Red Road Zen, Island-Style describes a daily practice of mindful living which is both sustainable and intentional. It arises from a synergistic confluence of the deeply grounded principles of Japanese Zen Buddhism, the Native American Red Road and Native Hawaiian Culture. Symbolically, each is one leg of a triangle that is circumscribed by a circle.

These ancient traditions serve as wisdom-keepers for the perennial wisdom that has flowed in a river of “original teachings” from time immemorial. Very often cached in song and dance or woven into ceremony, the sacred teachings about how to best perpetuate life, how to malama the earth and how to be in right relationship with the ultimate mysteries are no less relevant today than at any other time in history.

The base of our Red Road Zen, Island-Style  “triangle” is the Hawaiian host culture and its dynamic nature-centered spirituality. The beloved aina with its powerful mana is a rock-solid footing upon which to practice a lifestyle that benefits all future generations. The roots here are deep and alive. The ancestral guardian spirits imbue the legacy of this land with a welcoming presence of Lokahi inclusive of all people and all approaches to the numinous.

Bamboo Mountain Sanctuary has rich and colorful historical connections to both Native American culture and Japanese Zen Buddhism dating back more than a century. And before that, this land has long bore mute witness to the playing out of the elemental tension between the primordial forces of Light and Dark. For millennia, it has been a peaceful lush Edenic valley teeming with life and aloha. At other times, when the long black wing of violence and aggression has cast its dark shadow over the land, clouds of sorrow and grief open to reveal the great sacrifices made in defense of the aina and the island.

There is a Native American (Apache) saying that “wisdom sits in places”. The land holds all the memory and renders it into essential earth-teachings:  blood and tears along with joy and laughter. This land remembers gentle hands planting taro in the streamside lo’i, the laughter of keiki playing in the waterfall. It remembers the days of the kahuna quietly gathering medicines on the hillsides. But it also weaves in the spilled blood and the bitter tears and the fierce sounds of pitched battles, for these are part of our story as well.

And through it all, the aina has remained strong and steadfast, true to the ever-turning circle of life, receiving and composting every story. With a great generosity of spirit, it has opened its arms to welcome back the teachings of both  the Buddha Way and the Red Road Way. It has exemplified the power of ho’oponopono and the practical wisdom of regular purification and renewal.

Even today, the venerable temple still holds true. Its cast iron bell, tempered in the foundry of the human drama long laid over this sacred land, never really stops ringing its persistent call to awaken. Once heard, it can never be un-rung.

The dawning of each new day, like the very dawn of creation, is a gentle exhortation to awaken. As the sun climbs up out of ke kai and clears the tops of the bamboo forest, one can hear the evocative song of the pū ricocheting across the valley its piercing call to awaken.

E ALA Ē!

ARISE AND AWAKEN THE LIGHT WITHIN…FUTURE STRONG