Snapshots L.A.

The Black Scorpion

Recently I enjoyed a retreat at the Black Scorpion Temple in Tepotzlan, Mexico - about an hour or so outside of Mexico City. It’s a Zen temple. Beautiful - and in an extraordinary setting.

I arrived a day early. There’s a lot of work to hosting a retreat or sesshin. Here oryoki sets are being prepared for retreatants. Oryoki is a formal Japanese style of eating using nested eating bowls. Meals are eaten on your meditation cushion in the meditation hall (zendo)-everything done in a particular time and rhythm. It’s a form of mindfulness practice.

This is the zendo or meditation hall. It was formerly a painter’s studio. One source of beauty and inspiration into another.

The woman at the center in brown robe is Claudia Hosso Politi, Sensei, the resident teacher of the Black Scorpion. She is in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi and Nyogen Yeo Roshi. The group is in the entrance foyer to the zendo where shoes are removed, and cushions, liturgies, etc., are stored.

Students “facing the wall” in meditation. Not easy, but worth the effort.

Every thirty minutes or so there is a brisk formal walking meditation practice called “kinhin.” It’s an expansion of the sitting practice. It lasts about ten minutes and then it’s back to the cushion, and the wall, and your own mind.

Students are preparing to open their oryoki bowls. A priest is dedicating the service by making a food offering at the altar.

When I went to Oxaca, Mexico several years ago to study with the photographer Ernesto Bazan, I met another student of his, Carlos Figueroa, who is a photographer for one of Mexico City’s newspapers. I suggested that he contact Hosso Sensei to photograph the Black Scorpion. He didn’t do just that. He became a zen practitioner as well.  At this retreat he made his formal vows as a Buddhist. This is called “Jukai.” I was very happy for him.

There’s a lot of warmth and fun in the students at the Black Scorpion - in addition to the seriousness with which they take their zen practice. I enjoyed their company enormously. Here they are joking around while a photographer tries to take a photo of them from the second story.

I’m including this last photo because it gives some idea of the natural environment around the temple. It is one of only three places on the planet where these particular rock formations exist - the other two being China and Thailand. The gigantic cliff like rocks were thrown out from an enormous volcano countless ages ago.

If you’d like to find out more about the Black Scorpion, you can go to blackscorpiontemple.com or hazymoon.com.

All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

Wilshire Boulevard Temple

I’m fascinated by construction projects and can watch them for hours. The way things fit together - from the skillful and dangerous erecting of scaffolding to the sequencing of what comes next in the construction/reconstruction. Wilshire Boulevard Temple, built in 1929 and THE temple for Hollywood stars and executives during the golden years- is undergoing a major facelift as well as expansion. It and its educational/community facilities will fill an entire square block in the heart of Koreatown. Think more than a hundred million dollar price tag. Meanwhile I an amazed at how patiently and minutely cracks are found and patched. I enjoy watching the  hardhats move along the yellow framed walkways, seven, nine stories in the air. These guys are artisans.  All of the patterns become a beautiful abstraction emerging from - well - just construction.  Just construction, indeed.

CHALKUPY

The August Art Walk was characterized as festive by the Los Angeles Times. It wasn’t. It was boring and hot. Occupy LA had been silenced into a few people cornered in Pershing Square. They called their presence Chalkupy. There were police everywhere. They had set up cameras in the Square and filmed continuously.

There were few thoughtful or provocative messages.

It appeared that there were far less people downtown than previously. Much younger than before. Checking things out but not in the art galleries. Looking for the action - which didn’t happen.

There were parking lots with lines and lines of food trucks. Heavy music blaring. People eating and looking at each other. That’s where the action was. If you want to call it that. I hope the downtown merchants, Pepsi Cola, and whoever else sponsors the Walk put their heads together in some creative way.

All Photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

Mount Sumeru

For centuries zen communities have observed “ango,” a three moth period of intensive meditation practice and spiritual training. A priest is selected by the abbot to be “shuso” or head monk for this period. He selects a koan that he must penetrate and then present his resolution before the community as well as accept questions regarding his comprehension. A koan is a phrase from a sutra, or a teaching on Zen realization, or an episode from the life of an ancient master that points to the nature of ultimate reality. Essential to a koan is paradox, i.e., that which is beyond “thinking,” transcending the logical or conceptual. Since it cannot be solved by reason, it is not a riddle. It requires a leap to another level of comprehension.

Below are several photographs taken just before and after the highly ritualized ceremony in which the Shuso presents his koan. To see a much fuller visual record of the ceremony please go to hazymoon.com and click on Shuso Hossen at the top of the home page.

The abbot and a senior student wait in a separate room before the beginning of the ceremony.

The Shuso prior to his entrance into the Zendo or meditation hall.

The abbot teases the shuso after a job well done. Relief. Pleasure.

Successful koan or not, if you’re going to spend 3 months in retreat, it’s best to have an understanding wife.  Maybe one who practices zazen.

I have included the core of the Shuso’s koan. It is from The Book of Serenity, a 100 koan collection from 12th Century China in which the great Zen master Hongzhi played a pivotal role. Translated by Thomas Cleary. Shambhala Publications.

A monk asked Yunmen, “When not producing a single thought, is there any fault or not?”

Yunmen said, “Mount Sumeru.”      

Try sitting with that for three months.

