Reflection from a New Sensei

by Christina Tchoren Carvalho

It is pertinent to ask whether our many years of koan curriculum make the teacher’s path inaccessible to less privileged persons. On the other hand, it is reasonable to ponder that the same long years are what it takes for individuals to really traverse their internal limitations and mature in a more reliable way. A first koan.

So how do you make a new Sensei? Obviously, since every person brings her/his ingredients, there is no way to write a recipe. But it is generally accepted that ten years is the minimum amount of time required. In the case of this new Sensei, indeed it took a solid ten-year period of koan training, and probably only because she had had twenty years of previous study-practice in Tibetan Buddhism, with a couple of stints with Zen in the middle.

It has been an intense, two dokusan per week, ten-year training. And I feel incredibly lucky to have had Roshi Egyoku’s patient and generous support throughout, including her blessings for me to start my own Zen group here in Campinas, Brazil, pretty much from the get-go. My Zen group—Empty Hands Circle—has sprouted before the Covid pandemic, dwindled, and is sprouting again in the last couple of years. Please follow my infrequent posts on Instagram: @zenbudismocampinas.

A profound calling for me, however, is the theme of Climate Justice, which of course encapsulates the inextricable issues of social justice and climate emergency. Since I translated the book Ecodharma (and participated in online trainings, especially with Sensei Kritee Kanko, whom I consider my Ecodharma teacher), I have been giving online courses called “Precepts and Climate Crisis.” These are fairly successful both in terms of number of participants as well as in terms of engagement with the contents. Yet I find students reticent when it comes to concrete activism. It is fair to presume that most people come to Zen in search of a modicum of peace and balance, a refuge from their excessively busy and stressful lives. So perhaps it is not fair to expect them to jump at the idea of engagement in street demonstrations and concrete acts of resistance. Still, my deepest feelings tell me that nowadays it is not possible to fulfill our bodhisattva vows without ALSO getting off the cushion and participating in the Climate Justice movement. A second koan here.

A third koan for me is about how to serve people in vulnerable economic situations beyond the regular financial support given to social projects. Charity and assistance are fine but… is that it? Zen everywhere, it seems, attracts white middle-class people, mostly with a college degree. In a much poorer country like Brazil, predominantly Christian and increasingly fundamentalist, Zen is much more foreign than in the US and Europe. Are these robes, titles and Zen accoutrements making it more difficult to reach—and serve—less privileged people?

These are the koans that, for me, follow the 700+ that I painstakingly worked on for the last ten years.

After spending a few 3-month Ango periods at ZCLA over the years, the final Transmission week was indeed a crown jewel. I had the fortune of having Sensei (now Roshi) Shogen as my “jisha,” and I couldn’t have had a more attentive, patient, and compassionate person helping me to go through the prostrations despite my hip problems. He reminded me that I could also add other names at the end of the dedications, and it meant a lot to me to be able to invoke my root-Lama, Geshe Sonam Rinchen, after the male lineage, and his interpreter, Ruth Sonam, and Sensei Kanko after the female lineage. Better not to name names (lest I forget some), but the renewed flowers and refreshed bowls on all altars three times a day were also a touching support for this meaningful preparation.

“It takes a village,” quoted Karla, Roshi Shogen’s wife when we met before the Sunday ceremony. Indeed, it does. I am hoping to be able to send a couple of my students to either ZCLA (those who can get the evermore elusive-to-Brazilians Visa) or Zen River for as long as they can afford to go for training in our lineage. I know in my bones how utterly transformative these experiences can be.

There is no way to express in words the depth of my gratitude for the “ZCLA village” that took me in with such generosity and pushed me through this long training with so much love. May all these efforts benefit many beings.

Sensei Tchōren received Dharma Transmission from Roshi Egyoku on December 12, 2024.