“They” Don’t Make Granola
I have been sitting zazen for about two and half years. For most of the first half of that, I experienced Chosei Zen as roughly 20 windows on a zoom screen. The other dojos existed mostly as entries in the drop-down menu on the Chosei Zen home page. I could not see how the different parts of Chosei Zen fit together, but that gap was of no practical consequence. The boundaries I saw changed when I also began to practice weekly at Daikozen-ji.
Practicing online, for example, I experienced directly how those who volunteer to serve as jiki make it possible for a dispersed group to practice in community. Practicing in person at Daikozen-ji or joining a workday at Spring Green made more vivid how members’ choices to stack stones, clean bathrooms, or cook meals make the dojo function and available to all of us.
Decades ago, I overheard a friend at work comment that the moment one realizes that there is no “they” is the moment adulthood begins. I took my friend to mean that as we mature we understand that there is no “they” who organizes a meeting, declares war, plants a garden, or fires someone unfairly. Individual people do those things.
I have a hard time, both conceptually and practically, with the transition between practice on the cushion and practice off the cushion. At this point, what unites them for me is a commitment to seeing what is in front of me and acting. The virtual and physical Chosei Zen provide different views of how the community is constructed, and different views of what is needed from members. Both views show how much we rely on the voluntary actions of members.
When my daughter was quite young, we were working together in a kitchen, cleaning up at the end of the day. At some point, she announced that she was tired and ready to be done. I responded with sincere appreciation for how she might feel in that moment that I felt exactly the same way. Unfortunately, I added, we are the only two people here and the work needs to get done. So anything you don’t do, I need to do. She thought about it for a few moments and, to my surprise, she got back to work. Her help lifted loads I had not realized I was carrying - the work was finished more quickly, it was done in companionship, and the work was acknowledged as it was shared.
A current theme in my training is “kitchen” - working through a treatise on instructions to the tenzo and periodic weekend training in the Daikozen-ji kitchen. As a way to apply my training, I am making granola for the small group that eats breakfast there after zazen. It is a small thing, something I know how to do, and it frees someone to take on a different task.
It is the cumulation of these “small” actions that make a dojo possible. We are the people and the work needs to get done. Individuals must step up to plant the garden, start a load of laundry, pick up the trash, or make granola. In taking initiative we create a community, one person and one action at a time.
Dojo Granola
Ingredients for 2 Large Trays
9 cups of rolled oats
3/4 cup pumpkin seeds
3/4 cup almonds, crushed or sliced
3/4 cup brown sugar
1+1/2 cup maple syrup (or sub. 1/2 to 3/4 cup honey for part of syrup)
3/4 cup avocado oil
1+1/2 tsp salt
Preparation
Preheat oven to 300 F
In a large bowl, combine rolled oats, pumpkin seeds, and almonds.
In a separate bowl stir to combine brown sugar, maple syrup, +/- honey, oil, and salt.
Pour wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour granola on rimmed sheet pan with Silpat mat and spread out evenly with a spatula.
Bake for 45 minutes, stirring halfway through baking process.
Let the granola cool completely, then store in airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Can freeze for longer storage.