An Introduction to Green Gulch Farm and Zen Buddhism

Hello everybody!

This blog is going to be about my time at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in Muir Beach, California. I am going to be living and working here for the next 6 months as an apprentice in the garden.

A (partial) view of GGF and Muir Beach

I have been wanting to do this apprenticeship for the past five years, and it is exciting that this dream of mine is finally coming to fruition! 

This is my fourth stay at Green Gulch Farm (GGF). The first time I was here I came for my senior project for CRMS (my high school) in 2011. I stayed for two weeks as a guest student then, and during that time I was properly introduced to Zen Buddhism, zazen (Zen meditation), and the lifestyle here at Green Gulch.

I returned a year later with my father, and we only stayed for a short time (a week for me, four days for him). However, my dad's short stay here spurned a deep and passionate practice of Zen for him that continues to this day.

The last time I was here was in February of this year for a two week trial-run/application-period for the apprenticeship I am a part of now. During that time many of us applicants formed friendships which have (so far) endured into our first week as apprentices.

A quick explanation for the title of my blog: I am in fact Atheist, and religiously, I am not a Buddhist. However, I believe that, especially in regards to Zen, Buddhism is a tradition full of lessons that can be applied to any and all aspects of life. It essentially teaches how to live more compassionately and with more awareness, which is something I believe the world needs more of. Furthermore, I have some training in how to be a religious scholar (I was a religious studies minor in college,) and find religion to just be inherently fascinating. So, in many ways, I believe it to be accurate to call myself an Atheist Buddhist (and, technically, Zen Buddhism is an atheist religion anyways, as it has no gods.) I plan to explore this whole philosophy with great intent during my time here.

Muir Beach (both the beach and the town)

I thought that for a first post it would be appropriate to give a brief history in both Zen and Green Gulch Farm itself, in order to give context for the rest of the posts to follow. If you came to this blog solely to read about my adventures here, feel free to skip the rest of this post (although be forewarned, a little background knowledge might be a good thing for future reads.)

A Brief History of Zen Buddhism: 

This historical account is based only on my knowledge and understanding of it at this time. I am sure that this will be fleshed out (and even might change in places) upon more time studying here. I am also glossing over some parts right now. Let me know if you have interest in any part that I don't discuss all that fully.

As I'm sure many people know, Buddhism was founded in India by the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) sometime around the 6th century B.C. From India it spread to China, and from there it spread to Tibet, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. 

Shakyamuni Buddha
(pic: mrdowling.com)

There are two main schools of thought within Buddhism that all of the other schools and branches of thought fall into. The first one, Theravada, is more traditional, and the focus of those who practice a Theravada form of Buddhism is to obtain personal enlightenment (essentially).

Enlightenment in Buddhism, for those who do not know, means escaping samsara, the cycle of birth and rebirth (reincarnation.) To escape means obtaining enlightenment and entering nirvana.

The second predominant school of thought in Buddhism is the Mahayana tradition. The focus of those who practice a Mahayana form of Buddhism is to help others obtain enlightenment. Those who assist others to enlightenment are called Bodhisattvas. It is believed, in this school, that assisting others to enlightenment (and thus practicing pure compassion,) oftentimes results in personal enlightenment (although not necessarily). Zen is in the Mahayana tradition, and thus all who practice Zen seek to be Bodhisattvas.

Dogen founded the Zen school of Buddhist thought in Japan in the 13th century A.D. after studying Chan Buddhism in China. Chan is essentially the result of Taoist influence on Buddhism when it was introduced into China. It was different than most other schools of Buddhist thought at the time in its simplicity of tradition and philosophies, both of which appealed to Dogen as a student. In Japan he furthered these ideas into what we know to be Zen (although, really, Chan and Zen are the same thing). 

Eihei Dogen
(pic: existentialbuddhist.com)

The focus of Zen Buddhism is zazen, or the Zen form of meditation. In zazen, there are no mantras or tricks for calming your mind into quietude. Instead, those who practice zazen are encouraged to simply just sit, in the most basic and pure way to do so. To sit zazen is to only be sitting, and doing nothing else. Through simply sitting, students of zen become separated from their sense of self and in so doing they release their egos (and thus their thoughts,) to realize they are just one part of everything. Of course such realizations and quietude comes with enormous amounts of practice.

Zazen is often referred to as simply "sitting," and not "meditating"…because this is closer to the truth of what we are doing.

To be a Zen Buddhist is to practice, because being a Zen Buddhist means living in a state of vigilant, unpretentious, and constant awareness (it is generally incorrect to associate the term "zen" with being "relaxed", as is often done colloquially, and more correct to associate it with being "aware"). Sitting for at least 40 minutes a day (the recommended time for a period of zazen) is crucial to this practice of everyday awareness. For reasons that only hundreds of years of tradition understands, sitting is a natural conduit to being both more aware and at ease with your world outside of the zendo (Zen meditation hall).

