| PBA’s Fall Trimester In-Service Takes Faculty to Chozen-ji to Learn More about the Hawaiian Zen Practice of the Kalihi Valley Sangha
Dear readers of the What's New,
Last Friday marked the end of the 24-25 Fall Trimester. While students took the day to decompress from fall trimester finals, PBA’s full-time teachers and administrators rode in “Big Buddha” to the back of Kalihi Valley to the Chozen-ji International Zen Dojo of Hawaiʻi, a Rinzai Zen Daihonzan, or central temple, established in 1972 by Omori Sogen and Tenshin Tanouye. We could not have picked a more beautiful day for our visit. The skies were clear, the morning lightened by a cool breeze scented with eucalyptus and moisture lifted from the Kalihi hillsides.
| | 
| I was first introduced to Cristina Moon, an author and practicing monk at Chozen-ji, by former PBA Board Chair Leigh-Ann Miyasato. Leigh-Ann had suggested it might be great for Cristina to offer a dharma message for temple service at PBA. Cristina shared her experiences as a peacebuilder working in the Free Burma Movement in the early 2000s, both as an exemplar of what young people can be capable of in the world, and to share why that work had led her to her Zen Buddhist practice at Chozen-ji. With the students, she shared the Chinese quote, "When the right person uses the wrong | | means, the wrong means work in the right way. But when the wrong person uses the right means, the right means work in the wrong way.” Her years of activism in Burma were passionate, but she concluded she needed to change herself if she wanted to change the world. Practice at Chozen-ji has offered Cristina and her husband, Chozen-ji Abbot Michael Kangen, the chance to do just that. Over four hours with the PBA teachers, Michael, Cristina, and two live-in students of Chozen-ji, Eric and Kou, gave us a tour of the grounds – the path leading to the crest of the hill on the grounds, the heavy boxing bags in the back shed, the kyudo range, the ceramics kiln and pottery barn, the kitchen housing the Zen and Politics seminars, and the main dojo with the calligraphy and pottery of founders Tenshin Tanouye, Omori Sogen, and other masters. They shared a hojo kata, led us in a few brief zazen sessions, and answered questions about Chozen-ji, zen, and their practice at the daihonzan.
| | 
| As PBA’s school leader, I deeply appreciated the many connections Michael and Cristina made between their sangha and PBA’s. As they described the founding of the Daihonzan and its origins in the music room of Farrington High School (Tenshin Tanouye was the band teacher at Farrington), I thought of PBA’s origins in the two school rooms at the back of Hongwanji Mission School’s administration building. As they described their lifestyle at Chozen-ji, the full days and seasons of work at the monastery, and how, over the years, the temple’s founders had developed a distinctively Hawaiian Buddhist set of practices, I thought of how much of ourselves the educators at PBA have poured into building our systems and educational practices and sense of sangha, our commitment to our community, to making differences in children’s and families lives. As I write this message, I prepare myself to represent PBA at the Betsuin memorial service for Auntie Puanani Burgess, PBA trustee, adviser, Hawaiian communitarian and healer, Chozen-ji priest. When we boarded Big Buddha to return to our campus and start our weekends, the teachers were satisfied, I felt, imbued with a deeper sense of purpose, | | and an understanding of what it takes to build, tend, maintain, and grow a school like ours, a monastery like Chozen-ji. It is built through intention and sitting and practice, chanting and laughter and no small amount of work. But the work we do is important and good and filled with purpose. |
Warmly,
Josh
Head of School
| Nainoa Thompson Inspires Students with Traditional Navigation Wisdom | | Pwo Navigator and Polynesian Voyaging Society CEO Nainoa Thompson visited campus last week, delivering a presentation to students on the final day of the Fall Trimester.
Students from the Jewelry Making elective joined the Stars, Galaxies, and Aliens class to hear from Thompson, who, in 1980, became the first Native Hawaiian in 600 years to navigate a voyaging canoe to Tahiti without instruments. Accompanied by volunteer crew member Kai Hoshijo, Thompson shared wayfinding and seafaring resources with students, including the Hawaiian star and canoe compass, the dynamics of swells, and the fundamentals of sailing and tracking. | | In preparation for an upcoming field trip to the Bishop Museum’s planetarium, Thompson encouraged students to locate the four Hawaiian star families—Kekāomakaliʻi, Kaiwikuamoʻo, Mānaiakalani, and Kalupeakawelo—in the night sky. “It was a unique opportunity to learn more about navigation,” said sophomore Maile Melanson. “I enjoyed learning from Nainoa Thompson because I love spending time in and on the ocean and he is ultimately someone I hope to grow up to be like one day.” “I’m incredibly grateful to Nainoa Thompson for sharing his wisdom with us,” said Stars, Galaxies, and Aliens teacher Ryan Curry. “I also want to thank my student, Puana | 
| | Thompson, for helping organize this opportunity. I’ve always envisioned our elective connecting with real-world applications, and learning both the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of navigating directly from Nainoa made the last day of class an unforgettable experience for us all.” Having navigated the Hōkūleʻa on more than a dozen voyages, Thompson also shared photos from his journeys around the globe, illustrating the vital role of navigators at sea. In a powerful video Polynesian Voyaging Society - The Way of The Navigator, he explained, | | “Every day that navigator would maybe make 5,000 observations of a wave or a bird or a star. They would make 500 choices about trim, course, steering. And then it would make two decisions at sunrise and sunset in the color of light of dawn and dusk…about where are you on the earth.” | 
| | Thompson’s presentation connected the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s mission of global stewardship with PBA’s focus on peace education. He emphasized the importance of valuing Hawaiʻi as a unique and sacred home and the responsibility to carry the spirit of Aloha out into the world. | Lighting Our Way
November 15, 2024 
| | OFFICE HOURS
7:30AM - 5:00PM
Office Closed
November 11, 2024 - Veteran's Day | | |