Photography: Copyright John Fritzlen

Musicians

There was once a big New York photo exhibit entitled The Family of Man. It became a paperback book which many of us loved, especially when we were young and idealistic. One of the images that I remember was of a young Andean flute player, a visual leitmotif that reoccurred through the pages, seeming to invite us to enjoy the music of life. One of my grandfathers was a classical musician. He and my grandmother separated. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, staunch teetotaler of a Presbyterian. He simply disappeared, but all of his children and grandchildren have loved music. Some have been musicians and singers. My grandmother couldn’t carry a tune. I love watching and hearing musicians and their music. It seems to me a wonderful life, even if precarious. In the next go-around, I wouldn’t mind coming back as one. My grandmother’s part of me would also like to be accompanied by a trust fund. A large one.

All photographs are Copyright John Fritzlen

Big Signs

Signs. Big Ones. Most people hate them. I fall into that camp part of the time. But, sometimes I love them. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to buy anything they’re selling, but wow…the surprise of color against the sky, a crow flying by, an open window, a bare arm and a glass of champagne. Much better that than a bare wall.

Condominium, Wilshire and Western, Koreatown

Photograph Copyright John Fritzlen

Nothing Simple

The clash between Occupy Los Angeles and the Police at the Downtown Art Walk this past Thursday has its root in what Occupy has chosen to occupy its self with.

Occupy is focusing on what it regards as the callous gentrification of downtown - the indifferent pushing away of the city’s very poor many of whom are mentally ill or with major substance abuse problems or physical disabilities; this critical attitude also extends to the recent cleanup of the pervasive filth in skid row. They brought lots of chalk to the Art Walk and began covering the sidewalks with facts and political messages.

An afternoon nap in a doorway of the abandoned Giannini Bank of Italy building at 7th and Olive. The structure was built in 1922 and was declared a Los Angeles Cultural Monument in 1988. A cultural monument often used as both cot and pissoir. The stench as you walk by can be major. The Bank of Italy eventually morphed into the Bank of America. Three years ago the Bank of America received a $45 billion federal bailout. It thanked the country by announcing plans last fall to lay off 30,000 American workers and relocate its business-support operations to the Philippines where the average working family makes $4,700 a year. I think they call it outsourcing. Homeless people often sleep wherever during the day in our downtown because they are afraid to sleep on the streets at night. In Manila, apparently the safest place for the very poor and homeless to sleep is within a few feet of the railroad tracks.

Occupy Los Angeles has allied itself with the organization Community Action Network whose stated purpose is to empower people dealing with poverty. Here is a link to their website and information about them: http://www.cangress.org/

All the chalk stuff was meant to embarrass and educate the thousands of people attending the Art Walk - also, and not completely incidentally, provoke a confrontation. According to some witnesses, it got violent when a few protesters threw beer bottles at the police. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know.

From the downtown merchants’ as well as promoters of The Art Walk point of view, it’s seen as an attack on all the effort that urban pioneers and entrepreneurs have put into the bringing back to life of a virtually abandoned core Los Angeles.

Above is another abandoned bank building but put to a different use by the “gentrifiers.” The Last Bookstore was happily packed, filled with people, music, books, and art during a recent Art Walk. After last week’s violence, many people say they are concerned about returning downtown for big public gatherings. I hope they continue to come, but also remain aware of the deep problems of poverty and the skid row area. Many people of all persuasions are working on them, but the truth is it will take public money, probably lots of it, and difficult voting decisions to make real differences. Don’t count on Bank of America to step up. They’re off-shoring to the Philippines. Hello Manila.

All photographs Copyright John Fritzlen

China Notes By Marlen

Marlen is the granddaughter of my next door neighbors in Koreatown. I met her around six years ago. I gave her an elegant English China Tea Set that I had inherited but knew I would never use. I thought it would be perfect for a young lady to grow up with. The other day I ran into Marlen and her grandmother. When I asked Marlen what was new, she told me she’d just gotten back from China. Wow! “What’s with you and China?” I wanted to know. “I’m studying Chinese and went with my classmates,” she said. She also informed me that day was her 13th birthday. What a life!  Just back from China and a 13th birthday. I asked her to share some photos for this blog along with a few of her observations. They follow, preceded by a photograph of Marlen and her grandmother. Pure sunshine.

Here is a picture of a long huge line of people waiting to see Mao Ze Dong, the chairman of China till 1976. I chose this photo because of the contrast between the U.S. and China.  In my experience, whenever I see a line this long its for some new roller coaster ride, but in China it’s to see Chairman Mao.

This is a picture of a building that was used as an “Entertainment Building”. I can’t remember exactly what it is called, but inside there would be performances so the public could go and watch; operas, plays, etc. This photo is one of my favorites because it’s surrounded by a ton of skyscrapers.

The 3rd picture was taken at the Great Wall in Beijing. I chose it because it reminds me how high we were and how tired I got from climbing to get there. :) By the way, the person underneath the striped umbrella is a vendor. Vendors are spread all over the wall selling water and other refreshments with snack.

SURPRISE SCOTUS VICTORY

OCCUPY LA medical tent. October, 2011. Hardly the same, but the point remains.

Photograph Copyright John Fritzlen

FLYING HOUSES AND TRADER JOES

Khenpo Karthar once told me that during the  1930’s in Eastern Tibet he was told that there were airplanes; that they were like houses that flew in the sky with people inside. He thought that was obviously made up. He entered a monastery when he was twelve. Studied hard, did a three year, three month retreat, eventually became a revered teacher even though he came from a nomad family and was not a reincarnated tulku. He was a hard working monk who mastered his own mind and saw the world as it is (“Things as they is” - Suzuki Roshi).

Born in 1924 into a physically medieval world, he, here, is blessing a baby, only a few days old, in an office building down the street from Trader Joe’s.

Photograph Copyright John Fritzlen