Visiting with Soen Roshi, Ryutaku-ji 1982
......as I recall this day, we had been told that Soen roshi
had not seen anybody for the eight years since his skull had
been pierced with a branch of bamboo, so when he suddenly
appeared and greeted each of us with three hard, very hard
forehead to forehead butts - immediate intimate contact, a
Tibetan tradition I'm told - I was surprised, amazed, and
concerned for the health of his head which, it turned out, was
much less delicate than my own.
-pc/kuku 2007
Without a word, he got up, bowed, and led us back down the crooked stair. At the entrance he took up his long wood staff and marched along the woodland paths of Ryutaku-ji, leading the way down the mountainside to the public road where a cab would be waiting.
- Peter Muryo Matthiessen: "Nine-Headed Dragon River" pg 257
I made photographs in many intimate situations on this trip to Japan with Bernie and Muryo and Maezumi Roshi's family, but this meeting with Soen Roshi was the one time I left the camera untouched at my side.
- Peter Kuku Cunningham
A little boy running uphill on the path, headed down, was startled when he bumped into us, and more startled still when Soen-roshi, pointing his long stick, cried, "Monju! Here is Monju!" Monju is Monjusri, the Bodhisattva of Great Wisdom. The roshi was entreating us to perceive the Bodhisattva in the clear, undefended gaze of the little boy. Then the instant passed. Seeing the gaijin, the child's eye clouded in bewilderment, and the old man rubbed his head in blessing, saying sadly, "No, it is not Monju after all." The child ran off, and roshi fell silent, walking on.
- Peter Muryo Matthiessen: "Nine-Headed Dragon River" pg 258
At seventy-five, Soen Roshi stil seemed animated, but
Tetsugen felt---and I had to agree---that he had been going on
memory and nerve; his wild spontaneous inspiration had dimmed.
"He was almost like a ghost," Tetsugen commented as elation died
in the journey down the mountain, "the perfect ghost of
Soen-roshi, like the ghost in a Noh drama, which for some reason
was allowed to reappear.
In the sadness attending our visit there was also a freedom.
The wonderful teachers who had brought the dharma from Asia to
the West would appear no more, but in another sense, they would
be with us forever. In Western as in Eastern lands, the Buddha
Way might need centuries to become established, so the sooner we
got on about it, the better. It was time to step forward from
the hundred foot pole as the fortunate student of this
American-born buddha who sits here beside me in this present,
first, last, past, and future moment of my life.
- Peter Muryo Matthiessen: "Nine-Headed Dragon River" pg 259
Greeting us one by one around the circle, he smiled, then
laughed aloud in childlike pleasure. When my turn came he took
both of my hands and squeezed them three times, very hard, tears
in his eyes, then rose to his knees and gave me a great hug. He
laughed with Tetsugen, gazed at his old friend Chido-sensei with
a happy smile. Then he went back around the circle, touching our
heads in blessing, after which---just as he used to do---he
commanded us to slap his shaved head hard, to knock some sense
into it. By now, remembering his tricks, we were all laughing
with delight.
- Peter Muryo Matthiessen: "Nine-Headed Dragon River" pg 257
He raised his staff and kept it raised as long as we could see
him through the car window, a small black-robed figure at the
end of the path that led uphill into the forest
- Peter Muryo Matthiessen: "Nine-Headed Dragon River" pg 259
The picture of him saying goodbye to me and Bernie and Muryo:
he stood, a very very old man at the gate of his temple holding
his stick high until we disappeared about 2 k down the road, I
kept shooting out the back window and he kept standing perfectly
still, it was amazing, I remember it every time I say goodbye to
a meaningful person.
- Peter Kuku Cunningham
In celebration of Soen Roshi's 100th Birthday, Monday March 19, 2007
Emptiness - Emptiness
- - - - calligraphy by Roshi Junyu Kuroda - - - -
- - - - - photographs by
kuku peter cunningham - - - -