It had been a terribly cold winter for the Lakota in what we now call South Dakota. The migrating herds had not returned. The people were beginning to starve. Their tragedy was compounded because the people had forgotten what it meant to be human beings. They were not looking out for each other. They were not living by their own standards of generosity. The hunters were not sharing their kills with the widows and the elderly. For these reasons the animals had not returned…not even a rabbit or Coyote.

One chilly morning two young brothers grabbed their bows and arrows and slipped off into the early morning dark hoping to have success. The sun rose and the day’s first warmth wrapped around them, but they saw nothing. Toward noon they approached the crest of a hill, and getting down on their bellies they inched to the top looking over to see if there were any animals in the valley below. They saw nothing. Just as they were surrendering to another day of starvation, there was movement on the opposite side of the valley…a woman making her way down the hillside. She was wearing white buckskins and moved with unusual grace.

One of the brothers turned and said, “there is a woman without a man I am going take her.” His brother said, “you had better leave her alone because she might be wakan.” “Nonsense” said the brother, and with that he began to make his way down the hillside reaching the valley floor at the same time as the lone woman. She saw him and it was obvious what he had in mind. Strangely, she signaled him to approach her. You can imagine the young man’s surprise at such an invitation and he dashed toward the woman. They were enveloped in a mist and when it dissipated, the woman was standing there with a skeleton at her feet.

The other brother had seen it all, and he was terrified. Imagine the horror that gripped him when the woman signaled him to come down. Afraid to run and afraid to obey, he nevertheless approached the woman. She told him to go back to his camp and Chief Standing Hollow Horn, and tell him that she would be coming to the camp in four days. He was to bring all the people together for she had something for them.

The young man ran back to the village and breathlessly told the chief all that he had seen. The woman was obviously wakan, so the chief sent runners in all directions to bring in the people from the outlying camps. Soon they converged on the main camp where they erected a council Tipi, and rolled up the sides so that everyone could see and hear.

The woman entered the village as promised and walked directly into the Tipi. She sat down and all the chiefs and head men sat in council with her. Everyone else gathered around, pressing as close as possible so they would hear everything.

For several days she reminded them what it meant to be human beings. She gave them the ceremonies to do such as the sweat Lodge and vision quests. Then she said one last thing. The Grandfathers are very happy that you make your prayers with tobacco and a sacred fire. Now they wants you to use this, and she picked up a bundle handing it to the chief. He held it as she opened the bundle and lifted out a stone pipe. The grandfathers want you to use this as a sacred altar on which to burn the tobacco and make your prayers. Furthermore she told him to take this pipe to all the nations as a gift from the Grandfathers.

When she finished, she walked out of the council Tipi and onto the Prairie where she was enveloped in a mist. When the mist faded the people saw a young, white buffalo calf rolling in the dirt. Jumping to her feet she ran off across the horizon. Thus, the woman became known as the White Buffalo Calf Maiden, bringer of the sacred pipe.

That Chanupa Wakan became the central sacred ceremony for the people. It is used in conjunction with everything that we do. Powerful in itself, the Pipe adds power to sweat lodges, vision quests, Sundances, whatever the people are doing. To understand the Red Road you must know about the Chanupa Wakan (Sacred Pipe). Many tribes have and use a sacred pipe, but I come from a Lakota point of view because I was trained by a Lakota medicine man.

The Sacred Pipe came to the people 19 generations ago. 19 generations have passed since the first pipe was given to the people, and that original Pipe is in the care of Orval Looking Horse on the Cheyanne River Indian Reservation in North Dakota.

Now, we turn to technical information about the Chanupa Wakan.

The Pipe bowl is made of red pipe stone which the White Man calls Catlinite. It is dark red, and represents the blood of the people. It is found only at the Pipestone National Monuments in Pipestone, Minnesota. It can only be mined by Native Americans.

The Pipe stem is made of wood, generally sumac. On each stem you will find buckskin, and if it is a sacred pipe it will also be dressd with Eagle or Hawk feathers. There is a whole ceremony around smoking the pipe. Hopefully you will have the opportunity to experience the ceremony.

The bowl is mineral. The stem is wood. The buckskin and feathers are animal. So, you have animal, vegetable, and mineral. The stem is male and the bowl is female. Putting them together means that you have the whole world in your hands.

