Jundo James Cohen (1960-)

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Dharma name: 智眼純度 Chigen Jundo

Founder of Treeleaf Zendo, Jundo Cohen was born in New York in 1960. He was ordained by and received Dharma Transmission from Gudo Wafu Nishijima. Jundo began Zen practice in 1980, has lived in Japan for most years since that time, and was for many years a lay student of Azuma Ikuo Roshi at Soji-ji Dai-Honzan.
He lives in Tsukuba, Japan with his wife and children, working as a translator of Japanese, and believes that the hard border between ordained priest and householder has long been vanishing in Soto Zen. Our practice is, after all, for living in the world.

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?66-VITAL-POINTS-of-SHIKANTAZA-ZAZEN
https://web.archive.org/web/20180914100201/http://sweepingzen.com:80/sz-author/jundo-cohen/

Jundo Cohen is a Zen teacher and founder of the Treeleaf Zendo, a Sōtō
Zen community using visual media to link Zen practitioners around the
world. Treeleaf serves those who cannot easily commute to a Zen center
due to health concerns; age or disability; living in remote areas; or work,
childcare, or family needs; and provides zazen sittings, retreats, discussion,
interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Zen Buddhist sangha,
all fully online without thought of location or distance. Jundo was born and
raised in the United States but has lived in Japan for more than half his life.
He was ordained and subsequently received Dharma transmission from
Master Gudo Wafu Nishijima and is a member of the Sōtō Zen Buddhist
Association.

PDF: The Zen Master's Dance (2020)
Zen Master's Dance makes some of Zen's subtlest teaching deeply personal and freshly accessible.
Eihei Dogen—the thirteenth-century Japanese Zen Master of peerless depth and subtlety—heard the music of the universe that sounds as all events and places, people, things, and spaces. He experienced reality as a great dance moving through time, coming to life in the thoughts and acts of all beings. It is a most special dance, the dance that the whole of reality is dancing, with nothing left out. All beings are dancing, and reality is dancing as all beings.
In The Zen Master's Dance, Jundo Cohen takes us deep into the mind of Master Dogen—and shows us how to join in the great and intimate dance of the universe. Through fresh translations and sparkling teaching, Cohen opens up for us a new way to read one of Buddhism's most remarkable spiritual geniuses.

Jundo Cohen rōshi's Zen Ancestors Chart
The history of Zen Buddhism presents itself as a family saga. Each priest of the Sôtô school today belongs to an uninterrupted line which traces itself either to Gasan Jôseki Zenji (1276-1366) or to Meihô Sotetsu Zenji (1277-1350), two disciples of Keizan Zenji, all other Japanese lines having since become extinct. One is integrated into a lineage at the time of the ceremony of Transmission of the Dharma, by which the Master makes the Disciple his successor. Presented here is the chain of teachers that connects Eihei Dôgen Zenji to Gudo Nishijima Roshi, and in the 41st generation from Dogen, Jundo James Cohen of the Treeleaf Zendo.

佛祖正傳菩薩大戒血脈
Busso shōden bosatsu daikai kechimyaku
The Bloodline of the Buddha’s and Ancestors’ Transmission of the Great Bodhisattva Precepts

