The Monastery of Open Doors
Treeleaf Zendo’s priest-training program for practitioners unable to take the traditional route
... Founded over a decade before the COVID-19 pandemic normalized online retreats, Treeleaf has been at the vanguard of virtual Buddhist practice. Cohen formed the community in 2006 as a practice space for people who could not leave their home because of illness or disability. Soon, though, the sangha expanded to include practitioners around the world who couldn’t attend in person because of schedules, geography, natural disaster, or war.
Over the past decade, Treeleaf has ordained several of its members who, like [Jinkan] Powers, demonstrate dedication to the dharma but are unable to pursue traditional monastic training. This year, the organization is piloting the first formal nonresidential path to Soto Zen ordination. Called the Monastery of Open Doors, the program is designed for committed Zen practitioners whose circumstances prevent them from participating in residential training. ...
... Kokuu Andy McLellan began practicing Buddhism in 1997 after he was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome. Because of his illness, it is difficult for him to leave his home, so he cannot participate in residential monastic training. In 2017, he received shukke tokudo, or novice ordination, and he has been helping Cohen develop the Monastery of Open Doors to support others who hope to deepen their practice but face similar physical challenges. “There shouldn’t be one pathway to being a priest,” McLellan says. “We’re trying to open up alternative paths for those who can’t go the traditional route. If you’re chronically ill or living with a disability, that is another form of training. Through your illness, you learn to cultivate compassion and understanding of suffering without being in a monastery.”
Cohen agrees, noting that “illness and other hardships may be life’s most powerful koan, and a hospital bed or wheelchair can be a monastery.” ...
... At Treeleaf, as in most monastic training programs, novice priests are expected to lead sits and ceremonies for the community. But at the Monastery of Open Doors, they also learn how to adapt components of each ceremony so that all members have a way to participate regardless of the physical challenges they may face. Because many members have limited mobility, priests have developed ways to perform rituals while seated or, like Powers, while lying in a hospital bed. “We want to show that even if you’re disabled or chronically ill, you can still practice,” McLellan says. “And not only can you practice, you can ordain.” ...
... Treeleaf is committed to showing that people with disabilities have always had a place in the dharma. When novice priests learn about Zen lineage, they also learn the stories of people throughout Buddhist history who dealt with illness and physical challenges. This aspect of training was spearheaded by Powers and McLellan, who developed a “differently-abled ancestor ceremony” as a means of increasing the visibility of people with disabilities in the history of Buddhist practice. During retreats, the whole sangha chants the names and stories of these individuals, honoring “those who may have been met by exclusion or fear, those for whom the path was filled with obstacles and barriers, those for whom entrance was so often denied.” The names of these figures are included in the lineage charts that members receive when they take the precepts or ordain. ...
.. Through Treeleaf, [Washin Tsarenko] leads weekly meditation sessions called “Sitting for Peace,” where individuals from around the world come together to chant the Heart Sutra in English, Ukrainian, and Russian and dedicate their practice to those injured in the war. “Zen practice is difficult even under normal wordly conditions,” Tsarenko reflects. “In times of war, it is even more difficult because we are constantly under threat. Sometimes we enjoy silent days where there are no attacks. But other days are full of grief because we lose people. So how do we stay balanced? It all starts from zazen. ...
... Cohen believes that these types of service, though untraditional, are valid forms of training and help priests cultivate wisdom and compassion in the context of their everyday lives. “The point of the Monastery of Open Doors is to train good priests, no matter what winding road gets them there,” he says. “Many of our priests can’t go on ango, the traditional three-month residential retreat required for ordination. But another kind of ango is to be in a battlefield helping load trucks with food or to be nursing your dying spouse at their bedside. That is Zen training. That is abiding with the great question of life and death.”
Cohen acknowledges that Treeleaf’s approach is unconventional, and he still encourages those who are able to pursue residential training to do so. “If every priest were trained like we train our priests, it would be a disaster,” he jokes. “We would lose all the traditions that can be taught only in a residential setting. But there’s room for all of us: the Western monasteries, the monasteries in Japan, the hermits in their caves, and now, the Monastery of Open Doors. We have a place too.”
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