If the Pipe is being offered in a group, we prefer to have everyone sitting in a circle. The person offering the pipe will be sitting facing the sun down. Everyone else will be sitting in the circle leaving, however, a space between the person offering the pipe and the West.

For the Pipe ceremony, shoes are removed as an expression of respect. The person conducting the ceremony is called a Pipe Carrier. He or she holds a position of great honor among the people. The Pipe Carrier will have participated in many Pipe ceremonies and sweatlodges. It takes several years of careful preparation for this responsibility, because the Pipe Carrier must stand in for the Medicine person, and must learn how to conduct all the ceremonies in the Medicine person’s absence.

The Pipe is filled using a special sacred tobacco mix. The leader will express a few words about the purpose of the ceremony. The first smoke of the Pipe is offered to the Grandfathers in all the direction, and then passed to everyone who is participating. The Pipe goes from right to left, clockwise, around the circle. The bowl is held in the left hand (heart hand). It is customary to take several puffs from the pipe, but if one is not able for whatever reason to actually smoke the Pipe, he or she should touch it to the lips four times and pass it on.

The Pipe is used in several ways:

For private meditation and prayer.

For seeking guidance or help with a problem.

In the Pipe Round (third round) of the sweatlodge, if a Medicine person is present, one may ask for help in understanding a dream, guidance about problems, healing from an illness of self or another.

We always warn folk, don’t ask a question if you aren’t ready to take responsibility for what you are given. Don’t ask for guidance and then reject it. Always be careful what you ask for, because you may get it.

I think this is enough for this lesson. I am sure there will be more later about the Pipe, but ask any question you like in the “comment” box under the blog.

Mitakuye Oyas’in,

Sings-Alone

We usually do not go to sweat Lodge or other ceremonies in order to contact Spirits or Grandfathers. We go for purification, healing, and to be brought back into balance with the Creation. However, when they come to us we welcome them and consider it an honor to be in their presence. We call them into the ceremony and accept the fact that they have come. Occasionally someone will be selected by the Spirits to be a medicine teacher/healer. This person will be expected to communicate with the spirits whenever it is important to answer questions or provide healing for an individual or the community. It is a high honor to bear this responsibility.

I think one of the differences between Zen and our Red Road is that we see reality made up of many dimensions. The Grandfathers and the Teachers live in those other dimensions but some of them are quite ready to be of service to us as personal guides and teachers. This is especially true for those individuals who were selected by them and prepared by them to act as mediators.

Ours is a Mitakuye Oyas’in religion. Mitakuye Oyas’in means, “All my relations.” Because we are all related we have the possibility of deep one-to-one contact. Essentially, we are one. In Sweat Lodge we hear the stones sing and we receive teachings from them. In my workshops I send the participants into the woods to experiment relating with trees and bushes and animals. Sometimes they return wide eyed from the experience. These things happen and they bear witness to a oneness. We are Mitakuye Oyas’in. We are one.

But this is not the same as the Zen concept of true reality which exists beyond the dimensions of our phenomenal world. Read our Roshi’s comments very carefully. Buddhism teaches that all our dimensions of reality are real, true, and to be appreciated. And Buddhism teaches that all our dimensions are delusions, unreal and enlightenment involves moving beyond this world of phenomena into the realm of pure essence for which we have no clear words of description. Both statements are true.

When I went on the Hill, Vision Questing, and the Grandfathers came to talk with me, this was an incredible honor and they bestowed on me an incredible responsibility. When the Grandfathers come into ceremony we consider it a blessing and an honor. I think Roshi Genki would agree that it is an honor, but it is something that we acknowledge, and then get back to zazen, opening our hearts to an illumination beyond the common dimensions of reality.

Having said all of that, the idea that the Buddhas and bodhisattvas are chanting the Sutras with us pleases the heck out of me.

Mitakuye Oyas’in,

Sings-Alone

As I understand, during the chanting of the Heart Sutra in Red Path Zen Sangha, several participants heard “extra voices” joining in. There is much to examine here and much to understand. Zen has a certain way of dealing with these things. This may differ from other traditions. Zen Garland allows us to share the nature of enlightenment while having some different practices and approaches, unified in our shared understanding and commitment to Zen enlightenment.

