The Mountain Peak

By Zen Monk Meiho Gensho

Petrúcio Chalegre, renowned consultant to companies, knows very well the eye of the ordinary man, having actively participated, for decades, in the business world, with all of its passions and ambitions, competition and suffering; and then later as a consultant, he has been responsible for bringing a new state of needed equilibrium. Genshō, the monk of Zen Buddhism, has practiced the path of Buddhism also for decades and led a community devoted to the discipline and beauty of this Japanese form of Buddhism. Now the two join to write a book about a common man, Ido [ē′•du], someone just like any one of us, evolved in the paths of the world, with its joys and difficulties, but who, one day, decides to leave it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clube de Autores
• Release date: May 24, 2017

Book preview

The Mountain Peak

Is Where I Am

By

Zen Monk Genshō

Translated by

L. James Gross

© 2017 GENSHŌ, Monk (Petrúcio Chalegre)

Layout and Cover Art: Zen Monk Kōmyō

Cover Painting: ‘The Path to the Great Mountain", © 2017 Zen Artwork by Kōmyō

This book is a work of fiction.  Its characters are not real, with only one exception, the Zen Master, Saikawa Roshi, whose text, from a real lecture, is quoted.  The rest of the book is like a patchwork quilt of experiences, inventions, and modified stories heard from others, so any similarity to historical facts or living people, is mere coincidence.  The author hopes that the teachings contained in this book will be of benefit to all beings.             

Monk Genshō

Independent Print and Publishing

Virtual Edition by AGBOOK – http://www.agbook.com.br

Support Independent Publishing

Apóie a produção literária independente

This book is dedicated to all who trudge along the path of life hoping for the joy of arriving in a special place.

Your comments are welcome.

Monk Genshō

[e-mail]

L. James Gross

[e-mail]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Translator’s Notes

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

THE PRESENT MOMENT

IMPERMANENCE

ATTACHMENT

KARMA

FORM

THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE

DOKUSAN

RIGHT AND WRONG

END OF THE RETREAT

THE CITY

WORK

EPILOGUE

Translator’s Notes

The author, Monk Genshō, has graciously given me latitude in the translation of this wonderful little book, which is a profound journey through Zen philosophy, requesting that I transfer to English the meaning and poetry of the Brazilian Portuguese original.

As much as possible, I tried to preserve the author’s original style of expression and punctuation.

In reference to the quotes that introduce the chapters, I translated them from this book, not from the original sources.  Since they are then translations of translations, variations from the originals are inevitable.  This does not imply, necessarily, that these translations are either less beautiful than or less accurate in meaning than other extant versions of the quotes. 

The message of the novel is universal, but the story takes place in Brazil; therefore, I decided to maintain the names of the characters in their original form.  It is prudent to make a special comment about the name of the main character, Ido [ē′∙du].  His name, at first glance, appears to be Japanese, but it is, as explained to me by the author, an invented name derived from the Portuguese verb ir, which is go in English.  Ido is the past participle of that verb.  In English, it is gone: as in go / went / gone.  In Sanskrit, it is gate [gah′∙teh] 

To L. DeWayne Young, English scholar, I offer my sincere gratitude for his precise observations and insightful comments during the final stage of the preparation of this text.

To Monk Genshō, I express my profound admiration for his wisdom and kindness, my deep appreciation for his confidence in me, and my thankfulness for our extensive communication during the translation process.

L. James Gross

PREFACE

The true journey is not done with the feet, but with the heart and the soul.  For millenniums, men and women have crossed boarders, navigated the seas and climbed mountains, and many of them have sought not only the adventure of different and exciting landscapes, but also have been interested in what they would discover about themselves.  The internal journey should be long, profound, and subject to uncertainty.  In the 17th century, the Japanese poet Bashō, master of the contemplation of the nature of his life as a traveler, had already perceived:

Quantas nuvens ascendentes (So many rising clouds)

Desintegram-se e caem       (Disintegrate and fall)

Na Montanha da Lua. (On Moon Mountain)

Images we have of ourselves that are questioned, past dreams that are undone with the dawn, force us to see face to face who we really are; but how can we see directly when our vision is overtaken by ignorance and confusion?  Bongen o butchi no me to irekaeru, master Zuiken Inagaki said. That the eye of the ordinary man be replaced by the eye of the Buddha.

