ZEN GARLAND ’s Christian Zen Path will ordain its first Christian Zen Minister on October 17th 2010.

Dharma Successor, Sensei Ann Ankai Wagner will be ordained by Roshi Paul Genki Kahn at the Padovano Building at the Salameno Spiritual Center in Mahwah, NJ. This will mark the beginning of the first ordained Christian Zen Ministry Lineage.

Sensei Ann Ankai Wagner

As my family and I drove up to Massachusetts to help build a Lakota Inipi, or sweat lodge, I couldn’t help but think of the James Ray disaster in which the new age “guru,” leading a $9000 “Spiritual Warrior” retreat had killed 3 people and sent 22 to the hospital. I had read Duncan Sings-Alone’s blog about the catastrophe, detailing how Ray was untrained and his “sweat lodge” bore no resemblance to a traditional Lakota lodge. Read more on Sings-Alone’s blog here. I was eager to experience a traditional ceremony.

We were headed up to the house of Duncan Sings-Alone, Cherokee spiritual teacher and his wife, Priscilla Cogan, noted author of the Winona’s Web novels and spiritual teacher as well. Their daughter, Nancielee, had graciously invited my family to share in the building of a new sweat lodge.

The previous sweat lodge had been felled by a falling tree the past winter, so they had to wait until summer to rebuild when the sap rises so that the saplings can bend without breaking. The tree that had destroyed the lodge had been cut up into huge trunk segments, and the first task of the day was splitting the segments with an axe. They were then turned over to Priscilla, who spent the morning bent over her gas-powered wood splitter expertly chopping them into manageable logs.

Priscilla and Nancielee splitting wood

A cool, steady drizzle of rain fell; the forest around the house glowed green in the hazy light. Nawontah, the teenage fire keeper of the community, sang beautiful prayers as we worked. I felt a palpable harmony as we worked together creating sacred space.

The wood we were stacking would be used to heat the stones for the sweat lodge. The fire keeper’s responsibility was to build a large fire with around 21 stones carefully placed inside. He then lit and tended the fire, keeping it hot as the stones baked for 4 hours.

Priscilla recounted to us how you had to be careful not to use clay stones. On one occasion a clay stone had been used by mistake and exploded, sending a small molten piece into Priscilla’s mouth. Sings-Alone asked if she had kept it and she smiled wryly and said she spit it out as fast as she could.

Nawontah builds the fire

Grandfather Sings-Alone called a few people to gather saplings for the frame of the lodge. He explained how tall and thick they had to be, and how to spend a moment before cutting each sapling, explaining that you were taking its life for a sacred purpose and offering a pinch of tobacco in the earth at the base of its roots. He then offered a short prayer and sent us on our way in two teams.

The rain stopped. The sun came out. Mosquitos bit. We roamed the green woods seeking saplings, blessing each with a tobacco offering before felling it. Once the saplings were cut they were sacred and were not to touch the ground.

Success! I bring back some saplings

After we were done foraging, we stripped the leaves off the saplings except for the tops and whittled the base of the saplings into stakes. We then each took turns digging holes, offering tobacco to the four directions and placing the 16 saplings into the earth in a circle.

Sings-Alone and my father gently bent the saplings towards each other and the rest of us held them down and tied them together with twine. Two of them broke. Each time, I was startled at the sense of loss I felt.

The simple act of offering a prayer for each sapling and taking its life consciously and respectfully made the two saplings that broke seem like small tragedies, whereas ordinarily I might not have given it a second thought.

Building the frame of the Inipi

We then tied colored ribbons to each side of the Inipi for the four directions: Black for West, Red for North, Yellow for East and White for South according to the Oglala Lakota tradition. Each side of the sweat lodge not only had a ribbon representing the direction it was facing, but also 4 other ribbons representing the other directions, so that each part also contained the whole.

The Inipi frame with ribbons for each of the 4 directions

Finally, we were ready to cover the lodge. Under the patient direction and guidance of Priscilla and Sings-Alone we carefully placed old blankets around the lodge, putting the darkest near the door so no light would get in. The last step was placing a tarp over the roof to keep out rain.

Finally, the Inipi or “the only Church you can build in 3 hours without a mortgage,” as Grandfather Sings-Alone says, was complete.

We placed old carpet squares in the interior and a large buffalo skull stuffed with sage facing the entrance next to the pipe holder. The men covered themselves with towels and the women donned their towel dresses, and we all crawled into the lodge. Women went first and then men to keep the two energies separate as we entered the dark womb of the great mother.

