Richard Baker on Grahame Petchey

Richard Baker's poem for Grahame read to him before he died

You Were my Inspiration - written for Grahame after he died

Read at Grahame's funeral at Green Gulch Farm

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Richard Baker's poem for Grahame, read to him shortly before he died.

Richard Baker wrote: I looked at your and Julia's emails as I was wondering what to say for the 9 PM Hot Drink [during sesshin], I already had the first simple lines, and then I added the rest in feeling for Grahame.

***

Finding breathing,
Repeating,
Resting, Waiting.
Past and present
form themselves.
We put this Zendo in this old building,
to sit for awhile and stop
our coming and going.

My old friend Grahame's
in hospice,
maybe, about to die.

Yesterday, "time is short”,
his daughter, Julia,
said, he said.

He was president of Zen Center
in ‘62, I was the Treasurer,
But neither of us knew,
Neither of us knew.

But we read Dogen, Uji,
BeingTime, and the
Diamond Sutra:
“all things are like a dream,
a bubble, a shadow,
a drop of dew
all things must be viewed
like this.”

In Uji, Dogen recounts how
Yaoshan asked Mazu,
“What's the meaning of
Bodhidharma coming from India?”

Mazu said,
“For the timebeing have him raise
his eyebrows and blink,
for the timebeing do not have him
raise his eyebrows and blink.”

Grahame and I raised
our eyebrows and blinked.

You Were my Inspiration - written for Grahame and sent to the family to use in a memorial

 

Dear Grahame,

You were my inspiration in those early days of our newly forming Sangha with Suzuki Roshi.
You were the first person I knew who decided to make Zen Buddhism your lifetime Path.  You exuded that confidence.  You made clear it was possible.
And your still-sitting was amazing.  You showed me, and all of us at the time, that it was possible to sit still without moving - really without moving - and in the Lotus Posture.
And you decided to continue Zen Practice in Japan - and at Eiheiji as an ordained monk.  WOW, who would have imagined that.  Not I at the time.
But not too long after, I also was an ordained monk at Eiheiji and learning from your prior experience.
And your distinguished, committed Practice I know was one of the reasons Suzuki Roshi decided to remain in America for the rest of his life.  Thank you Grahame, for that.  And of course, we all know that Suzuki Roshi's life in America has beneficially changed, really beneficially changed and transformed, many many persons' lives.
And as the first President of the newly incorporated Zen Center, you just assumed that it was possible - of course possible - to establish a realizational space in the West, an institution, a Sangha.  Without you, probably, we would have thought such a Sangha was only possible in Japan or China.
And Grahame you led me to Tassajara.  You and Pauline sometimes camped out on weekends, exploring California, and you were excited by your time at China Camp in the Los Padres National Forest.  So some weeks later, Ginny and I decided to camp with little Sally at China Camp, then, out of curiosity (and because hunters were shooting around in the Camp), we decided to explore further on, down the road.
And more personally, Grahame, you and Pauline, were the first couple I had ever hung-out with as best friends, and it made me think: maybe I should get married.  Luckily, I soon met Virginia and we all became best friends together and Ginny and I got married.  David and Sally, our two first children, are almost the exact same age.  I have a photo right here on my desk of Pauline with David on her lap, and Ginny with Sally on her lap - and Trudy with Annie on her lap - all of us in Mike and Trudy's apartment.
And finally, Grahame, you showed me that it was imaginable, actually possible, to have a teacher for life, and a teacher of life.
In many ways, Grahame, you were also my teacher!
Those were the days, my friend, we thought they would never end.

Good Bye Dear Grahame.  Good Bye Teacher.  I loved you.

Richard Zentatsu

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On Grahme's Funeral

Reb led the funeral, but I participated, and Paul Rosenblum participated.  Sally attended.  There was only the minimal Green Gulch participation.  Mostly they don't know that Grahame was one of the founders of the Suzuki Roshi Sangha.

Read at Grahame's funeral at Green Gulch Farm
(a lot of repeat from above)

INITIAL:

Grahame Petchey was the decisive leader of Suzuki Roshi's, early, newly forming Sangha. And he was the person who legally incorporated the San Francisco Zen Center and he was the first President, after its incorporation.

I was the treasurer - really my wife Ginny was - but I was the named Treasurer. 

We were two couples who saw each other all the time, and our two children, Sally and David, were born at nearly the same time.  We also lived in the same Victorian house of apartments on Fillmore Street, 2518.  The Petcheys on the first floor and the Bakers on the third floor. 

It was Pauline and Grahame's camping trip in the Los Padres National Forest that led Ginny and I to camp there too, and then to my discovery of Tassajara.  Suzuki Roshi had made clear to me that he needed and wanted a place where he could live and practice with students face-to-face and where he could establish 90-Day Ango Practice Periods.  He was sure that the 90-Day Ango was the key to establishing Zen Lineage Practice in the West.

SPEAKING TO GRAHAME:

Grahame, I would not have known Suzuki Roshi in the same way without you.  It was you who felt and showed me the potential, the real possibility of, complete commitment to a Teacher and to a Practice.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU!  Somehow, you made me realize a lifetime commitment to Zen Practice was possible and that it made both practical living-sense and profound realizational-sense!!!  

And your still-sitting was amazing.  You showed me, and all of us at the time, that it was possible to sit still without moving - really without moving - and in the Lotus Posture.

And as the first President of the newly incorporated Zen Center, you just assumed that it was possible - of course it was possible - to establish a realizational space in the West, an institution, a Sangha.  Without you, probably, we would have thought such a Sangha was only possible in Japan or China.

And then you decided to continue Zen Practice in Japan - and at Eiheiji as an ordained monk.  WOW, who would have imagined that.  Not I at the time.

But not too long after, I also was an ordained monk at Eiheiji and learning from your prior experience.

Your distinguished, committed Practice I know was one of the main reasons Suzuki Roshi decided to remain in America for the rest of his life.  Thank you Grahame, for that!  And of course, we all know that Suzuki Roshi's life in America has beneficially changed, really beneficially changed and transformed, many many persons' lives.

∞∞∞

Grahame, you were also my teacher!

'Those were the days, my friend, we (really) thought they would never end'.

Grahame and I read Dogen's Uji together, and:

Good Bye Dear Grahame.  Good Bye Teacher.  I loved you.