1. Eihei Dōgen
(永平道元 1200-1253)

2. Koun Ejō
(孤雲懐奘 1198-1280)

3. Tettsū Gikai
(徹通義介 1219-1309)

4. Keizan Jōkin
(螢山紹瑾 1268-1325)

5. Gasan Jōseki
(峨山韶碩 1275-1366)

6. Taigen Sōshin
(太源宗真 ?-1371)

7. Baizan Monpon
(梅山聞本 ?-1417)

8. Jochū Tengin
(恕仲天誾 1365-1437)

9. Sekisō Enchū
(石叟圓柱 ?-1455)

10. Taigan Sōbai
(太巌宗梅 ?-1502)

11. Kensō Jōshun
(賢窓常俊 ?-1507)

12. Jisan Eikun
(慈山永訓)

13. Daichū Reijō
(大仲靈乘)

14. Nan'ō Ryōkun
(南翁良薫)

15. Daijū Ryūzon
(大充隆存)

16. Hōgan Zensatsu
(鳳巌全察)

17. Ryōzan Chōzen
(良山長善)

18. Kisshū Genshō
(吉洲玄祥)

19. Kigai Mon'ō
(器外聞應)

20. Kanshū Taisatsu
(觀州泰察)

21. Tensō Juntetsu
(點叟順鐵)

22. Kenkoku Keisatsu
(甄國慶察)

23. Raiten Gensatsu
(來典玄察)

24. Kengan Zesatsu
(甄巌是察)

25. Hōkoku Satsuyū
(峰國察雄)

26. Rotei Shōshuku
(鷺帝昌宿)

27. Fuhō Tatsuden
(不峰達傳)

28. Kachū Jakuchū
(家中寂中)

29. Bunzan Kōrin
(文山高林)

30. Daichū Bunki
(大蟲文機)

31. Chōko Bungei
(潮湖文鯨)

32. Roshū Ezen
(嚕宗惠襌)

33. Reisai Emon
(靈犀惠紋)

34. Tokuzui Tenrin
(徳瑞天麟)

35. Shōgaku Rinzui
(祥岳麟瑞)

36. Butsuzan Zuimyō
(佛山瑞明; Masuda 増田)

37. Bukkan Myōkoku

(佛鑑明國 1862-1904; Niwa 丹羽)

38. Butsuan Emyō
(佛庵慧明 1880-1955; Niwa 丹羽)

39. Zuigaku Rempō
(瑞岳廉芳 1905-1993; Niwa 丹羽)

40. Gudō Wafu
(愚道和夫 1919-2014; Nishijima 西嶋)

41. Chigen Jundo

(智眼純度 1960-; James Cohen)

On 'Sankon Zazen Setsu: Three Kinds of Zazen Practitioners' by Keizan Zenji
by Jundo Cohen
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?20321-On-Sankon-Zazen-Setsu-Three-Kinds-of-Zazen-Practitioners-by-Keizan-Zenji

Which is better, Soto or Rinzai, Shikantaza or Koan Instrospection?

Both! Neither! In fact, the medicine depends on the needs of the patient.

I recommend Shikantaza, radical Just Sitting, to many folks because it is a powerful medicine for what ails so many of us these days. The little "self" with its constant, morning to night chasing after goals and tasks, judging this and that, friend and foe, win and lose, worried about tomorrow, either longing or regretting the past ... that little self is "put out of a job" when one sits in the radical goallessness of Shikantaza with nothing more to do but sitting in the fulfillment of sitting's sake, this moment of our sitting precisely the embodi-mindment of a Buddha sitting, no other task to do, nothing to judge apart from the completeness of sitting shining deep from the bones, letting thoughts go of this and that, not judging friend or foe (thus discovering the great Wholeness and Friendhship of all reality), nothing lacking thus nothing to win and nothing to lose, precisely in this moment free of past and future, thereby the little self just dropped away. It is HEAVEN & EARTH unlike the "just sitting on their ass, twiddling their thumbs, wallowing in mindmud, wasting time" that some partisan folks try to paint who do not know this Shikantaza (Sadly, some meditation teachers these days do, in fact, teach such kinds of "bump on a log sitting," it is true as the critics charge, but Shikantaza need not, must not be like that!)

Koan Introspection Zazen is excellent for folks who need to TNT through the obstructions of self. Personally, I felt that it pushed me even further into the need to attain (special concentration states and "Kensho" experiences, in this case), to feel the heavy pressure of good and bad and the sharpness of lack, chasing hard the goal of "Kensho" openning. In point of fact, however, that is the power of such practice, for it strives to cure the disease by diving even deeper into the very disease of driven, hungry searching for escape, poison used to fight poison! Even so, personally, I found that its concern with the Roshi's eyeing and the attainment of "passing Koans," because it is precisely the disease of Dukkha using Dukkha to escape Dukkha, just wasn't what I personally needed. (I also questioned whether the dance in the Dokusan room actually removes obstructions as much as billed, leading to truly realized behavior. That may be oversold quite a bit. I rather prefer, personally, the "right here" application of realization in our Soto way of 'practice-enlightenment' in which the Genjo Koan, the actual dance of life's Koan, is in each moment to moment of this ordinary life. However, Rinzai practices also emphasize embodying the teachings throughout life, so it is also not that serious a distinction.)

