Speech by
Philippe Reiryu Coupey
pronounced in front of the very great sôtô sangha
at La Gendronnière temple in 2017
“Our teaching is to find, for each one of us, our own autonomy, in the dojo, just as in everyday life. The organisation of the sangha promotes and reflects this autonomy of its practitioners. It is thanks to this autonomy that the division between the practitioner and the structure disappears.”
Photo : Old monastery of Ommerborn located at 40km from Cologne (zen-road.org).
The Right Distance from Institutions
In 2001, I created the Sangha Sans Demeure with my disciples. I have encouraged them to direct sesshins and summer camps; and the sangha supports them. Out of 300 practitioners, 40 direct sesshins in Germany, Switzerland and France. All of this without any influence from the Japanese clergy.
We do not have a temple and we do not want one. We are not looking to obtain the certificate of transmission (the shihoj formalised by the Japanese authorities. However, I do transmit shihos not formalised by Japan, yet registered with a solicitor just the same.
In 2006 I supported, and still support, the autonomy of the Dojo Zen de Paris. Following that, I was prohibited from directing summer camps at La Gendronnière for eight years; I understood and accepted this sanction.
I have received the shiho in 2008 from Kishigami, a direct disciple of Kodo Sawaki, in spite of the opposition expressed by certain people. Master Kishigami was prohibited to stay at La Gendronnière, after which I invited him to come anyway.
In the light of these differences, the question arises: what did the master expect of us?
Sensei said at the end of his life:
“I have brought you the seed of Zen, it is up to you to develop it.”
Since Etienne Zeisler died, two opposing tendencies have appeared. Some have gone towards the guardianship of the Japanese ecclesiastic. Others have gone towards a religious autonomy.
A guardianship, like the one the Chinese conferred upon the Japanese after Dogen’s death; like in the United States after Suzuki’s death, has always existed. An ecclesiastical guardianship imposes an external authority upon you in exchange for protecting you in your practice, giving you titles and highlighting the value of your mission.
But in religious autonomy, a guardianship cannot exist. Autonomy is the independence to decide for oneself by oneself. It is to freely direct one’s own sangha; in our case, that means to live with a minimum of 'hierarchy' and that within the sangha itself.
It is not one vision that I have chosen over another. If you know yourself profoundly, you do not choose, you just know. You just are, that’s all. Therefore there should not be any conflicts or confrontations, because the other one facing you did not choose either. We are each able to remain in our position without any problem at all.
In the Sangha Sans Demeure our teaching is to find, for each one of us, our own autonomy, in the dojo, just as in everyday life. The organisation of the sangha promotes and reflects this autonomy of its practitioners. It is thanks to this autonomy that the division between the practitioner and the structure disappears.
We have joined the network Zen Simply Sitting, not in order to find a guardianship, but simply to co-ordinate with other autonomous sanghas.
My wish for our organisation, AZI, is that the different visions can co-exist. I hope that, with this Commemoration, we can function with more cohesion, and I hope that the Spiritual Council of AZI will welcome representatives with visions other than those who place themselves under the eye of Japan.