Clarity and Balance:

The Way of Tao and Zen (Part II)
by Frank Allen and Sally Sonen Kealy

This is the second part of the article begun in the May/June 2001 issue of Kungfu-Qigong. Part I explores the origins of Tao and Chan Buddhism. -Ed
In the late eleven and early 1200's, the Chan school of Buddhism moved from China to Japan, where it began to be known as Zen. First of the Japanese Zen Masters was Eisai Zenji. Eisai became a monk as a boy and studied both the Tendai and Shingon schools of Buddhism. In 1168 he made his first trip to China to deepen his study of Tendai Buddhism, but came into contact with Chan Buddhism and felt very drawn to it. In 1187 he returned to China to search for instruction in Chan. He studied with Master Hsu-an Huai-chang of the Rinzai tradition, the school originated by the Great Chan master Linchi. Huai-chang eventually confirmed Eisai as a Master of that school. Upon his return to Japan, Eisai began to teach the superiority of Zen teachings over those of the Tendai sect thereby incurring the wrath of the Japanese Buddhist establishment. For a short time there was a prohibition in effect on the new school, but the direct methods of Zen and the toughness and rigor of the training attracted the Shogun Minamoto Yoriie who became the protector and patron of Rinzai Zen in Japan.

In 1204 the Shogun appointed Eisai as the abbot of Kennin-ji monastery in Kyoto. This is where Dogen Zenji studied with Eisai. Eisai's direct Oryo Rinzai Zen lineage only carried on for a few generations, and was always considered to be a mix of Zen, Tendai, and Shingon beliefs. Later Japanese and Chinese masters popularized the strict Rinzai Yoga School of Zen which became the unofficial religion of the Samurai warrior class. Eisai's Soto Zen lineage promotes his reputation as the father of Zen in Japan.

The father of the most well known Soto school of Zen was Dogen Zenji. Dogen was born into an aristocratic family and showed signs of genius as a child having the ability to read Chinese poetry at the age of four. Upon the early death of his parents, the youngster pondered the impermanence of life and was motivated to become a Buddhist monk. He spent the next few years studying the doctrines of Tendai Buddhism as a novitiate at the temple on Mount Hiei, the center of scholastic Buddhism in medieval Japan. By the age of fifteen Dogen was obsessed with the question, "If our essential nature is perfection, why did all the Buddhas have to strive for enlightenment?"

Finding the answers on Mount Hiei unsatisfactory, Dogen went to study Zen with Eisai Zenji at Kennin-ji monastery. Eisai passed away within the year and Dogen spent the next eight years studying with Eisai's successor, Myozen. During this time period Dogen passed through a number of koans as the "testing" questions of the Zen Masters had become known. Having passed them all, Myozen declared Dogen an official Zen Master. Feeling a deep unrest still within him, Dogen undertook the hazardous trip to China in search of complete peace of mind. He eventually settled at Tien-tung monastery where he fully awakened when master Ju-ching instructed him with the words, "You must let fall body and mind."

Dogen continued his study for another two years before returning to Japan. He lived for ten years in the capital Kyoto Kennin-ji monastery and then in Kosho-ji monastery. Becoming disillusioned with the influence of worldly power in the Imperial City, Dogen withdrew to a hermitage in Fukui province where he developed Soto Zen for the working class leaving the Rinzai school to accommodate the Samurai aristocrats. A large monastery grew up around his hermitage known as Daibutsu-ji, a name later changed to Eihei-ji. Eihei-ji along with its sister community, Soto-ji, is one of the most important monasteries in Japan today. Dogen Zenji's Soto Zen is noted for its emphasis on clear mind, be-here-now meditation called shiken taza which is believed to surpass Rinzai's koan test question system. Dogen Zenji is considered Japan's greatest religious personality and is venerated as a Bodhisattva by all Japanese schools of Buddhism.

Typical of modern Japanese Zen masters was Maezumi Kuroda Roshi (Roshi being the official title of a Japanese Zen Master.) Maezumi was from a Zen family and was first certified a Roshi by his father Baian Kuroda. After studying with his father, Maezumi spent four years studying with Koryu Roshi, a lay Rinzai teacher. He then studied Soto Zen at Sojo-ji Temple. In 1956 Maezumi moved to Los Angeles, and continued his koan study with Koryu Roshi on return trips to Japan. Maezumi met Yasutani Roshi in Los Angeles in 1962, and studied with him for ten years. Both Koryu and Yasutani Roshis passed their dharma transmission and Lineage onto Maezumi Roshi.

In 1968 McDonnell-Douglas engineer Bernard Glassman began to study Zen at Maezumi's Zen Center in Los Angeles. Like many religious leaders Glassman's interest in religion stemmed from the early death of a parent. Release of Phillip Kapleau's book "The Three Pillars of Zen" in 1965 directed Glassman's religious interest toward Zen Buddhism, and he began the practice of sitting meditation at home. Glassman threw himself into his studies with Maezumi with such vigor that he was ordained a Zen Priest two years later in 1970. In 1980 Glassman returned to the East Coast and founded the Zen Community of New York in Riverdale. After a few years, his focus moved from Riverdale to impoverished Southwest Yonkers where he modernized the notion of self-sufficient communities by creating engaged Buddhism with an interfaith flavor. He accomplished this by developing the Greyston Mandala, which consists of a socially active matrix of businesses in Yonkers.

