“Poco a poco” Pilgrimage Finale! 200 miles, Corvallis, Great Vow Monastery, Bells Mountain
“After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little.”
―Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
My teacher Chozen told us that one of her teacher’s favorite Spanish phrases was “poco a poco” or “little by little,” as we say in English. Practice is like this, life is like this, our pilgrimage was like this and creating this new practice center will be like this. Moment by moment, if we keep returning to our same vow or our same intention, it is accomplished, our goal will be realized, “poco a poco.”
From one perspective, it’s such an accomplishment that Soten ran 1,300 miles from Mexico to Bells Mountain! Amazing! From another perspective, it was just simply placing one foot in front of the other, moment by moment, day after day. just like we all do every day. The difference, perhaps was that those steps were all in the same direction. And, of course, his physical capacity and will power are unusual, to say the least.
On our finale day, we had so much support! He had someone running with him most of the day and I had much needed help cooking, shopping, navigating, and driving the support van as well. Thank you Kozan, BI, and Spencer! I arrived at Bells Mountain around 4:30pm and five of us (Olivia, Natasha, Travis, Satya Vayu, and Seirra) along with baby Sabina walked in the dark the 4 miles up to the summit. We walked the last hour in the gorgeous dark silence of the clear forest night arriving to a warm fire, dinner, and an an outdoor zendo Doka and Eunata had set up for our arrival ceremony. The night was cold and calm with incredible stars. After chatting for awhile, we again fell into silence around the fire as we awaited Soten’s arrival from up the state trail on the other side of the mountain.
It was quite magical the moment when he finally arrived at midnight with his 6 accompanying runners: the aforementioned, plus Kate, Satya Eric, and Enkan. From across the meadow all we could see were little floating balls of red light as they walked with their lit headlamps towards us. As they approached, we could hear that they were chanting the mantra of Jizo Bodhisattva and we joined in, uniting our voices with theirs, getting stronger and louder as they got closer and closer, “om-ka-ka-kabi-san-ma-e-sowa-ka,” and ending with a big cheer and bells at the end to announce their arrival. Next, the sixteen people gathered participated in short and sweet ceremony invoking the earth, our ancestors, the suffering of the world and the compassionate and wise response to that suffering. Each person had a chance to voice their heart-felt intention and we did a vows ceremony taking up the vows of Jizo Bodhisattva to have the strength, patience, faith, and wisdom to awaken, heal, and light the way for all beings in need. All on the top of the mountain with the fire, the stars, and the tall silhouettes of the evergreen trees surrounding the open meadow, Truly a beautiful homecoming.
Now we have been here a week. It feels good to not be going anywhere and the immensity of this project has finally hit us! Now the real work begins.There are two houses in need of repair and organization, tons of online work, banking, board activities, meetings, resident guidelines, a zendo to build, meditation cushions to be sewn, a baby to care for, a schedule to uphold, a calendar to plan, 700 acres to take care of including 6 acre garden covered in grass to maintain, tons of ‘stuff’ to sort through, plus the everyday work of moving in, preparing meals, keeping the house and continuing to deepen in our practice (to mention a small portion of our to-do list!). It feels overwhelming and quite impossible if we try to hold it all at once but little, by little, moment by moment, it is just this one thing, this one breath, this one step, this one word. Little by little, I have faith that a true and functioning place or deep practice and refuge will emerge, in its own time. And, we definitely need help, including more residents! Please reach out if you are interested.
~Shinei
