The Past Present

What I learned at the five day intensive was awareness of some of my programmed responses and behaviour patterns. These ingrained buttons that when pushed often result from the "same" cause and produce the "same" effect ~ suffering. The more awareness sharpens, the more chance to act from a place of "true" response rather then "same old".  I strive to nourish "true" me. Learning through the past in the present.

May 2009 Five-Day Intensive

This May we had 13 participants four our annual spring five-day intensive. Back row left to right: Sei-in Eric Jordan (shoshoji), Joshua Goldberg (joko), Joan Doerksen (shoden), Jundo Jaron Holder (jikijitsu), Luke Rogers, Mateo Ham, Hoyu Tommi Boulter (shoji). Front row left to right: Yushin Charles Rose (shoten), Soshin Ruth McMurchy (tenzo), Eshu, Doshu Lars Rogers (shika) and Seishin Susanne Ledingham (densu). Seishu Ben Morton who participated part time is not in the picture (sorry Seishu!).

With only 2 newcomers, the intensive was a solid and stable opportunity for all of the participants to dig into practice together. Consider joining us for our Winter five-day intensive December 5-11, 2009. Register early to ensure that you get a seat!

January Jukai Photos

My friend Darrell Pacini was in attendance at the January Jukai ceremony and took some awesome pictures of us. He also spent quite a few hours editing and polishing the pictures to get them to the state they are in now. I have uploaded them to Flickr and you can view (and comment) on them by following the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86302038@N00/sets/72157618117698118/

I have identified those of us going through Jukai in most of the pictures through comments...feel free to pass along to friends & family. I decided to do this through Flickr rather than Facebook as not all of us have an account. The pictures in the link should be viewable by anyone.

Enjoy!

Yushin

Zen Birthday Card

Japanese Pronunciation #1

Pronunciation of Japanese Vowels

Now that we have the updated, revised, corrected, super-duper new chant sheets, perhaps folks would be interested in getting their pronunciation of Japanese sounds a little closer to “correct.” I’ll start with trying to explain the vowel sounds.

First: Why do we have trouble with Japanese vowels?

The Japanese sound system challenges English speakers because it’s simple.

If you ask most English speakers how many vowels there are in English, they will usually answer something like, “Five or six. A E I O U and sometimes Y.” But those, of course, are just the roman characters that we use to REPRESENT the vowels in writing.

How many actual vowel sounds there are in English depends on the dialect you’re looking at: West Coh-oost Canajun? Noo Yawk? Strine (Australian)? Etc. But whichever dialect of English you’re looking at, the vowel sounds will almost certainly number well over twenty. The machinations we go through to represent those vowel sounds with six measly characters cause our own young a certain amount of grief, and have foreign learners shaking their heads in dismay.

How many vowel sounds are there in Japanese? Well, putting regional differences and the complexities of phonological processes aside, we can say with confidence that there are five vowel sounds in Japanese.

FIVE VOWEL SOUNDS!

That’s right. Compare that to the 25 or more vowel sounds in most English dialects.

Because of its plethora of vowel sounds, English tends to be quite forgiving of weird pronunciation. Often people can substitute one vowel sound for another and they still have a good chance of being understood.

The same is not true of Japanese. Here’s an example of what can happen:

Kirei (beautiful, clean, pure)

Kirai (dislike, hate)

One little difference makes a big difference!

Ok, I could go on and on about the phonologies of English and Japanese, but I’d better get down to brass tacks. What ARE the five vowels of Japanese, and how are they represented in roman letters (romaji)?

THE VOWELS OF JAPANESE

A I U E O

You might like to start by listening to a song about them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xST1wANc3qU

Click on the romaji to hear an audio file of the vowel. (I hope the links work!)

/A/ is more or less like the /a/ in “father” for Canadian speakers.

/I/ is like the vowel sound in “cheese.” NOT like the vowel sound in “hit.” So, for example, “Yushin” would rhyme with “you seen.” Have you seen Yushin?

/U/ is like the vowel sound in “soon.” Not exactly the same, but close enough.

/E/ causes a lot of trouble. It’s like the vowel sound in “bed.” This is true even when it comes at the end of a word! A place where I often hear it mispronounced is in the syllable /ke/ that shows up in our chants. Since this vowel sound doesn’t come at the end of words in English, we tend to turn it into the Canajun “eh,” eh? Try to isolate the /e/ of “bed” and say it by itself. You’ll be on your way to saying /ke/ the way it should be said.