Our ordinary notions of Time and Space are very limited, and erroneous. When we sit zazen or chant sacred texts, all great Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, all spiritual masters sit and chant with us. This is not a metaphor or a romantic notion. There are special devotees of certain mantras and sutras on various planes of existence chanting so always; and we can sometimes find ourselves in those sanghas.

We all look for Ego affirmation, and appearances, strange powers, voices make us feel that “something important is happening.” The problem is that this affirms small self, my adventures, my progress, me, me, me. One very high perspective while chanting is to hear no voices at all.

Zen priests have long histories of removing demons and demonic presences from people, areas and villages in China and Japan by preaching to the demons and giving them the Precepts. Buddhist priests have pandered amulets and done rites of protection, rites to bring rain and good harvests. They have practiced various forms of healing, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, spells and incantations.

Zen Masters are familiar with all the usual mystical events and powers. The path has so many byways and wonderful tours and vistas, folks wander all over entranced. We go with Mr. Natural: “Keep on Truckin’.” When mystical events occur or supernatural powers present themselves, the Zen way is to let it flow through, not make much of it, and keep centered on the unitive focus of practice-enlightenment in this very moment as it flows. We consider walking, talking, listening, speaking the miraculous actions of Buddhas.

Our job in Zen is to end separation, duality, to find Big Self and maturethat Self in the Practice of Presence. Then there’s nothing special, and everything is special. All views, revelations, visions, states of consciousness, spiritual experiences short of enlightenment are considered delusions in Zen. They are called MAKYO or hallucinations. This does not mean that they are not phenomenological experience, and real in that sense, but the problem is that that they are partial and can reinforce ego and separation. I am appending below Yasutani Roshi’s comments on Makyo. We do not deny mystical experiences and powers, are present to them when they occur, and move on without clinging.

 When Eihei Dogen was dedicating a new temple in Japan, flowers fell from the sky. 117 people signed a document swearing that they witnessed this event. This document from around 1244 still exists. Yet Dogen never spoke of it to his students or mentioned it in his writings. Most spiritual masters will not even speak of their own awakening experiences. This is for three main reasons: the experience is a memory and distraction from being in Presence, which is Enlightenment; secondly, Buddhas do not have to know they are Buddhas (Genjo Koan); thirdly, each person’s experience is personal and different, and hearing someone else’s can confuse us and distract our attention from our own practice.

Huang Po (Obaku), one of the greatest Chinese Zen masters, a Buddha, and teacher of Rinzai, was once on pilgrimage to Mt. Tiantai, when he met another monk. They talked and laughed just as though they were old friends. Their eyes gleamed with delight as they then set off traveling together. Coming to the fast rapids of a stream, the other monk walked across the top of the water, just as though it were dry land. The monk turned to Huang Po and said, “Come across, come across.” Huang Po yelled back, “Ah, you self-saving fellow. If I had known this before, I would have chopped off your legs.” The monk cried out, “You are truly a vessel for the Mahayana. I can’t compare with you.” And so saying, the monk vanished. (Zen’s Chinese Heritage, Ferguson, p. 133)

Uchiyama Roshi became a monk on the outbreak of W.W.II. He and his fellow practitioners were nearly starving to death. He loved becoming Head Cook so he could take some extra food for himself. Then he read the following story about Wuzhao, which he tells in his commentary on Eihei Dogen’s “Tenzo Kyokun,” “Instructions to the Head Cook.”

“One day Wuzhao was working as the tenzo in a monastery in the Wutai mountains , when the Bodhisattva Manjushri (The Supreme Incarnation ofWisdom) suddenly appeared above the pot where he was cooking. Wuzhao beat Monjusri with his cooking ladle and drove him away. Later he said, ‘Even if Shakyamuni were to appear above the pot, I would beat him too.’” This really taught Uchiyama Roshi the spirit of being a cook, and the spirit of Zen practice-enlightenment, how to apply zazen to practice-enlightenment in each and every moment.

At Zen Garland in the fourth part of our Morning Service, we chant “The Beneficent Chant for Protection from Harm,” during which the officiating priest does special mudras and visualizations to invoke help from Dharma Guardians. In the dedication, however, we recall that we ourselves should become Protectors and Caretakers of Creation.

I hope this clarifies how we practice in Zen, and a bit of why we do as we do.