In the end, both Rinzai and Soto practice ultimately end up at the very same "place" of radical non-attainment and "Just This." The Rinzai folks do so by pushing very hard to get "there" (which is "Kensho" not apart from here or there) while "Just Sitters" pause and rest wholly right here (which is "Kensho" both there and here) ... and it all comes out the same.

Master Keizan, centuries ago, seems to have come to a similar conclusion in his short essay called "Three Kinds of Zazen Practitioners." Keizan was much more open than Dogen to a variety of methods, including Koan Introspection, probably based on the mixed Soto and Rinzai background of his Teacher, Gikai. In any case, Keizan could be eclectic. Thus, despite the wording, the following is not ranking the 3 kinds of practice, but saying that they ALL are excellent (in a Zenny way of saying black is white and white is black, the ordinary is superior and the superior just ordinary), all have their place, even the "middle" practice of intensively focusing on a Koan that some folks might need to suit them. Maybe it is even good for us to mix and match, with the naturalness of the first, the intensity of the middle, the radical "Just Sitting" of the other, finding the recipes best for our own needs:

Three Kinds of Zazen Practitioners by Keizan Jokin Zenji
[Anzan & Yasuda Translation, with small adjustments incorporating Masunaga and Kennett]

The [natural] person whose zazen is of the most profound type has no interest in why the Buddhas appeared in this present world. Such a one doesn't speculate about truths which cannot even be transmitted by the Buddhas and Ancestors. She doesn't doctrinalize about [teachings such as] "all things are the expression of the self" for she is beyond "enlightenment" and "delusion". Since her views never fall into dualistic angles, nothing obstructs her, even when distinctions appear. She just eats when she is hungry. She just sleeps when she is tired.

The person whose zazen is of a medium type forsakes all things and cuts off all [worldly] relations. Throughout the entire day she is never idle and so every moment of life, every breath, is practice of the Dharma. Or else she might concentrate on a koan, eyes fixed, her view in one place such as the tip of the nose. Considerations of life and death, going and staying, are not seen on her face. The mind of discrimination can never see into the deepest unchanging truth, nor can it understand the Buddhamind. Since there is no dualistic thoughts, she is enlightened. From the far past up to right now, wisdom is always brillliant, clear, shining. The whole universe throughout the ten directions is illuminated suddenly from her brow, all things are seen in detail within her body.

The person whose zazen is just ordinary [JUNDO: yet anything but ordinary!] views all things [boundlessly] from all sides and frees herself from good and bad conditions. The mind naturally expresses the Actual Nature of all the Buddhas because Buddha rests right where your own feet rest. Thus wrong action does not arise. The hands are held in Reality mudra and do not hold onto any scriptures. The mouth is tightly closed, as if the lips were sealed, and no word of doctrine is spoken. The eyes are neither wide open nor shut. Nothing is ever seen from the point of view of fragmentation and good and evil words are left unheard. The nose [in equanimity] doesn't choose one smell as good, another as bad. The body is not propped up and all delusion is ended. Since delusion does not disturb the mind, [in this equanimity] sorrow and joy both drops away. Shaped just like a wooden carving of the Buddha, both the substance and the form are true. Worldly thoughts might arise [during Zazen] but they do not disturb because the mind is a bright mirror with no trace of shadows.

The Precepts arise naturally from zazen whether they are the five, eight, the Great Bodhisattva Precepts, the monastic Precepts, the three thousand rules of deportment, the eighty thousand Teachings, or the supreme Dharma of the Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors. No practice whatsover can be measured against zazen.

Should only one merit be gained from the practice of zazen, it is vaster than the construction of a hundred, a thousand or a limitless number of monasteries. Practice Zazen, just sitting ceaselessly. Doing so we are liberated from birth and death and realise our own hidden Buddhanature.

In perfect ease go, stay, sit and lie down. Seeing, hearing, understanding and knowing are all the natural display of the Actual Nature. From first to last, mind is mind, beyond any arguments about knowledge and ignorance. Just do zazen with all of who and what you are. Never stray from it or lose it.