to clarify that wherever you are, that's the temple.
There are Home Temple models from Japan as well. Yamada Koun Roshi, Robert Aitken's teacher, was a lay Zen Master who had a small zendo in his backyard that he used for sesshin. Koryu Roshi, one of Maezumi Roshi's teachers, and Barry's first teacher, had a temple that did house students of college age, like a residential center, but was geared mostly for commuters to come weekly and monthly for sesshin.
We have as many week- long retreats per year as the temples mentioned above, a favorite for many experienced students who feel that the two or three-day mark is where a major shift occurs and the practice really deepens.
Some of the disadvantages to home temple practice are: limited access to the center other than scheduled times, lack of ownership by the sangha of the physical space, and the lack of sangha interfacing with one another and teachers on an impromptu basis. Yet, we have found that we have been fulfilling our mission statement and that home temple practice is working quite well. The key ingredients seem to be one's commitment and intent.
To clarify the practitioner's intent, we found it important to create a curriculum so that practitioners could decide what level of practice they want to pursue. Whether a practitioner just wants to sit and meet with a teacher for meditation guidance or whether one wants to become a student to deepen one's practice and beyond, the curriculum provides a map for levels of training at TTZC. It also encourages participants to take responsibility for their training in much the same way as students in college do who participate in independent studies. Attending sesshin is core to training at TTZC. Participants who sit sesshin and work deeply with a teacher, are truly taking advantage of the riches Zen training offers. At TTZC the teachers are also available by phone, e-mail or in person if an appointment has been arranged. Traditional ceremonies and rituals are made available to students at certain times throughout the year and trainings to teach others how to carry on these practices are part of the program.
Some of the advantages of TTZC's home temple practice are: limited fundraising, low overhead which helps us keep participant contributions lower than other Zen centers, teachers provide for their own livelihood, and students take full responsibility for what they get out of the practice and their sangha connections. We have found that councils and sangha gatherings are providing a venue for participants to learn more deeply about one another which is helping to foster friendships and mutual support. These are important developments that help create a caring and open sangha. Because Zen practice is ultimately integrated as one's everyday life, the Home Temple Model makes this a "built-in" aspect of our practice and not something that has to become integrated at a later point in a student's life.
Zen Buddhism is still an infant in our society and the various methods of training and practice will continue to flourish and be refined. It is both inspiring and challenging to work with developing the Home Temple Model as Zen continues to spread in America.
Nicolee Jikyo McMahon, Roshi
Barry Kaigen McMahon, Sensei
John Jiyu Gage, Sensei
