After years of on and off solo practice, one thing I learned from the Deer Park experience was the importance of the Sangha, the practicing community. It makes sense to me now why the Sangha is considered one of the three jewels of Buddhism, along with the Dharma and the Buddha. So since then, I've been pushing myself to spend more time at the San Francisco Zen Center, and for now I've settled on going to the bi-weekly Dharma Talks. I'm thinking eventually I will also go once a week for the afternoon sitting.

I've been to the SF Zen Center before, but it always put me off and I never got involved with it. There was just something cold and affected about it. A lot of what I think is affected and puts me off is the failure to distinguish between what is essential Buddhist practice, and what are Japanese cultural accoutrements (SF Zen Center was founded by Japanese Zen "master" Shunryu Suzuki).

Bowing is basic practice, but the excessive bowing seems uniquely Japanese, i.e., affected in the U.S. I guess I can let the tatami mats slide, even though Buddhism didn't enter any geographic region with the understanding that tatami mats were essentially Buddhistic. Buddhism entered Japan and tatami mats were used in Japanese monasteries because tatami mats were what the Japanese used. They weren't imported from China or India, I don't think. But their use at SF Zen Center might be explained by Shunryu Suzuki, going by what he knew, ordered tatami mats for the various practice halls.

But the chanting parts in Japanese I still don't comprehend. Why chant in Japanese? To me that is purely affected, perhaps for the exotic feel/sound (?), nothing to do with essential practice. From my observation, there aren't many Japanese who attend SF Zen Center anymore. The majority is English speaking, and what Japanese-speaking contingent there may be, they are versed in English. When Shunryu Suzuki founded the center, it probably made sense for Japanese and English to be used. But for American Buddhism to evolve, it can't cling to cultural facets that have nothing to do with Buddhism. If Americans can't get beyond the "exotic" aspect of Buddhism, the Asian cultural aspects, it will never find Buddhism itself. Just go perform your fucking tea ceremony dressed in your kimono.

(Thich Nhat Hanh expressed this same sentiment, perhaps a bit more diplomatically).

Deer Park had to split everything between Vietnamese and English because there were so many monastics that were more comfortable with Vietnamese, some who were only comfortable with Vietnamese (and maybe French, but we're not in France). And I appreciated that the architectural design of the new Meditation Hall wasn't some chinky owiento design, but was influenced by barns in Vermont (the Deer Park Meditation Hall is using the same design used in the Vermont Maple Forest Monastery). To me, that says Buddhism here in America is American, not some exotic, foreign, imported thing.