Blessings,
Roshi Genki

I have one observation I wanted to share with you. I don’t know if it is a subject for your blog, but I thought you might be interested in what happened last Sangha, We had already sung the song to call in the Grandfathers & were chanting the Heart Sutra. Peter was tapping the beat to the chant, and we were all chanting in rhythm - there were only 6 of us. I could recognize each one’s voice in the chant, being so familiar with their voices - when I heard 2 or 3 more voices join the chant, sounding like they were coming from behind me in the exercise room. I continued to chant, but focused on the new voices & could clearly pick out a deep rumbly voice & a high female voice & it seemed like there was another. Of course, as I was focusing in on them they faded away - so I regained my focus on the chant. Shortly, the extra voices joined us again, and I just accepted them, not losing my focus on the chant and they stayed until nearly the end - fading slowly away.

I do not know whether the group heard Grandfathers or Spirit guides (is there a difference? I think not.) Since they were chanting the Heart Sutra, maybe the voices were Zen Buddhist Ancestors. It is highly unlikely Susie and the others were hearing an echo. The exercise room has a rubber floor and the whole structure is not likely to bounce sounds. Certainly, I have never heard an echo coming from the exercise room. I feel comfortable saying that the group was probably hearing voices from another dimension Chanting with the group, and I am delighted the Grandfathers, Native or Zen, had joined in the Heart Sutra.

The world is a far more complex place than most people realize. The ordinary person is only aware of consensus reality. We look around us and agree that we see trees and birds and animals and other human beings. Imagine that we are looking at the world through a large diamond. Like everyone else, we are seeing the world through a common prism. But if we turn the diamond just a little, we see the same world but it is different somehow. No telling how many prisms there are through which we can observe reality. But some of those prisms open up an alternate world in which dwell Spirits, our Grandfathers, our Sacred Teachers.

To change the metaphor, for most of us the membrane separating the worlds is very thick, but occasionally it becomes thin enough that we can be in contact with these other realities. I think this is what happened at Sangha the other night. It is not the first time that something like this has happened there.

The gift for the group was that they heard the Grandfathers chanting with them. Wow! But, as Susie began to pay attention to the voices and think about them, the voices faded. Focusing again on the chant, the voices came back. Any time you find yourself in that special experience with the Sacred, and you begin to analyze it or think about it, it will be gone. If and when you happen into this special experience, try to remain present and open without analyzing our struggling to decide whether the experience is true or false. In the Native world when someone is planning to attend a special healing service or Sweat Lodge for the first time, we tell them to be open to their experience and avoid trying to make sense out of it. There will be plenty of time later to analyze and apply meaning to the experience. But if you do that during the experience itself, you will lose that precious moment.

If you have had an experience you would care to describe, or an observation/question you would like to share, please write to me. It would be helpful to put it in the comment section of my teaching blog.

Mitakuye Oyas’in,

Sings-Alone

The Red Path Sangha is part of Zen Garland. As Spiritual Director of Zen Garland, I’d like to add my 2 Cents to this dialogue about Suffering in Buddhism and Joy in Sweatlodge. Is there no suffering in Inipi, in purification? The Red Path, as well as Native American and Zen spirituality, do not dwell on suffering, but there is no life without loss or encountering hardship, no growth without some pain.

For me, the sweatlodge is both a path to and expression of enlightenment. We enter separately and through the phases of the ceremony encounter our demons in the dark and heat. There is suffering in this purification. Sometimes we are driven out by our fears as they take various shapes to frighten us. As we advance in purification and practice, more often we can just drink in the experience and course and emerge in Mitakuye Oyasin, part, parts, and parts of the whole, each containing each other and all, all containing each of us and us all.

Gautama, known as the Sage of the Shakya Clan (Shakyamuni) and the Awakened One (Buddha), found three things to be true of ordinary existence: things are always in motion and changing (annica), no thing exists unto itself and disconnected from all other things (anatta), and clinging to the delusion of unchanging things causes suffering in life (ducca). This was merely the beginning point in practice. The point of spiritual practice is freedom from suffering caused by our ignorance of what is, and our clinging and frustrations as life does not fulfill our fantasies.

Spiritual practice requires our doubt, longing and effort guided in ways that lead to awakening and freedom. Zen Garland cultivates the body-mind Presence through Zen meditation , then cultivates this Presence in five other core practices: study with a Zen Teacher, Study of Zen texts - the koan curriculum and other sacred texts, embodiment practices developing awareness of physicality into the flow of body-mind consciousness (Yoga, Tai Chi, Aikido, Alexander Technique, Sensory Awareness), Inner Relationship Focusing, which brings Presence to our psychological selves (linked specific themes of memory, cognitive belief, affect and behavior patterns) for emotional integration, and Service, where we care for all creation because it is ourself.