Petrúcio Chalegre, renowned consultant to companies, knows very well the eye of the ordinary man, having actively participated, for decades, in the business world, with all of its passions and ambitions, competition and suffering; and then later as a consultant, he has been responsible for bringing a new state of needed equilibrium.  Genshō, the monk of Zen Buddhism, has practiced the path of Buddhism also for decades and led a community devoted to the discipline and beauty of this Japanese form of Buddhism.  Now the two join to write a book about a common man, Ido [ē′•du], someone just like any one of us, evolved in the paths of the world, with its joys and difficulties, but who, one day, decides to leave it.

Will Ido be able to repeat what the medieval Japanese poet Saigyō said?

"Empty space surrounded

By distant rocks

So that I am here all alone

In a place where no one can see me,

But I can review everything."

Will Ido succeed in climbing the mountain and finding what he has been looking for?  We will walk along with him, living with him in the Zen Buddhist environment of tranquility and challenge, participating in his new daily activities as he attempts to change his life.  Along the way, we will have the opportunity to know the daily activities of a Buddhist community, from dawn to the hour of going to sleep.  We will hear guidance and wise statements from the superiors of the monastery, and we will know how Ido will be able to overcome difficulties.  Even more importantly, we will be able to journey with Ido to our own interior and take the first steps toward transcendence.

Richard Sasaki

Director of the Center of Buddhist Studies Nalanda

Dhammacariya Dhanapala

Mahasadhammakotikadhaja

March 2012

INTRODUCTION

National manager.  This is good.  VIP card to use in special lounges in airports. 

Credit cards.  A good, new, car in the garage.  Girlfriends who come and go, without my ever having to make a decision to stay with any one of them.  A good apartment in an upper middle class neighborhood.  Postponed plans for children.  Trips every week.  A cell phone that is in constant use.  Luncheons away from home.  Excitement and success.

One of my grandmother’s sisters lived in my city.  I was the only one related to her who lived nearby.  Weekly, I visited her and, from time to time, took her places.  She was 85 years old, and looked strong, but one day I saw her having difficulty trying to open the door of the car.  I felt impatient.  After all, I had already taught her to use the door handle, and she was used to using it.  Not only that, week after week, acts of confused behavior were coming one after the other: her sloppy clothes, her smeared makeup.  I took her to a doctor.  There were many tests.  Finally, she diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease.  She gave me written information, a CD, and explanations that appeared to narrate a long decline on the road to final unconsciousness.

I contracted caregivers.  In the end, three women took turns being with her because she could no longer remain alone.  And during five years, I witnessed the progressive extinguishment of her mind.  There was the day that she didn’t recognize the nurse, the afternoon when she couldn’t say my name.  The time when she insisted that she was a 20 year-old young woman.  The moment when she couldn’t control herself any longer, and instead of asking to go to the bathroom, relieved herself right there where she was, sitting in a rocking chair in the living room.  I tried to cope with it all by attempting to make of it one more managerial task; even more, it wasn’t I who was directly occupied with her, it was the caregivers, and they reported to me about her condition.  The doctor alternated medications, which by accelerating the brain, appeared to retard, for some time, the advancement of the death of her mind.

But the end days arrived.  I remember with ever-increasing clarity those last days.  She had said to me once that she wanted to die in my arms.  One day her doctor asked me, Did you see the last test results?

I told her yes, thinking that I had understood everything, and then she showed me the fall in the protein levels.  I asked her what this meant, and she looked me straight in the eyes and said, Days.  I left the doctor’s office troubled.  I thought that I