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The World-Honored One was walking with his assembly.
He pointed to the ground and said, “This place is good for building a temple.”
Indra took a stalk of grass and stuck it in the ground.
She said, “The temple has been built.”

As I spend more time this koan, I find myself remembering all the many places the Oakland group has meditated since 1989. Initially it was in a tiny student apartment of the Graduate Theological Seminary, where we sat in a living room lined with bookcases. We sat facing the wall in those days, so we sat facing a wall of books, an interesting something to have in front of the eyes that were not open nor closed. 

Then there were a couple of Montessori kindergartens, where we had to move all the little chairs and desks out of the way and sit facing art done by the students or the latest project in a terrarium, right at eye level. When one of those kindergartens had a fire and we had to find a place with no notice, we reached out to Jerry Brown. He had been in Kamakura for nine months practicing at the San Un Zendo, and shared the house in which I was living. We hoped he might have a suggestion for us, and he did: his living room. We sat for about four years in that living room, in the American Bag Company building, while his We the People headquarters was being built on the adjoining lot. To say it was his living room would be an overstatement—it was a cavernous space on the second floor where Jerry had his bedroom. There was another room that we used for conversations. When Jerry moved from there to the We the People building, we were invited to join the community there. 

Then there was the Unitarian church where another meditation group used the room below us while we gathered, complaining that we made too much noise as we meditated. We never got a complaint from Art’s Crab Shack, our next location, a bar and restaurant above which we sat for about eight years. I still miss feeling the floorboards vibrating with the sound of the jukebox as we meditated, and the roar of fans during Monday Night Football. 

There was the office of an environmental engineer—a member of the group—where I had conversations with folks in the men’s bathroom. It was quite a nice room with a high ceiling, nice brick walls and judicious placement of shoji screens so you wouldn’t know it was a bathroom except for the sign on the door. 

And there was the employee lounge of a consulting group which specialized in helping cannabis dispensaries set up business. Due to the nature of their business, a high percentage of employees used ‘medicine’ and the lounge was the designated place to do it. It was designated the ‘Medication/Meditation Room.’ 

Before moving to Rockridge, there was a suite of three offices in the fruit and vegetable district of downtown Oakland. When we met, early in the morning, for conversations, the streets were bustling with trucks and forklifts getting produce out to markets and restaurants. In the evening when we met, it was deserted and kind of spooky. Several folks didn’t feel comfortable going there. 

Then, finally, there was Rockridge, our first 24/7 space, and it was great for another eight years. Interestingly, the woman who ran the hair salon downstairs also complained that we made too much noise when we meditated. 

And then there was the pandemic and Zoom.

To be at home in whatever situation arises is what Linji meant when he said “Take the role of host and you will be in a true place.” That is the place we cultivate with our meditation practice, wherever we put our blade of grass. 

—David Weinstein

COME JOIN US on Tuesdays for koan meditation, dharma talk and conversation.
Register to participate. All are welcome.

David Weinstein Roshi, Director of Rockridge Meditation Community