American Zen Teacher's Association 2024
Great Vow hosted the American Zen Teachers Association (AZTA) this summer 2024 for the second year in a row. The Zen practice we share arises not just because of our teachers, but because of all the teachers, the MahaSangha. The residents of Great Vow provided support so that these Zen teachers could gather and support one another to carry forward the teachings and foster the next generation of Zen students and teachers.
We recognized many of the elders who started this collegial meeting, and heard from them as they shared some of the diamonds of wisdom forged of a Zen life with a rearview of 40 or 50 years of practice for some – gratitudes, regrets, optimism for the future of Zen.
While there are a multiplicity of Buddhist and Zen teacher organizations (we also hosted the Gen X Buddhist Teachers, and a contingent of the White Plum Asangha in June), AZTA is first and foremost a collegial group. It initially gathered to provide mutual support to the first generation of “convert” Zen practitioners (not raised in Buddhist families) in the United States. On this weekend, the attendees’ ages ranged from 51 to 82 – the bell curve peaked at about 70. So about half in their 70’s and 80s, and half in their 50’s and 60’s. It takes a long time to become a Zen teacher.
These teachers articulated their long-cultivated vows, and painted them on flags with ribbons for tying and displaying. There was a ceremony of witnessing these vows, which are now displayed in the Shrine of Vows. 
Hogen Roshi encouraged the teachers to state a vow that felt a little tremulous – to stretch and put something out there that felt maybe hard to reach, or that would necessitate help.
One vow in particular began to manifest in the very moment of its articulation. When the vow was painted on the flag, it was painted upside-down! 
Even Zen teachers can have a moment of panic about not-doing-it-right. In that moment, another teacher suggested the flag be tied on in such a way that it must be lifted up to see! What a wonderful teaching: Receiving help from a colleague, the mystery is shared. Necessitating action, the observer becomes a participant. Open to “mistakes” and thus something larger than our ideas, the vow is heard and subtly answered.
May we all courageously realize, take up our vows, and support the vows of others and, indeed, give life to the mystery! 