About Zen — On the Bodhisattva Path

Engaged in the Practice of Suffering and the End of Suffering

While I listened to the above talk by Norman Fischer about our bodhisattva practice, I reflected on when I consciously stepped on to the bodhisattva path. Norman talked about turning fully in our practice toward the suffering in our lives and wholeheartedly helping those beings who are suffering.

I took Zen priest vows in 1984. This followed (and was followed by) six years of formal training at the Seattle Zen Center, later Cho Bo Ji Temple. I had committed to a daily Zen practice almost a decade before and began training with my first teacher then.

While I later worked a job in an office, some of my workmates volunteered at Cancer Lifeline in Seattle. I joined them in visiting people who had cancer and staffing a telephone hot line for patients and family members who were dealing with cancer. Later, I got a job as an editor at a major medical center in Seattle. I became friends with the chaplain and spent a lot of time with nurses and doctors and other caregivers. These people dedicated their lives to helping people who were suffering. I was deeply impressed and inspired and felt that I wanted to do something to help.

I later moved to the Bay Area. I tried unsuccessfully to get a job at a hospital. It was a time of economic downturn. This coupled with the fact that many highly educated people in the area were also job hunting made it impossible for me to find a job. I came up with a half-time position at UC Berkeley.

I considered what I could do for long-term work with such bleak prospects. I explored, researched, and deliberated. I came up with the idea that maybe being a male in elementary education would make me employable. I volunteered in a fifth-grade classroom at a school in my neighborhood. I then applied to the elementary education teaching credential program. I was accepted and went through the year program. I was hired for a fourth-grade teaching position even before I graduated. I taught for fifteen years-fourth grade, fifth grade, and Kindergarten. It was the right decision at the time and got me exactly where I needed to be.

As Norman said, doing Zen practice, we are all on the bodhisattva path. We turn toward the suffering and we find ways that we can help the most.

Living in Blue Sky Mind