Entering Zen Training in the MRO
If you feel an affinity with the Zen path you may wish to bring the practice more deeply into your entire life.
There are different ways to explore Zen training: as a formal lay student in the world, in full-time residence at the Monastery for a week, a month, or up to a year, or, for those who are called to it, the life-long path of a monastic.
Eight Gates of Zen
The Eight Gates of Zen were developed by John Daido Loori Roshi and form the basis of training in the Mountains and Rivers Order. The Eight Gates offer us a tangible way to take up the whole of our lives as a path of spiritual practice, revealing that whether we are engaged in a busy life in the world or live at the Monastery, all aspects of our being are vital to our study and practice of the path.
The Eight Gates are summarized below. For a more thorough presentation of the Eight Gates, see Daido Roshi’s book The Eight Gates of Zen.
Zazen
Zazen is the cornerstone of Zen training. Za means “sitting.” Zen—which derives from the Sanskrit dhyana—means meditation. In its beginning stages, zazen is a practice of concentration, with a focus on following or counting the breath. More than just meditation, however, zazen is a powerful tool of self-inquiry, boundless in its ability to reveal the true basis of reality. Through zazen, we realize the unity of the self with the ten thousand things, which has the potential to transform our lives and those of others.
Study with a Teacher
Zen is an ancestral lineage that traces itself back to Shakyamuni Buddha. Because it relies on the mind-to-mind transmission of its teachings, personal study with an authentic teacher is pivotal to training. Although fundamentally teachers have nothing to give, they are indispensable in helping students navigate the difficulties we encounter along the way, directly pointing to our original perfection. In dokusan (private interview), students deal with the questions and insights that emerge out of zazen.
Buddhist Study
The founder of Zen, Bodhidharma, said that Zen does not rely on words and letters. However, most western Buddhist practitioners are not familiar with the historical, philosophical and psychological underpinnings of the tradition, so Buddhist Study is critical to establishing a sound religious practice. Though words are not the same as the reality they describe, when used skillfully, they can act as a medium for direct realization. See the MRO Recommended Reading List.
Liturgy
Liturgy makes visible the invisible, bringing into awareness the shared experience of a group. In theistic religions, liturgy reaffirms our relationship with God. Zen, by contrast, is nontheistic, so its emphasis is on realizing our Buddha nature, or the nature of the self. All of Zen’s rituals point to the intimacy between the self and the ten thousand things. For an introduction to Zen liturgy, see Bringing the Sacred to Life by Daido Roshi.
Right Action
Right Action is the study and practice of the Buddhist Precepts, the moral and ethical teachings of the Buddha. Though the Precepts are based on the experience of no-self, they are designed to function in the world of differences. Thus they define how a Buddha lives in the world. See
Daido Roshi’s book on the moral and ethical teachings of Zen Buddhism, The Heart of Being.
Art Practice
From its inception, training at Zen Mountain Monastery has taken up both the traditional Zen arts as well as contemporary arts to deeply study the self. Art practice encompasses the entire creative process: artist and tools, the relationships between artist and subject, artist and object, and object and audience. Together, these interactions show us that creativity is an inherent human process. See Daido Roshi’s book The Zen of Creativity.
Body Practice
Our physical body is our vehicle of self-realization, an experience that encompasses our whole being. The search for self-knowledge is often reduced to a purely mental pursuit. Body practice helps us to unify body, breath and mind through activities ranging from refined practices like Tai Chi to mundane activities like washing our face or eating breakfast.
Work Practice
Work Practice is a reminder that our spiritual practice must move off the cushion and translate into the sacred activity of living and working in the world. A daily caretaking period and formal work practice give us the opportunity to explore labor that is nourishing to ourselves and others. Starting with simple, repetitive tasks, and gradually increasing their complexity, we learn to see how our minds respond to the task at hand.
Lay and Monastic Practice
The Way of the Lay Practitioner
Lay practitioners have always been a vital part of Mahayana Buddhism. The history of lay practice goes back to the time of the Buddha and the great lay practitioner Vimalakirti, during whose life the term “white-robed one” began to be used.
In the MRO, John Daido Loori, Roshi designed the Eight Gates of Zen to address the needs and challenges of modern lay practitioners in the West. The Order’s two training facilities–ZMM and ZCNYC–support lay practitioners who work in the world and maintain families and households. The Society of Mountains and Rivers, an organization of affiliates associated with the Order in the US and abroad, provides the facilities for zazen and retreats with visiting teachers. Lay practitioners also find support in the MRO’s podcasts and other media produced and distributed through Dharma Communications.
The Way of the Monastic
To be ordained in the Mountains and Rivers Order is to serve the teachers and sangha fulltime as a vocation and livelihood. It is a lifelong commitment, providing a unique opportunity within spiritual life. Monastics in the Order are entirely dependent on the sangha and maintain the Monastery for current practitioners and for generations to come.
The process leading to full ordination is long and demanding. Requirements include at least five years of practice as a formal student, with a minimum of three years of residency, and subsequent residential monastic training. This graded approach allows students to find out through experience whether monastic life is right for them, revealing the difference between the reality of committing one’s life to the buddhadharma and any romantic notions about Zen training and monastic life. Those considering the monastic path should begin their exploration well before age 50 with the intention to discern and fully ordain with the approval of the Monastic Council before their 60th birthday.