Priscilla reassured us that the spirits were always gentle with first timers and that if we got too hot, we could lie down against the cool earth or leave the lodge. “The first round is only 10 minutes, the shortest and the hottest period.”

Priscilla sang some songs of prayer and called the spirits. Nawontah brought in the first few stones on a pitchfork, the rocks glowing red and shimmering as if they had absorbed the flames of the fire. Priscilla used a thick bone to scoop the rocks off the pitchfork and into the pit.  We each put a sprig of sage behind one of our ears to respect the spirits, and under our tongue to help us bear the heat. Priscilla burned some sweetgrass (it smelled like marshmallows) and some sage and cedar.

She then poured the water. I was surprised, the heat wasn’t suffocating like I thought it might be after experiencing Bikram Yoga. Instead, the wet heat of the steam seemed to open up every pore and sinus passage. We were instructed not to close our eyes, but to gaze at the stones and the darkness so we might see any spirits, messages or signs for us.

After the round was over, Priscilla called for the door of the Inipi to be opened and we shared water as the cool air from outside flowed in.

I don’t remember all of the details and chronology of the rest of the rounds, but each had its own purpose. During one round, Priscilla beautifully related the story of White Buffalo Calf Woman. (Here is a link to a version of the story online: http://www.kstrom.net/isk/arvol/buffpipe.html.)

During another, we went around the circle and took turns offering prayers of thanks and asking for what we needed. Later, Priscilla asked if anyone needed healing and offered prayers and songs of healing for those who did. She also related to us a song she had been taught by the stones during another sweat that she said we could put great suffering into. She sang the song once and then we all joined in, singing the simple yet powerful melody together within the Inipi, allowing it to resonate with any suffering or sadness dwelling within us.

In the final round we each smoked from the sacred pipe, each offering it to the four directions and making prayers.

The door was thrown open and one by one we crawled out of the lodge together. It was gently raining again and the cool water felt good after the heat of the lodge. We headed back to the house together and shared a potluck feast.

I had never been part of a ritual at once so ancient (one of the oldest ceremonies in North America) and also so readily accessible.

Priscilla masterfully directed the ceremony, projecting an aura of total calm, acceptance and presence.

The ceremony was simple enough to be adapted to the needs of those present but also complex enough to completely engage the body, mind and spirit viscerally and completely. All prayers began and ended with the phrase, “Mitakuye Oyas’in.” This translates as “all my relations,” calling for respect for Grandmother earth and all her children. It acknowledges that the Earth is sacred and we, made of the earth, are also sacred

It’s impossible to compare Priscilla’s authentic Lakota Inipi and James Ray’s deadly steambath. Ray was driving his unfortunate students past all reason and common sense to achieve bigger and better “spiritual” breakthroughs in the hopes that they might become spiritual warriors.

But this was Pricilla’s prayer: “Grandfathers, help us overcome any obstacles we’re struggling with so that we may become true human beings.”

Mitakuye Oyas’in

-Langston Kahn

Zen Garland has three Intense Training Periods each year, of 3 months duration each, called Ango, when we make special efforts to deepen our practice and realization. We are in Spring/ Summer Ango 2010. The Head Trainee for this Ango is Elder and Dharma Holder Wally Toryu Koopalethes. She has chosen a chapter of Dogen Zenji’s Shobogenzo, The Mountains and Rivers Sutra to honor her late, former teacher, Daido Roshi, and to celebrate her own love of the outdoors.

Click here to read the Mountain and Rivers Sutra

What follows is Toryu’s weekly postings and the comments of Ango Participants.

July 12, 2010

Although we say that mountains belong to the country, actually they belong to those who love them.  When the mountains love their owners, the wise and virtuous inevitably enter the mountains.  And when wise men and sages live in the mountains, because the mountains belong to them, trees and rocks flourish and abound, and the birds and beasts take on a supernatural  excellence.  This is because the sages and wise men have covered them with their virtue.  We should realize that the mountains actually take delight in wise men, actually take delight in sages.

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Dear friends,

When we earnestly study the natural world and study ourselves,  mutual ownership is complete. There is no separation. These mountains and rivers will flourish when they run their course according to their own dharma nature. We flow and flourish along with them.

What you give your attention to, becomes yourself.

This kind of ownership is love.

Keep walking – keep flowing,       Toryu