A native Californian, Gerow Reece first sat with Yamada Reirin Roshi and the young monk, Maezumi Sensei, in the old brick Zenshuji in Los Angeles in the early 60s. Then while an East-West Center student, he practiced with Robert and Ann Aitken at Kokoan in their home in Honolulu. Later, while studying in Kyoto, Japan, he sat at Antaiji with Uchiyama Roshi and later with Morinaga Roshi at Daishu-in and Kobori Nanrei at Ryoko-in, never settling on a teacher --until the arrival of his son. Gerow serves ceremonial tea and occasionally teaches calligraphy at Jikoji.

Full Transcript

Well, I appreciate this chance because I've learned a lot, or at least experienced a lot, thinking about giving this talk. It's happening in the wake of Hakusho's talk last week in which he appreciated very generously the life of Thich Nhat Hanh and included some of his wonderful expressions. "I smile to the miracle of being alive in this moment." And then later on, "If you're not in awe, you're distracted."

There's not much point in talking really. Especially if we stop for a moment in awe and we sort of freeze the situation, freeze the moment or freeze the environment in which the awe is happening. I think often we don't include ourselves in the awe; it's just fabulous what's out there. But this, which is so awesome, is certainly not static. It's not an idea. And there are no words for it. So that relieves us of a good deal.

All of you are appearing to me as sort of unreal images. So I don't think you're so awesome, actually. I don't include you as part of the awe that I experience here, but maybe I should. It certainly is technologically awesome.

A few days ago, I had the amazing good fortune of having a chance to stay for two nights in a cabin at Steep Ravine, which is a coveted sort of retreat place campsite just south of Stinson Beach, just north of San Francisco. The cabin I was in just looks down on the waves. The waves are coming in constantly and they're just right down there. All day and all night, the waves are expressing their fullness in sound, especially in their wonderful sound.

So I was contemplating waves. And I remember this very maybe overdone reference or use of wave for the sense of self. As a wave rises out of the ocean, experiences itself, and then falls back into the ocean. And becomes a greater wholeness. That was a very helpful image for me when I first heard anything about Zen practice, reading one of Alan Watts's books in the early 60s. And I really appreciated that image.

So this wave that I was looking at, it would rise and fall, but it would also run into a big rock there. So what about the wave crashing into a rock? That's not the ocean. It can't fall back into the rock like it falls back into the ocean. The ocean can't fall back into the rock like it falls back into the ocean. So the wave crashes into the rock or swells, swirls against the rock. And actually, it embraces the rock, especially as the wave carries through the rock or around the rock and gets to the other side. It seems to even somehow come together behind the rock, so to speak, and then rise even higher right there at the rock.

So there's a disturbance, a way of dealing with this completely different sense of reality. Embracing it and in a sense, it feels like almost celebrating it because as the wave passes fully and the water settles down, then there's a subtle little outflowing of wavelets like a rock thrown into the pond. There's circular waves going out from that rock all around after the wave has passed. So another pattern is created on the surface. That's another aspect of wave.

And then what about the rock itself? The rock is not part of the ocean. It cannot sort of sink back into the ocean and become the ocean as a wave can. So what is the rock's nature or what is the rock? Of course, it has become what it is itself, thanks to the ocean and wind and perhaps earthquakes and all kinds of things have interacted with it. And so the rock has become an identifiable self, so to speak. And of course, it's just a work in progress as it will gradually, at some point after 10,000 flights of the seagulls, descend, become into sand. And then perhaps become reformed into another self.

So this water metaphor is very useful, especially from the perspective of Taoism. We have water as a wonderful metaphor in Taoism. In the 78th chapter of the Tao Te Ching, this translation says:

"And nothing in the world surpasses water in softness and weakness. Yet among things that attack the hard and strong, none can do a better job than water. Nothing can serve as its substitute. Therefore, the weak overcomes the strong, the soft overcomes the hard. Few in the world do not know this, yet nobody is able to put it into practice. Therefore, the sage says, He who bears blame for the ignominy of his country can be called Lord of the State. He who bears the blame for the misfortune of his country can become King of the world. Statements of the truth seem paradoxical."

Chapter 40 in the Tao Te Ching:

"Cyclic reversion is Tao's movement. Weakness is Tao's function. All things in the universe are derived from being. And being is derived from non-being."

Now, of course, if one brings up Taoism, you of course have to bring up the fact that Lao Tzu says, "Who knows doesn't speak and who speaks doesn't know." So I think you're fair well warned and you can turn off your sound now if you'd like. But I will carry on foolishly.

The sixth chapter in Lao Tzu expresses more of the feminine side or the feminine qualities that are evident in Taoism. In chapter six:

"The spirit of the valley never dies. Hence comes the name mysterious female. The gateway of the mysterious female is the root of heaven and earth. Continuous like a thread, it seems to exist. Its utility is inexhaustible."