Anyone considering monasticism would do well to explore residential training by starting on the residency page.
Becoming an MRO Student
Becoming a formal student is a process that helps make conscious our spiritual motivation. The purpose of this is to help us clarify Buddhist practice as an important part of our life by bringing us into contact with the deeper, more fundamental aspirations of what we want our life to be about. This then helps to strengthen our desire to make a training commitment to our teacher, MRO training, and the Sangha. The entry process occurs over time and involves passing through five gates of entry designed to make this very clear.
The five gates of entry are:
- Participation in an Introduction to Zen Training Weekend retreat. This retreat is an important introduction to the Eight Gates of Training, which form the basis for practice and training in the MRO. It provides an experience of these areas of training and allows plenty of time for Q & A throughout the weekend. It also allows us to meet and begin to develop training relationships with the teachers and senior staff.
- Completion of a week-long meditation intensive (sesshin) at the Monastery. Sesshin is a longstanding and essential aspect of Zen training, allowing students to devote themselves single-mindedly to the practice of zazen and other traditional forms of practice. Doing a week-long sesshin allows prospective students to receive personal guidance from the teachers in private interview (also referred to as dokusan or daisan) and begin to clarify their choice of teacher. Training staff often require that people complete a weekend sesshin prior to doing a full-week sesshin.
- Meeting with the Guardian Council, a group of senior MRO students, to express one’s inner motivation for practicing Zen and wanting to become an MRO student. This meeting is intended to help the prospective student clarify their own intent for entering into formal training, which will help them develop and sustain a stable, healthy practice. This is a real and dynamic process, and so in some cases, a person is encouraged to reflect and clarify further, and then to meet with the Council again.
- Tangaryo, dawn-to-dusk day of concentrated zazen. This is a traditional part of entering the Mountain Gate and beginning Zen practice within a community. Tangaryo helps the student to strengthen their relationship with zazen as an important part of their life, a refuge of peace and serenity.
- Requesting the teachings in private interview with the student’s teacher. The teacher cannot teach the student without the student’s explicit permission. In this special meeting, called shoken, the new student makes clear their desire to study with their teacher and the teacher welcomes the student onto the Path. This completes the process of becoming a student and signals the beginning of a formal training relationship between teacher and student.
It is not necessary for formal students to be in residence at the Monastery or the Temple. Most students practice at home, maintaining a relationship with the teacher and sangha through visits, retreats, sesshins, and short-term residencies and programs. The basic requirements to maintain formal student status are participating in one ango each year and two Zen training intensives (sesshin or zazenkai), as well as staying in contact with one’s teacher and making an annual donation (see below). Training advisors—lay and monastic seniors—can offer valuable guidance.
Non-resident students also sit with one of the Monastery’s affiliate groups or come to the Monastery or the Temple in Brooklyn for the Sunday morning program and for dokusan, private face-to-face teaching. Media support in the form of audio podcasts and video, whether formal students or not, are available free online.
Financial costs associated with becoming a formal training student, and an ongoing, sliding-scale annual donation to support the Monastery, Temple, teachers and monastics, are all flexible based upon need as well. Learn more.
You might also consider our Practicing Member program. Practicing Members stay connected to the teachers and sangha without the formal commitments of formal students. Click here to learn more.
Teachings
Listen to the teachings here.
Reading list
View the recommended reading list for MRO Students.
Receiving the Zen Precepts
To see the secular as a hindrance to practice is to only know that in the secular nothing is sacred; it is not yet realizing that in sacredness, nothing is secular. Realize the Precepts as your own body and mind and realize sacredness.
— John Daido Loori, Roshi
In the MRO, taking the Buddhist Precepts is a significant and serious aspect of training. The Precepts are unique among religious ethical teachings in that they’re based on the experience of no-self. In essence, they define how an enlightened being functions in the world, relates to others and this planet, and makes moral and ethical decisions in everyday life. They are the basis of the rules and guidelines for all residents and visitors to the MRO’s training centers.
Receiving the Precepts is a serious commitment open only to formal students. A minimum of two years of formal training and participation in a series of Precepts retreats are required. Upon completing these requirements, a student may petition to receive the Precepts, and if accepted, enter a weeklong intensive training retreat with their teacher to study the significance of this commitment. This week of training culminates in a public ceremony of Jukai, receiving the Precepts.
The Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts
The Three Treasures
I take refuge in the Buddha
I take refuge in the Dharma
I take refuge in the Sangha
The Three Pure Precepts
Not Creating Evil
Practicing Good
Actualizing Good For Others
The Ten Grave Precepts
Affirm life; Do not kill
Be giving; Do not steal
Honor the body; Do not misuse sexuality
Manifest truth; Do not lie
Proceed clearly; Do not cloud the mind
See the perfection; Do not speak of others errors and faults
Realize self and other as one; Do not elevate the self and blame others
Give generously; Do not be withholding
Actualize harmony; Do not be angry
Experience the intimacy of things; Do not defile the Three Treasures
If you’re just getting started, or wanting a more flexible commitment, join us for retreats and programs, or take advantage of our Practicing Member program. These are excellent ways of exploring Zen training to see how it resonates for you on your path.