Today, there are two main schools of Zen thought--Soto Zen and Rinzai Zen. The San Francisco Zen Center, of which GGF is a part, follows the Soto tradition, which is more hands off than Rinzai, and operates under the assumption/knowledge/belief that everybody who sits is already enlightened as soon as they first put their bottom upon a meditation cushion (zafu). In other words, enlightenment is almost never brought up in teachings, and around GGF in particular it is almost never discussed (especially as it would relate to someone practicing at the center).

History of Green Gulch Farm:

Suzuki Roshi moved from Japan to found the San Francisco Zen Center in 1962. This, of course, was a time when hippies, existential thought, transcendental thought, and an awakened appreciation of Eastern traditions was sweeping the Bay Area. Thus, Suzuki had a large following of predominantly white zen hippies from pretty much the beginning. The headquarters of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) is today referred to as City Center, and is located in downtown San Francisco.

Shunrryu Suzuki
(pic: sfzc.org)

Tassajara Zen Mountain Center is the oldest Soto Zen temple in the U.S. It was founded by Suzuki and then incorporated into SFZC in 1967. It is located literally in the middle of nowhere in the Ventana Wilderness, and is very much a place of practice retreat. There is more of an emphasis there on zazen and practice through study than there is at GGF, which has more of an emphasis on work practice.

Green Gulch Farm was bought from George Wheelwright in 1972, with the intention of it becoming a communal living space for laymen to practice together. Most of the original farm buildings are still on GGF's campus. For instance, Cloud Hall (the main dormitory) and our zendo (which is attached to Cloud Hall) used to be a horse and hay barn, respectively. The farm itself is six acres; the first acre is know as the "garden", and is used for growing ornamental flowers, medicinal flowers, and herbs. It also has a small orchard for heirloom apples and pears, as well as some ceremonial gardens. The back five acres are known as the "farm" and they grow primarily vegetables to be eaten at all three SFZC branches, as well as sold to local restaurants, at local farmer's markets, and in a few CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture). Both the farm and garden have their own distinct crews, with their own respective managers, workers, and apprentices.

The residential population of GGF is usually between 50-100 people. During the summers, this population looks roughly like 20-30 apprentices, 10-15 working residents, 4-6 guest students, and 30-40 senior staff and priests. There are also often many guests staying at the center who partake in various retreats and workshops (or who come for their own vacations or personal retreats).

There are six apprenticeships available. The farm and garden apprenticeships are only available right now, from April to October, and run those full six months. The other apprenticeships are available year round and usually last for three months at a time (although they can also go as long as six months). The other four apprenticeships besides farm and garden are: kitchen, guest program, grounds, and maintenance. For every three months as an apprentice, we earn a practice period (dependent upon our behavior during our apprenticeship) at any SFZC branch.

AT GGF, practice periods occur during October-April (the off-season for the farm). They last for two months at a time, and are essentially a more zazen intensive schedule than what we are doing now. I will probably go more into these later.

Daily Schedule:

The yurts (I'm living in the lower one!)
and the greenhouses on the farm

There is a daily schedule here that pretty much every resident at GGF follows (for roughly 5 days of the week):

5:00 am: First morning zazen

5:40: Kinhin (walking meditation)

5:50: Second morning zazen

6:30: Morning service (I'll go more into what this entails later)

7:00: Soji (Temple cleaning…essentially daily chores and tidying)

7:20: Breakfast!

8:30: Work meeting

9:00: Begin work (for me, on the garden)

10:15-10:35: Morning break

12:15: Lunch!

1:15: Back to work

4:15: Work ends

5:15: Evening zazen (only 35 mins instead of 40 mins)

5:50: Evening service

6:00: Dinner

7:30: Class/Dharma Talk (depending on the day)

9:00 pm: Lights out

A big idea around here is freedom in structure…essentially, that the rigid structuring of our days takes our minds off of the future and enables them to more fully explore what is happening in our present.

I hope that future posts will be more candid and personal, and will not be so much like a report. However, I don't want to assume that everybody reading this has as much of a foundational knowledge in Buddhism, Zen, and the farm as I am privileged to have. I hope that this post helped educate those of you who did not know any of this before :)

With that said, if I ever write about something that to me is common knowledge, but may not be for some of you reading, please let me know. I would love to answer questions! I am sure that as I get more caught up in the lifestyle here, this might happen more and more, especially with terminology. 

I also plan on talking about what I'm learning vis-a-vis Buddhism and gardening while I'm here in my  blogs (as well as maybe just going over the basics of Buddhism again.) This is for my own benefit as much as anything, but I hope those of you reading this enjoy learning what I'm learning as I go!

I am very excited for my next six months and to share it with all and everyone who has any interest on taking this journey with me :)

Catherine

A doodle found in the phone room (not mine, but I thought it was wonderful)