Fire Monks

Table of Contents

 

 

 

THE PENGUIN PRESS

Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

First published in 2011 by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright © Colleen Morton Busch, 2011 All rights reserved

 

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following copyrighted works:
Excerpt from “Genjo Koan” by Eihei Dogen, translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Robert Aitken. Used by permission
of the San Francisco Zen Center; Selection by Norman Fischer. Used by permission of Norman Fischer; Excerpt from
Deep
Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
by Laurence Gonzales. Copyright © 2003 by Laurence Gonzales. Used by permission
of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.; Excerpt from
You Have to Say Something
by Dainin Katagiri. © 1998 by Dainin Katagiri.
, Boston, Mass.; Excerpt from
Young Men and Fire
by Norman Maclean.
By permission of University of Chicago Press; Excerpt from “How Plants Use Fire (And Are Used by It)” by Stephen Pyne
from the companion Web site to the film
Fire Wars, NOVA
(WGBH). By permission of the author and WGBH; Excerpt from
“Control Burn” from
Turtle Island
by Gary Snyder. Copyright © 1974 by Gary Snyder. ; Excerpt from
The Practice of the Wild
by Gary Snyder. Copyright © 1990 by Gary Snyder.
Used by permission of Steve Stücky; Excerpt from
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
by Shunryu Suzuki. Protected underterms of the International Copyright Union. Reprinted
by permission of Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston, Mass.; Excerpt from
The Devil's Highway
by Luis Alberto Urrea.
Published by Little, Brown and Company.

 

Photograph credits:

Page 1: top © Shundo David Haye, bottom © Johan Ostlund; Page 2: top © Shundo David Haye, bottom © Daniel J. Quinn; Page 3: top © Shundo David Haye, bottom Copyright © 2008 The Monterey County Herald. A ll rights reserved. Reprinted with Permission; Page 4: top © Shundo David Haye, bottom © David Zimmerman; Page 5: top © Ivan J. Iberle, bottom © Mako Voelkel; Page 6:top © Mako Voelkel, bottom © Tom Meyer; Page 7: top © Simon Moyes, bottom © Colleen Morton Busch; Page 8: top © Mako Voelkel, bottom © Daniel J. Quinn

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Busch, Colleen Morton.
Fire monks : Zen mind meets wildfire at the gates of Tassajara / Colleen Morton Busch.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN : 978-1-101-51694-2

1. Fire fighters—California. 2. Wildfires—Prevention and control—California. 3. Zen Buddhism—Social aspects.
4. Zen Buddhists—California—Biography. 5. Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. I. Title.
HD8039.F52C35 2011
363.3709794'76—dc22 2011010226

 

 

 

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Fire is more than an ecological process or an environmental problem. It is a relationship.

—STEPHEN J. PYNE,
fire historian

STEVE STÜCKY—San Francisco Zen Center abbot

Dharma name:
Daitsu Myōgen
, Greatly Pervading, Subtle Eye

DAVID ZIMMERMAN—director

Kansan Tetsuhō,
Perfection Mountain, Complete Surrender

MAKO VOELKEL—head cook

Unzan Doshin,
Cloud Mountain, Path of the Heart

GRAHAM ROSS—plant manager

Unzan Etsudo,
Cloud Mountain, Joyful Way

COLIN GIPSON—head of shop

Shikan Zenka,
Determined to See, Completely Burned

SHUNDO DAVID HAYE—former resident, fire scout

Shundo Gennin,
Way of the Fleet Steed, Manifesting Virtue

DEVIN PATEL—student fire marshal

Kakusei Yushin,
Jewel Stillness, Fearless Heart

LESLIE JAMES—senior practice leader, Jamesburg resident

Sho Sai So Kan,
Settle/Finish, Encourage, Original Mirror

JANE HIRSHFIELD—former resident, poet

So Kai Un Go,
Source Servant, Cloud Abode

STUART CARLSON—CAL FIRE station captain, Soquel Station, Santa

Cruz County

JACK FROGGATT—Kern County Fire Department battalion chief

Basin Complex fire branch director

GEORGE HAINES—CAL FIRE unit chief, San Benito–Monterey Unit

On June 21, 2008, lightning strikes from one end of drought-dry
California to the other ignited more than two thousand wildfires in what became known as the “lightning siege.” The fires stretched from the Trinity Alps in the north to Santa Barbara in the south. One of the blazes turned toward Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, in the Ventana Wilderness near Big Sur. For weeks the resident monks prepared for the fire's arrival, committed to staying to defend the monastery despite repeated orders to leave.

If you lived on the West Coast, you knew about the fires. If you lived in California, you smelled the smoke. The situation at Tassajara was featured in the national news. Connections to the monastery, famous for its hot springs, food, and peaceful environs, extend around the world. Even those who'd never been to Tassajara or heard of it before were intrigued by the seemingly paradoxical image of a
fire monk
. Suddenly, people who ordinarily spent a good deal of time sitting cross-legged in front of a wall faced a situation that required decisive action. What did that look like? And how could sitting still and doing nothing prepare you to act, and to act fast?