I'm interested in this stress on what we think of as feminine qualities. In reading the book called "Alpha, the Alphabet versus the Goddess," it's a very amazing book in the way that he deals with how in many cultures, the feminine virtues and strengths are overwhelmed by the masculine strengths and virtues in relationship or as a result of the use of written language.

He seems to be saying that as a result of written language, there was a profound change in any culture within which this happened and the reason is because of the use of printing and the way the brain changes in order to use letters and to write. Whether that's such a direct cause or whether it's something that happened at the same time, of course, is certainly debatable.

This is the book called "The Alphabet versus the Goddess: Conflict between Word and Image" and the author is Leonard Shlain. This book came out in 1998 so I'm sure there's been lots of reaction to it, but I don't know, I'm not an academician, so I don't know what kind of intense reactions came but it's very helpful and inspiring to read his thought and to consider it seriously.

In general, he describes feminine qualities as holistic, simultaneous, synthetic, concrete, and appreciative of images. The masculine qualities are linear, sequential, reductionist, abstract, and using written word.

Even in considering speech, as we all know, speech was in common use long before writing arose. And in speech, it is received through listening. And that experience is simultaneous, spontaneous. And there is quality of voice. And there are nonverbal cues as well in speech.

In writing, it is experienced through reading. And it is linear. And controlled and script forms. Which do convey many differences. But of course, not to the degree that voice quality and nonverbal cues do. And when the writing becomes phonetic, the phonetic writing is considered the father of all abstractions. So once you had phonetic writing, you could have all kinds of philosophy and science.

Seeing the image, we can shift then from the contrast of speech and writing to the contrast of seeing and reading. In seeing there is the image, which is experienced all at once, and it is whole and concrete. In the case of reading, words come one at a time, they are sequential and abstract.

This becomes applicable when you consider the rise of monotheism in the Middle East. You have rise of monotheism, along with the alphabet. So you can call monotheism an alphabetic religion. The alphabet was easy to learn. And so it could become widely practiced.

Of course, one result of the monotheistic religions was that they banished, as they rose, the goddess who had been dominant in those cultures. So they had to banish bright colors, idols, bells and drums and symbols, dance and imagery. So in general, there was that kind of a tendency.

According to him, the first religious wars happened only after the rise of alphabetic religion. There, of course, had been wars, but not fought over or because of religious belief as such.

It's interesting that he notes the people who were losers in the rise of alphabetic religion or monotheism. The losers were wives, prophetesses, queens, artists, daughters, female slaves, rape victims, those who are sexually loose, and priestesses. So there was a setback to images, beauty, nature, wholeness, tolerance, and intuition. These are just sort of generalizations reflecting the shift in the brain from right brain to left brain.

And then the most amazing thing, it was the most shocking thing that could have happened in the world of that time was that Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, created the world without any sexuality and without any female involved. This was completely unthinkable because the world had always involved male and female in the creation. All the creation myths always included male and female. But this God creates simply with words. "Let there be light" and so on. So this kind of a change is just utterly unthinkable.

And then we also have the story of Adam and Eve and then Cain and Abel. Eve, because she ate of the Tree of Knowledge, she was curious about what would happen. And God condemned her really quite brutally. And then, when it comes to Cain and Abel, they're their children and Cain killed his brother Abel and God sort of slaps Cain's wrist in comparison to his treatment of Eve.

When it comes to the Greeks as well, both the Israelites and the Greeks usurped the power of female deities at the dawn of literacy. Even birthing in the later myths in Greece becomes the man's job. It's very curious that the mother goddesses, the great mothers - Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite - they are birthed by men. So it's just very unbalanced.

So then later in Greek mythology, we have Dionysus. Dionysus expressed many of the female qualities, but he himself was a man. And he was considered the master magician. And he was sort of the yin and yang figure in mythology. Pleasure and pain, beauty and cruelty, ecstasy and terror, creativity and madness, and joy, suffering and rebirth. All of this was happening at the height of Greek reason. So we have Dionysus, the one sort of balancing the two.

When we come to India, we can see something a little similar in that the earliest culture that we know of was the Harappan culture in the northwest. That seemed to be a more egalitarian culture and women enjoyed many prerogatives. And then around 1500 BC the Aryans gradually invaded. And they were adapting the Semitic alphabet to Sanskrit, which eventually became the Brahmi writing.

Of course, the sacred scriptures, which apparently became something of a mixture of the Harappan culture and then that of the invaders. And in the earlier form they had, some of their wisest saints were male and female, but that gradually changed. And in the Vedas, living things were not considered creations of God, but manifestations of God. In other words, they didn't say "I am thou," they said "I am thou." So they don't have logos as in the expression of God, but they had images as the expressions of God.

However, while the warrior class were the top caste, gradually one of the subcastes, the men who were the priests, they gained control of the writing and of reading and gradually elevated themselves to the highest caste. And then the warriors, the Kshatriyas, became lower than the Brahmanas. So the Brahmanas control the flow of information and things went better for them.