The Greyston Foundation includes The Greyston Bakery, The Greyston Family Inn, and Issan House. The Greyston Bakery hires the unemployed, The Greyston Family Inn houses the homeless, and Issan House provides housing and medical assistance for individuals who are HIV positive. The Greyston Foundation houses an interfaith community and active Zendo. When Glassman Roshi returned to California in 1998 he left the Greyston Zendo under the direction of Reverends Paco Genkoji Lugovina, and Sally Sonen Kealy. Sensei Lou Mitsunen Nordstrom, successor to Bernie Glassman also leads a group there. Roshi Glassman has further modernized and expanded the search for the basic question and expression of life by founding the world-wide Peacemaker Order which includes Zen but also places supreme importance on social action and taking care of this world.

In 1968 at the time when Roshi Glassman was beginning his Zen studies Bruce Frantzis was on his first trip to the island of Taiwan to begin his studies in the Taoist Energy Arts. Frantzis is also a native New Yorker who studied Japanese martial arts and Zen. His search for the roots of these arts led him to Taiwan to study the Taoist martial, medical, and meditation arts of Master Wang Shu Chin in the city of Taichung. Two years later in 1970 Frantzis added the teachings of Master Hung I Hsiang of Taipei to his Taoist studies. In the late 1970's, Frantzis began to study with masters in Hong Kong including Shifu Bai Hua who had been the only student of Taoist grandmaster Liu Hung Chieh of Beijing. Frantzis obtained from Bai Hua an introduction to the old master, and subsequently, studied with Liu Hung Chieh in 1981 until the master's death in December of 1986.

Liu Hung Chieh was the last and youngest member of the original Beijing Ba Gua School, and one of the twelve finalists in the 1928 Chinese Martial Arts Tournament. He was a disciple of the founder of Wu Style Tai Chi. At the age of 39 Liu was formally declared an enlightened being by the Tien Dai Sect of Buddhism. For Liu this heralded a time to search for new teachers and he spent the next ten years studying with Taoist masters in the mountains of Sichuan. With the coming of the revolution in 1949, Liu returned to Beijing where he lived as an urban recluse for the rest of his life accepting only two students, Bai Hua and Frantzis. Liu taught Bai Hua the Taoist fire methods of Chi Gung and meditation and the martial arts of Hsing-I Chuan, and Ba Gua Zhang. To Frantzis he imparted the Lineages of Ba Gua Zhang , Hsing-I chuan, Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan, and the Taoist Water Methods of Chi Gung and meditation. Frantzis returned to the United States in 1987 and began to teach the Taoist Water Method to his former students in New York City, California, and Boston. He is now home based in Marin County in northern California.

Frank Allen heard about Bruce Frantizis from his internal self defense teacher Jan "The Iron Man Lang" who became one of Master Frantzis' first students in 1972. Frank met Bruce upon a subsequent visit to New York City in 1976 after returning from China, and began the study of Chi Kung and Internal Shaolin Kung Fu. Frank helped to organize his classes and workshops at that time. Having previously studied Yang Style Tai Chi with "Irish" Jimmy O'Mara, and Pa Kua and Hsing-I with B.P. Chan, Frank continued studying with Bruce when he was in New York City and Boston, and became particularly focused on the teachings that Grandmaster Liu entrusted to Bruce in 1987. Frank has continued his study of Ba Gua Zhang, Wu Style Tai Chi, Hsing-I Chuan, and Taoist Water Method Chi Kung and Meditation with Master Frantzis since that time, and became his first certified Ba Gua teacher. He teaches Ba Gua Zhang in both meditative and martial modalities. Frank is founder and Director of the Wu-Tang Physical Culture Association in New York City since 1979, and offers courses and workshops in all the areas of his expertise.

Sally Kealy began her twenty-four year study of Zen with Yamada Koun Roshi and Sr. Elaine McInnis Roshi in the Philippines. Upon her return to the United States, Yamada Roshi recommended that she continue her Zen study with Bernard Glassman who was on his way to New York after completing his study with Maezumi Roshi in 1980. Sally received the Buddhist name Sonen from Bernard Glassman and worked for the Zen Community until 1992. She was ordained a novice Buddhist Priest in 1991, and continued her Buddhist studies in the Kwan Um School of Zen with Zen Master Wu Kwang. In 1997 she returned to her root teacher, Roshi Glassman, and was ordained a full Zen Priest where she began leading the Zen group in Yonkers after Roshi Glassman moved to the East Coast. She co-partners the Hudson River Peacemaker Center with Paco Genkoji Lugovina, and is completing her Zen koan study with Lou Mitsunen Nordstrom Sensei. Sally began her interest in Taoist study in 1996 under the direction of Frank Allen. She became certified in Taoist Meditation and Chi Kung in 2000 and is an assistant instructor in Pa Gua Zhang, and Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan. Sally is also a certified Gestalt psychotherapist who brings the healing of Taoist and Zen meditation into her private practice.

For several years Frank and Sally discussed the blending of Taoist and Zen meditation as a complete practice having the agreement that often the body and emotions are bypassed in Zen practice alone. Frank and Sally feel that Taoism gains from Zen the notion of sangha (community) and the intention of working for the enlightenment of all beings. They believe that by adding the individual cultivation practices of Taoism to traditional Zen practice, this will enable the practitioner to be a stronger, clearer and more balanced force for the good of all.

About Frank Allen and Sally Sonen Kealy:
Frank Allen is Director of the Wu-Tang Culture Association and offers classes and workshops in various areas of internal energy arts. He is a free lance writer living in New York City.
wutangPCA@metal-tiger.com Studio phone: 212-533-1751 Sally Sonen Kealy, CSW is an ordained Peacemaker Buddhist Priest peacemakercommunity.org and certified gestalt therapist with a practice in Manhattan. She may be reached at 212-260-8106.