[Discussion-AZC] Fwd: [Soto-Zen-Members] Tassajara Fire

[Barbara Kohn]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "keizandogen" <keizandogen at yahoo.com>
> Date: June 28, 2008 11:18:36 PM CDT
> To: Soto-Zen-Members at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Soto-Zen-Members] Tassajara Fire
> Reply-To: Soto-Zen-Members at yahoogroups.com
>
> Hi,
>
> I think everyone is aware, but ...
>
> ________________
>
> As flames approach Big Sur monastery, monks prepare to fight
> Gov. Schwarzenegger asks President Bush to declare a state of
> emergency as 1,200 fires continue to spread across Northern
> California, scorching more than 80,000 acres.
> By Eric Bailey and Steve Chawkins
> Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
>
> June 28, 2008
>
> TASSAJARA, CALIF. — In this remote Zen enclave on Big Sur's forested
> backside, wildfires lurk on three sides. As flames edge closer and ash
> falls from a crimson sky, the Buddhist monks are readying for a final
> stand.
>
> Priests and students alike at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center have
> been doffing their traditional black robes, hefting picks and shovels,
> and forging 10-foot-wide firebreaks. Atop the roofs of the monastery's
> old retreat cabins and meditation hall, they've jury-rigged plastic
> pipe sprinkler systems.
>
> Perhaps more serene than some, they were among a multitude of Northern
> Californians coping Friday with more than 1,200 blazes from the Nevada
> border to the Pacific.
>
> The fires, triggered by fierce lightning storms last weekend, have
> charred more than 193,000 acres and destroyed at least 20 homes -- 16
> of them just over the mountains along Big Sur's legendary 70-mile
> coastline.
>
> The blazes prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday to ask that
> President Bush declare a state of emergency in the region. In a news
> conference, the governor suggested that fire-stricken counties
> consider banning Fourth of July fireworks.
>
> In the Los Padres National Forest surrounding Tassajara, America's
> oldest monastery devoted to Buddhism, fires have devoured more than
> 80,000 acres in the last three weeks. Steph Wenderski, a 30-year-old
> native of Minnesota who has lived at the monastery for two years,
> admitted to occasional bouts of fear. But those periods, she said,
> invariably gave way to calm.
>
> "You don't have much time to think about what could be coming," she  
> said.
>
> Local authorities asked that those staying behind in this spiritual
> center -- a series of rustic wood and stone buildings in a remote
> canyon 14 miles up a roller-coaster dirt road from the nearest
> pavement -- provide the names of their dentists for identification
> purposes.
>
> So far, there have been no fatalities in the Northern California
> fires. And by midday Friday, the fire licking the edges of Big Sur's
> famous cliffs and new-age resorts had backed off a little.
>
> Kirk Gafill, general manager of the cliffside restaurant Nepenthe,
> decided to reopen his eatery Friday evening. "We've been blessed with
> very little wind activity for the last week," said Gafill, fresh from
> a tour of redwoods burning across Highway 1 just 1,000 feet to the
> east. "If that were to turn around, all bets are off."
>
> Fires in the area have been burning for seven days, spiking stress
> levels in an area renowned for its tranquillity.
>
> "We've had other threatening fires over the years," said Gafill, a
> grandson of the couple who started Nepenthe nearly 60 years ago. "But
> the whole world showed up to deal with it, and for 24 hours you'd be
> scrambling to secure your property and pack your belongings. When it's
> over, you felt it was over. This is psychologically unique."
>
> At Tassajara, a crew of monastic protectors showed the same fortitude
> as suburban homeowners hosing down their homes in the orange glow of
> approaching flames.
>
> "We don't intend to let the oldest Buddhist monastery in the Western
> Hemisphere burn," declared Greg Fain, who rushed down from the Bay
> Area, where he serves as treasurer of the San Francisco Zen Center.
>
> "This place is my heart," said Fain, eyes narrowing behind black
> horn-rim glasses, his shaved head covered by a yellow baseball cap.
> "Every time I come over the ridge, my heart starts to soar."
>
> The 160-acre complex sprawls along the edge of Tassajara Creek in a
> narrow canyon filled with maple and sycamore, alder, oak and pine.
>
> Built more than a century ago as a hunting lodge, the original
> buildings fell into disrepair before the San Francisco Zen Center
> bought the property in 1967.
>
> For half the year it operates strictly as a monastery, with monks
> following the traditional Zen practices imported from Japan by Suzuki
> Roshi, devoting at least 10 hours each day to meditation and chants.
>
> In the summer months, Tassajara opens to the public -- Zen followers
> or simply seekers of solitude. With gourmet vegetarian meals, a
> hot-springs bath house and cozy cottages, rates run up to $325 a  
> night.
>
> When word came Monday that fire might be closing in, 75 guests and
> some students left in a caravan of cars. Those remaining began to
> prepare for the worst.
>
> By Wednesday, flames were just three miles to the west. The sheriff
> ordered an evacuation, but a skeleton crew was allowed to stay.
>
> They cut branches, raked leaves and laid out fire hose. They
> triple-checked the two big pumps that can be used to draw water from
> the 50,000-gallon swimming pool and the riffles of Tassajara Creek.
>
> As ash fell from the sky, Mako Voelkel, the monastery's tenzo, or
> cook, was cutting fire breaks as well as vegetables.
>
> "I'm feeling pretty good about it," she said. "We're prepared."
>
> She and the others were working from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., with time off
> only for meals.
>
> Fires hit the monastery twice in the last three decades. In 1977 and
> 1999, flames burned all around the complex. Each time, the losses were
> kept relatively minor, thanks to the firefighting monks and
> professional crews from the U.S. Forest Service.
>
> That's auspicious: With its remote locale, the monastery can't get
> fire insurance.
>
> David Zimmerman, Tassajara director, expects a rerun. The monks will
> don yellow, flame-resistant fire jackets and yellow helmets with
> protective shrouds and will work to stamp out spot fires. Everyone, he
> said, feels "happy and honored to be here right now."
>
> Late Friday, help arrived. A Forest Service strike team pulled in,
> along with a 30-man crew of firefighting inmates. They'll be fed out
> of the monastery kitchen.
>
> Hours before sunrise, the 20 remaining monks still meditate and chant.
>
> "Buddhist tenets say that all things are impermanent, and fire can be
> a great teacher in that," said Alec Henderson, a former defense
> attorney from Los Angeles who forswore material wealth to take up the
> Zen creed of "one robe, one bowl."
>
> Henderson left Wednesday with the task of safekeeping Ginger, the
> monastery dog. Now he's holding his breath, along with thousands of
> Zen followers and former Tassajara guests, hoping the monastery
> emerges intact.
>
> But if the flames prove too tough to defeat, the monks plan to retreat
> along with the Forest Service firefighters.
>
> "We won't risk anybody to save the buildings," said Devin Patel, a
> bearded 28-year-old who serves as the monastery's fire marshal.
>
> "The buildings can burn, but you can't actually burn down Tassajara.
> Fire can never touch Tassajara's heart."
>
>
> __._,_.___
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