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Ekyo's Blog Sharing form the heart
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Gratitude and apology |
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January 8, 2009 It is hard to believe that another year passed so quickly. In June of 2008 a very important gathering happened in the attic space where many years ago zazen practice started in Poland. Couple years earlier while I traveled with my friend Jan we talked how wonderful it would be to meet old friends. For me the closest were the people who worked together in the very beginning. We created zendo, published newsletter and did much zazen even before formal group started and before our first sesshin with teacher. I really liked the spirit of that time. The idea of organizing the meeting was planted. It took some time and several incarnations when finally Andrzej decided to invite everyone for his 70th Birthday.
I felt the most important reason to attend the meeting was to express my gratitude to Andrzej and Urszula. In the end I could not go to Poland due to timing colliding with sesshin. But Jan who helped to organize it was keeping me up to date with what was happening. Many of us who live now abroad wrote letters expressing our thanks. As I found out later the meeting was also very important to Andrzej but very for different reason. He wanted to express his apology to all of us for all the pain and dramatic history of our Sangha. He felt guilty and responsible and said the history of Buddhism would be different in Poland if he had taken different decisions about inviting our first Zen Teacher to Poland.
I am sure this matter was deeply sitting in his heart for so many years. There were so many very devoted students who sacrificed a lot to practice true Dharma… This was our karma… Myself, having doubts about what had happened I was forced to much deeper spiritual search and eventually met incredible teachers. I know so many Zen students but those who practice for long time and who reach the deepest depths of Path are really very rare. There are many who were introduced to zazen by Andrzej who still practice with great intensity attending sesshins several times a year, thirty five and more years later. Andrzej’s efforts are not lost… and flowers will still bloom. It took several months to collect photos and account of this meeting in form ready to be published. The photographs were shared by Hieronim Lis and Wlodek Duch. The story below was written by Jan Sar and translated into English by Jacek Dobrowolski.
I would like to file a short report from the meeting at Andrzej Urbanowicz loft in Katowice in June 2008. The get-together consisted of two parts. During the first day (Friday...) a meeting of friends who had collaborated artistically with Andrzej and the “ Oneiron” group was held. It culminated with a concert of the “Sol et Luna” singing duo (Saba Krasoczko and Mietek Litwiński) in honor of Andrzej’s 70th birthday. The second part started on Saturday morning. The guests were: Jacek Dobrowolski, Wlodzislaw duch, Pawel Gorski, Ewa Jankowska, Anna Jedynak, Teresa Korbel, Leszek Kulmatycki, Krzysztof Lewandowski, Hieronim Lis, Marek Mazij, Marceli Marklowski, Nina Orlow, Jacek Ostaszewski, Malgosia Ostaszewska, Zenon Rochowski, Jan Sar, Anna Sencerz, Adam Sobota, and Antoni Szoska. We were very happy to see one another. First, Andrzej greeted everybody cordially and read a letter from Urszula Broll-Urbanowicz. Next, he suggested that we remind ourselves of the deaths of our Sangha friends and commemorate their memory and with a minute of silence. We recollected the fond memory of: Promyk (Elzbieta Blaszkowska), Wladek Czapnik, Krystyna Eichelberger, Roger Gomulicki, Alicja Holuj, Basia Kaniuga and Staszek Lewicki. At the end Marek Mazij mentioned Philip Kapleau.
After a break we meditated for a while and later Jacek Ostaszewski said
that he no longer heard the cooing of the pigeons. In fact the pigeons
have disappeared from the roof! Each person present had the time to speak
about his, or her, life since the 70-ties and share what he, or she, felt
was important. To maintain some order we decided that we shall not be
asking questions but that was difficult to stick to. Jacek Dobrowolski and
I /Jan sar/ read the letters that have been sent by people who have been
unable to come to the meeting. It turned out that the people’s
relationship to Buddhism varied, some stuck to it others have distanced
themselves. Regardless of the affiliation what came up in most utterances
and letters were words of gratitude to Andrzej and Urszula and the feeling
that the period of practice in Katowice and Kamienczyk (the country place
where we had built the first country zendo in Poland) had a formative
effect on the lives of all of us.
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© 2009 Ekyo's Blog |