The path in Zen is first to settle body and mind, awaken to the body-mind continuum or consciousness, to develop the power (prana, chi, ki) of absorbtion (samadhi) and be able to direct that power into the activities of daily life, sitting, walking, driving a car, talking listening (concentration, Presence). There is no Zen unless all this comes to the fruition of an awakening experience (kensho) where small self falls away and we find Oneness. But this too is just the beginning of Zen.

There is a tremendous difference how deeply or clearly each person experiences Oneness in this first experience. Unless the first awakening is further cultivated and develops, it just fades away like the memory of a dream. No experience wipes away or cuts through the intricate bonds of our identifications and dualistic tendencies and separation. We must learn how to live in Oneness. Over years of practice Zen brings the laser light of Presence into the various aspects of our physical, mental and emotional habits, beliefs, clinging and aversions, the knots of separation, to help us learn how to live in Oneness, live in the multi-dimensional world of differences. This is the working through phase, and much more personal and difficult that coming to an awakening experience. This is why we have developed a holistic approach to Zen practice in Zen Garland.

The Red Path speaks of Mitakuye Oyas’in. That is the goal of Zen too, realizing the interrelationship of all things and our part in the Whole. But there is a tremendous difference between someone babbling Mikakuye Oyas’in and the life-long practice leading to awakening to and embodying Mitakuye Oyas’in. Grandfather has meditated with Chanupa daily for decades, has gained embodiment through hard work, exercise and sweating in Inipi endlessly, sometimes twice a day every day, then done severe deep retreat in many Vision Quests, not just the four. He has realized and actualized Native American spirituality.He is a fully realized Human Being. Now, for the sake of others, to expand the reach of Native American Spirituality to non-Natives, he is learning the Zen Path.

Zen literature, the lives and teachings of the masters and the practice itself is full of jokes, puns, double entendre, playfulness and freedom. Suffering in Buddhism is a jumping off point, but our practice is to find fulfillment, satisfaction freedom in every moment. This is real joy, not just the emotion of joy. In Zen we can find this fulfillment, satisfaction and freedom in grief and loss as well. This frees us to live as truly human, transcendent through immanence, the practice of Presence.
This is a quick set of thoughts off the top of my head. I just wanted to express a bit more about Zen and the holistic practice of Zen in Zen Garland.

Blessings,
Roshi Genki

One cannot compare the sweat Lodge experience and Buddhist teachings in any logical way. It would be like comparing apples and oranges. The Sweat Lodge deals with purification, centering, and bringing us into relationship with the creation. The very nature of the ceremony creates a sense of joy and family within the participants.

The Buddha looked around himself and saw suffering everywhere. It seemed to be a common denominator of life. Now when we think of suffering, we think of pain, death, grief, sickness, tragedy etc. These represent the brilliant hues of suffering. But there is a more pervasive kind of suffering which is so common to us that often we are not aware of it, we are only cognizant of a kind of ennui… Something missing, something wrong.

We want the world to be stable. When we finally have that love relationship we always wanted, or the job we always wanted or the house we always wanted, we don’t want any of that to change. And yet it is the nature of life and existence that everything changes. Nothing ever stays the same. And when this happens to us it tears us apart.

Other kinds of suffering arise from our wanting; constantly wanting this or that, planning and conniving to get what we don’t have. Suffering also arises from the regrets over what we lost or what we have done wrong in the past. So you can see that suffering is common to all of us either in its more vivid form of pain, sickness, and death are in the more subtle forms of fear, covetousness, and worry.

Any spiritual discipline worth a grain of salt is going to seek a way to deal with all this. Native spirituality has not been heavily invested in philosophy or theology. There is little place for Guilt over past problems, and our people have been more concerned with surviving day by day than planning for the future. Perhaps Native culture has been kind of “Buddhist” without knowing the word or the Buddha. Read on…

Zen Buddhism has a couple thousand years of written history grappling with the basic problem of suffering. If you want to eliminate suffering in both its overt and subtle forms you need to know who you are behind all the roles you play, your true self. You must come to grips with the impermanence of life and the fact that existence is much greater than what you have ever imagined. And you must learn to live in the present so that worry about the past or grasping for the future is minimized. Zen’s way of doing this is through meditation and the Sangha. I think that you will find as much joy, love and compassion in the Sangha as you will in the Sweat Lodge community. The value of Zen, like the value of Native ceremonies, is in the quality of life it fosters in its participants.