And then we hear that Sati, that wives must immolate themselves on the pyres of their husbands. That was enforced from an early time. One of the practical reasons for Sati was that it was insurance that the wives wouldn't poison their husbands. If you poisoned your husband, then you would end up having to be on the funeral pyre while he's still young. So you don't want that to happen.

There were, however, despite the power of the Brahmins, some of the right brain values or feminine values that survived: worship of the cow and of nature. Sexuality was explicit in art. And they have very important goddesses. For instance, Kali is just an incredibly pervasive and powerful goddess. In the practice of yoga, the most basic image of Lingam and Yoni is the unity of male and female.

One comment is that as far as the individual goes in the ideographic cultures or the cultures of... Oh, I'm sorry I didn't do China yet.

In China, from the sources of Taoism, it indicates that there was some egalitarian feminism in early China. Until literacy came around the sixth century BC, which is when Confucius lived and also Taoism was written down. Confucianism was very, very powerful from around 200 BC, when the ideographs were standardized by the great unifying emperor of the Qin dynasty, just before the Han dynasty. And that was a time of severe decline in women's rights. For instance, also, one simple reflection is that biographies of women virtually disappeared after that time.

Then after the Han dynasty, which was until about 250 or 300 AD, Confucianism declined. Confucianism was the sort of antithesis of Taoism and affirmed the basic structure of society and the responsibility of the people on top for those who are below and supposed to be a mutual supporting and protection system.

But in the Song dynasty, which began in the 10th century, all of the Chinese classics were printed. And then there was a rise of abstract thinking, code of law and paper currency. So then again the oppression of women increased and the rise of foot binding, for instance, happened just at the time when the printing press went into wide use in the 10th century, the Song dynasty. He even mentions that the cloth that was used for foot binding is the same cloth that was used to make paper.

Then he makes an interesting comment that after the 10th century in China, the Buddha looks more like a mature mother figure, rather than male figure. And in Asian patriarchal societies, the more patriarchal they were, the more feminine the Buddha seems to be. And in the more egalitarian societies in Asia, the Buddha was more masculine.

Which somehow brings me to the ceremony of the women who developed the vows, v-o-w-z. So I just wanted to consider the ceremony, which took place here at Jikoji. And I wanted to consider that ceremony in the light of this discussion of the male and female and image and word.

In the vows ceremony, it began with the offering of light, of candles. We illuminate this space of wisdom. Prajnaparamita shows the world as it really is. Prajnaparamita is the mother of all Buddhas.

So this Prajnaparamita, there are images of her, as well as paintings and so on. If you look at some of the images, she is certainly a very feminine figure. It seems to be an interesting contrast to the trouble that many Buddhist monks have had regarding the feminine down through Buddhist history. And it's fascinating that this Prajnaparamita, which is the ultimate or the essence of Buddhist reality, is apparently only formed into an image as a woman and called the mother of all Buddhas. So she is the source of enlightenment. She is the source of profound understanding.

After the light of the candles was the offering of fragrance, of compassion. The fragrance of compassion is incense. Incense is not a big thing, it seems, in the West. I mean, we do have perfume, it's furthered by various businesses and so on. But its appreciation is not as deeply expressed or deeply perceived as other senses, it seems to me, in the West. And so if we think of compassion as a fragrance, how it's both pervasive and yet completely unforced. And it's only noticed if someone is paying attention.

The third offering was the lotus flower. Lotus flower was a metaphor for each woman. It's called the womb of enlightenment. So the lotus is a wonderful image as it grows out of the muck. And the way that the water falls on its leaves is so incredible.

After this was an invocation. In the invocation were the words, "We sing this hymn of light to praise Mother Prajnaparamita." Then came a proclamation regarding Prajnaparamita, which included, "She has instructed Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to deal skillfully with the empty, transparent nature of existence, enderly awakening all living beings from the dream of individuality, substantiality and separation."

And then after this came the homage to ancestors. And in this case, ancestors being mothers. So the names of these mothers from India, China, Japan, and then in the West, all of these names were given. And then was passing the pearl. The pearl was received and offered by each person. And from Dogen, one of the phrases, "One bright pearl is able to express reality without naming it."

Then was a circle of interdependence, the benediction. "The Bodhisattva will always maintain a motherly mind." I always think of a Bodhisattva as a man. That's what Bodhisattva has a male sound in my brain, in my left brain maybe, and my right brain. And so this is a very wonderful thing to read and take and pause regarding. The Bodhisattva will always maintain a motherly mind. That fits with Mr. Schlane's comment that the Buddhas in China look rather motherly.

And then came the dedication of merit, which we are all of course familiar with. "All Buddhas in ten directions, past, present, future, all Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas, world-honored ones. The Maha Prajna Paramita." So I think with this is allowing or inviting Prajna Paramita to become us, to enliven us, to enlighten us.

So all of this certainly reinforces the very well-known phrase in the Zen tradition of being not dependent on words. Not dependent on words. Not dependent on words, a special transmission outside the Sutras pointing directly to mind, heart. See your true nature become Buddha.

So forgetting the words, we find ourselves with gratitude, alive and smiling.