Embraced and Nurtured by this Earth

Sky Flowers on the Day Before: My Life Guided by Zen Buddhism by Kazumitsu Wako Kato. Self-published. 462 pp. $16.95. ****

Kazumitsu Wako Kato preceded Shunryu Suzuki at Soki-ji Temple in San Francisco, and served as his assistant when Suzuki first arrived in 1959. For that reason alone this book will be of interest to Zen practitioners. Kato was a lifelong priest, taking vows when he was eleven years old. His father had just died, and his mother and three siblings were living in Japan around the time of World War II, where things were scarce; for a time they had to live in a cave, and they often had almost nothing to eat. Kato underwent extensive training as a monk at a very young age, and was expected to take over his father’s temple. But his interests were always broader than just being the local priest.

In 1949, when he was 19, he was helping to air out items that had been stored for safety during the war, and he discovered an edition of Dogen’s Shobogenzo. His mother told him it was the Eihei-ji Head Temple edition, considered the most authoritative one. Kato at that point began an extensive study of Dogen’s work, and found it extraordinarily difficult (thank God), just like the rest of us. He already, at that age, had been sitting zazen for years. He continued to read the Shobogenzo almost exclusively, and found it helped to read the book out loud (haven’t tried that). He says various passages are extraordinarily beautiful when read in Japanese.

He begins each chapter with a passage from Dogen; his translations are fascinating. Here, for instance, is a passage most Soto practitioners will recognize.

To learn Buddhism

is to learn yourself.

To learn yourself

is to forget yourself.

To forget yourself

is to be one with every existence.

And here is the opening of the second chapter, about his ordination.

You must know that if you shave your head

and wear a Buddhist robe

even if you have not received the precepts,

you can pray and you will

enter into a state of no fear.

That’s a state that we could all use right now.

Kato is now ninety years old, and apparently self-published this book; I can see why a publisher didn’t pick it up, because it seems too long in places, it includes monastic detail that many people won’t be interested in (though I often found it fascinating). It is also oddly focused on his early life; on page 282, more than halfway through the book, he is still just 22, and departing for the United States. An editor might have told him to get to that part sooner, and punch up the stories about Shunryu Suzuki, who is endlessly fascinating. Kato also met Alan Watts during his early years in San Francisco, and taught with him for a while at the American Academy of Asian Studies. He had an academic side all his life, and never wanted to be a temple priest.

For the first year Shunryu Suzuki was living alone, without his wife, and Kato often had him over to his place for a meal, but after a while he realized Suzuki was uncomfortable being away from the temple for long; he saw it as his role to be there. Kato was present at the famous incident when Soen Nakagawa visited, and blew his stack when he saw the book of sutras, shouting “This is not Zen!” and throwing the sutra book on the floor. Kato was shocked, but Suzuki rose to the challenge. “Suzuki looked at Nakagawa, bowed lightly and moved forward, squatting to pick up the sutra. Suzuki then said, ‘This sutra is donated by Mr. and Mrs. Jota Handa. This is a practice of our people and their way of kuyo (veneration). We treasure it’ Suzuki gently dusted the sutra, folded it and returned it to the altar and bowed sincerely with the touch of his conviction.” He then told Soen he was honored to have him, and asked him to have tea.

That moment beautifully contrasts the two men and their attitude to things. Kato thought it was an instance of dharma combat, and that Suzuki acquitted himself well. There are a couple other great anecdotes about the man, including the time he confronted a greedy man from his sangha, and his encounter with a young American who thought he was ready to teach Zen.

Kato himself doesn’t try to be a teacher through most of his book, but I found various passages inspiring, especially those about his own teacher, Nin’ yo, who like Kato had his ups and downs but was guided throughout his life by practice. But in his final chapter Kato talks about practice more directly, and a number of passages there were worth the price of the whole book. To quote just a few:

“Dogen’s Zen is neither the pursuit of a state of ultimate truth nor some sort of remedy, but simply the state of being connected to reality. Since I had observed and practiced Dogen’s Zen from my early days, I realized that Dogen’s Zen is centralized in its practice of shikantaza, ‘just sitting.’ Our varied practices (or daily activities) are like petals of a flower with sitting practice as its pistil.”

“Our lives must be in tune with our surroundings. That necessitates being in rhythm and harmony with all earthly existence. We are embraced and nurtured by this earth. . . . Nirvana is the thorough acquisition of dharma, or complete equilibrium with existence. Attainment of that state will keep us free from samsara. Nirvana will be a dynamic and positive state assuring us of our humanity.”

“Over the years, I have tried to follow in Dogen’s footsteps . . . I attempted to simply pay close attention to each instant of my actions, trying to be one with what I was doing.”

“I decide to live each moment in full, and think of time as never being ahead of or behind me. . . . Practice and awakening are one, with no beginning and no ending; thus, I have no need to seek awakening outside of my own life.”

This chapter reads like the final testament of a man of deep wisdom.