It seems that everyone is learning the value of being in the present. The value of the present moment is extolled by all kinds of popular, self-help gurus. In this sense, Zen has made an impact far beyond its own borders.

Priscilla and I experienced this for ourselves today. We have a very sweet six months old sheltie puppy. Over the past six weeks he has learned from his uncle that he has the important job of keeping gulls off the beach. But he has also learned the joys of playing in the surf. Most of the time Lake Michigan has a light surf with gently rolling waves and breakers.

Ruffy Tuff has not been on the beach for 10 days while he recovered from being neutered. This morning we made our way down 200 steps from our bluff to the beach. I don’t think I have ever seen such joy and ecstasy in any creature as I did in watching Ruffy Tuff racing up and down the beach and plunging into the surf. Back and forth he raced pell mell, water flying around his little feet. He was the absolute essence of living in the present without concern for the past or worries for the future. He wasn’t analyzing it. He was thoroughly enjoying it. And you know what? There were a few moments when I was totally present as well, just caught up in the sheer exuberance of a six-month-old puppy playing in Lake Michigan.

Incidently, he and his uncle, Scalawag (9 yr old sheltie), discovered a coyote in the brush beyond the beach. Once again they were totally present, their noses dissecting the coyote smell. They did not see him. Priscilla and I saw him as he headed through the brush toward the top of the bluff.

Oops! The old man got distracted again, but I just had to share that with you.

Judy has asked a very serious question and I’m afraid this essay does not do it justice. Millions of words have been written on the subject. The value of Zen and/or Native rituals will be found in your experience of them. Suffering is real, ubiquitous, and common to all of us. I assure you that Zen can ease suffering in all its forms if you practice it.

Mitakuye Oyas’in

Sings-Alone

One of the most important things in my life is to begin each day, outside, expressing my appreciation for all my brothers and sisters in creation (Mitakuye Oyas’in). We have a long driveway through the woods. Each morning I leave the house and go to a particular place on the drive. I will spend a few moments looking all around me, uphill towards the great Northern Woods, and down hill toward an 11 acre field of organic grain. I try to spend those first moments with my family (trees, birds, four leggeds, stones, wind) without thinking or analyzing what I see. I just want to be there and open to the wonderful energy given off by them.

Then, I will make a prayer something like this: “Good morning everyone. It’s going to be another good day together. I am honored to be here with you and to share this time and place with you. I thank you my grandfather teachers for all that you have taught me, and I ask you to help me this day to walk in balance, to walk in beauty, love, gratitude, and with a deepening sense of oneness. My appreciation and love to all of you. Mitakuye Oyas’in.”

I seldom miss starting my morning this way. Please don’t think that there is something special about my prayer. If you choose to start your day as I do, listen to your heart and let your prayer be your own. The important thing is to open yourself to oneness with all the creation. You will be pleased with the change this will make in your day. You will be more centered, patient, and in a much better space with everyone and everything around you.

My love to all you Red Pathers,

Sings-Alone

When teaching Red Path Zen, I don’t talk much about love, but I talk a lot about respect. It is not that I’d don’t believe in love. I certainly do. But love has so many connotations that its meaning becomes vague. Respect in the Red Path Zen way is applied to everything: trees, stones, Grandmother Earth, your meditation cushion, your fellow practitioners, your teachers, rank strangers, enemies, yourself, the whole of creation and beyond.

Respect is an attitude and a way of life that is both Red Path and Zen. It is the natural state in which we strive to live. Practically, we express respect by the way we handle our trash. We don’t throw cigarettes or chewing gum wrappers on the ground. We don’t leave our meditation areas in disarray. We live in a way that protects Grandmother Earth, and we treat people and ourselves in a way which brings honor.

I hope that all those of you who follow the Red Path to the Zen will think seriously about respect and the way you express it in your own life. It is a basic concept. It is Mitakuye Oyas’in.

Mitakuye Oyas’in,

Sings-Alone