life to life transmission (a week with ryotan tokuda sensei)

One week has passed since the end of our sesshin (a week of intensive meditation practice) with Zen master Ryotan Tokuda, a Japanese monk who has been a missionary in Brazil and France for more than half a century. I don’t understand what brought us there, and where it’ll lead us to. But it is always through the unexpected that the path weaves itself, and one just walks, step by step, into the unknown, as countless others have walked and paved... just for you to walk.

Abruptly withdrawn by family health emergencies from our peaceful residential stay at a Zen center in the USA, my wife Yessica and I found ourselves, back in Mexico, devoid of an emotional container and deployed in a sea of uncontrolled situations and emotions that confronted us with the question of loss, and life and death. Next, out of grace, we receive a warm invitation from Hamid to partake into the sesshin with Sensei Tokuda, which Hamid himself hasn’t experienced in 20 years. What is it that calls us to travel overseas and sit in meditation for a week in a rundown monastery in the French Alps? What is it that responds “Yes”?

‘Life and Death are of supreme importance’, we are constantly reminded in Zen. And it is also the admonishment we received from Sensei Tokuda when discussing a short text on Life and Death written by Zen master Eihei Dogen. ‘What is life and death FOR YOU?’ asked Sensei Tokuda after telling us the story of his own life, which to me, felt more intimate, personal, and profound than to actually discuss Dogen’s text. After all, what Dogen said is Dogen’s truth, but what is true for myself? You have to say something!

Getting to interact so personally and joyfully, with a Zen master who describes himself as a clown was a total surprise. Everything I heard about him before wasn’t matching what I was witnessing, except for one thing: there is no trace of ego in this funny, yet mysterious person. All the jokes and funny commentaries neither obscure nor exalt how strong, serious and important the practice is in him.

At some point, the experience got surreally difficult, with lots of pointless physical work and exhaustion in the middle of an imminent catastrophe, to which his only commentary was “enjoy”, as it was clear he was enjoying himself. He even remarked that this is how life was in the golden age of Zen. I feel blessed for having listened to his stories and witnessed a tiny bit of his life, for it feels that part of it is now transmitted to us. With gratitude and reverence, I receive it. The profundity of it, I still don’t know, but as time passes, it sinks more and more to the depths of the ocean which calls us, and the heart of that which responds “Yes”.