New Year Greeting

Warmest wishes from the Tenpyozan team!

Offering the New Year greeting, a monk asked Dogen Zenji “What is the Buddha Dharma this New Year?” Dogen replied “The same Buddha Dharma as last year, this New Year’s day is the same, every day we should do what we should do…” This is still true in our modern time. At the New Year everybody smiles, the trees and birds are also smiling… With courageous right-effort we can find that ‘every day is a good day.’ I hope you can do what you should do, with good health in your body and mind throughout the coming year…

In late December there was a small party at our Kojin-An Zendo in Oakland, California to send off the Japanese master carpenters who have been working to finish the Monks Hall at Tenpyozan. Under the burning sun of summer and into the rainy, muddy days of winter these carpenters toiled diligently to complete the walls and roof.

Now, all is quiet. The hammering has ceased for the holidays and there is just the sound of birds in the meadows, the wind blowing through the oaks, the far-off crow of the neighbors’ rooster, and for the first time ever, the sound of rain beating down upon the tar-paper of a strong new Zendo roof. In this quiet, one can imagine the thundering of our chanting and the distant reverberation of the densho bell. We are hopeful and deeply grateful.

We want to thank Tenpyozan’s many benefactors. This includes individuals and members of over 200 Japanese and Western temples who have donated to our vision of International Soto Zen, as well as numerous volunteers, contractors, consultants, and government officials on both sides of the Pacific. Although our outreach efforts are only just beginning, Tenpyozan is already receiving wide ranging support thanks to you and your sanghas. Recently a team of notable Zen teachers came forward to develop our ongoing e-newsletter; I hope you will sign up for it through the website and help us build an international Sangha, even while buildings are under construction.

Early in the new year as the carpenters continue their work, we will begin to tile the Zendo roof. We are undertaking a roof tile dedication campaign between now and summer when the roof is complete. If you are moved to participate, follow this Link to our site to dedicate your own tile. We hope you will share it with friends and family so that many more names can be inscribed on the backs of these tiles, thus we will all be sheltering the Dharma together!

2017 will be the year of the Rooster. Like the rooster, let’s smile and each day do what we should do, let’s be watchful and diligent, and let’s rise early and awaken all living beings…

Thank you for your support, and Happy New Year!

Rev. Gengo Akiba

and the Tenpyozan team