/O/ Big trouble for Canadians. We tend to turn this into a diphthong, which is the fancy word for one vowel sound gliding into another. Just say, “No, I won’t go” and listen to your vowels. By the time you’ve finished saying “No” or “go” the vowel has actually become /u/, hasn’t it? This is especially pronounced in most Canajun English, eh?
The deal is, /o/ is not a diphthong in Japanese. It’s just /o/. Imagine you started to say “Oh” and suddenly had to stop before you got to the end of it. Just /o/, without gliding to the /u/ the way we Canajuns do.

You can listen to sound files of all the syllables at:
http://japanese.about.com/library/blhiraganaaudio.htm

WARNING: THE VOWELS ARE WHAT THEY ARE!

So, if you see a couple of vowels together, like “ee” or “oo,” the sound represented doesn’t change! “oo” is just /o/, but you say it a little longer. Same with “ee.” It’s the same sound as one /e/, but you say it a little longer.

If you see two different vowels together, such as “ai” or “ae” or “ei” or “ie,” each vowel of the pair is pronounced in the usual way, separately from the other. For example, “ai” is the sound /a/ followed by the sound /i/. “Ei” is an /e/ followed by an /i/.

This was an issue, now fixed by the new super-duper chant book, in the word “Rifui,” that appears in the Offering to the Hungry Ghosts. If it were written in hiragana, the Japanese syllabary, it wouldn’t have been an issue because it would obviously be three syllables: ri, fu, and i. But naturally this wasn’t obvious to English speakers who hadn’t learned about the sound system of Japanese. (Perhaps your computer will show you these three kana: りふい )

Here are some more songs about A I U E O:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crsG1TRpXZk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUJTtnRpQzk

Happy chanting!

Sesshin Followup

Returning from the recent 5 day intensive, I have been mulling over what happened for me there. On the last night, after the closing bell, we put the house furniture back in order and had a group meeting in which we talked about our experiences – I didn’t say much at the time, and now want to offer to the group a little of what is going on in my practice.

This practice really calls to me. Particularly during chanting and dharma talks, it is often painfully clear how much I long for liberation, and always have - what else is there to do? It is as if all the patriarchs and ancestors are inviting me to just 'drop body and mind' and follow this deep yearning that I feel – so natural, so simple. At the same time, I become gripped by fear, even terror, mixed with a sense of being unworthy to aspire to such an exalted path. At some underlying level, my daily life unfolds as though I’m inauthentic, or perhaps an impostor, and if I don’t manage my external façade of competence adequately, I’ll be found out, to my great shame.

I cope fairly well in most situations, but when the chips are down and a challenging interaction arises, what will happen if I don’t measure up as a father, a husband, a Buddhist practitioner, or just as a person? So I build my walls and hide behind them. I seek familiar and safe situations, like interacting with and manipulating objects, and avoid, or tiptoe cautiously through, the inevitable human relationships that life requires.

I see now that it was no accident that for years I practiced at a centre located 3000 miles away from where I lived – a comfortable buffer that I could deal with. I could show up once or twice a year for sesshin, drop in and do my solitary practice, and then disappear when it was over, without the need for engaging with the people in that sangha.

It’s a different story at VZC, and I want you all to know that I truly appreciate the love and support that you show me, and the opportunity that I have to contribute to this community we’re building. The sesshin form is so wonderful – a chance to engage with our private delights and demons, and to do it together with others, in a loving crucible. This time around I find that I’m a little more at ease and comfortable in my own skin, a little less driven to ‘get better’, and a lot more excited about the adventure of life and practice. I was Lars for 55 years, and have been Doshu for a little over 2. Now, with ordination approaching, I feel like maybe I’m leaving Doshu behind and moving into something else - I don’t really know what yet, but the prospect seems less daunting than it has in the past. If I’m lucky, I may get 20 or 30 more years in which to kick this can around, and I want to do it with it my family, friends, teacher, and sangha.

To all of our sangha, to Venerable Eshu particularly, and to my family and friends, I just want to say thank-you for all that you do.

nine bows,
Doshu