The funeral for Daigan at Green Gulch Farm on Sunday, June 7, 2015, was led by his teacher Zoketsu Norman Fischer, as well as Tenshin Reb Anderson and Furyu Nancy Schroeder. Pages from the program are shown below, along with a photo of the altar spread with several of Daigan’s priestly effects and remembrances. One of Daigan’s poems, poignantly appropriate to the occasion, was included in the program.
If you have not yet done so but would like to, donations are still being accepted in memory of Daigan for the new bell tower at Green Gulch. Designs have been sketched for a proper structure to house the obonsho bell, which has hung outside the zendo at Green Dragon Temple for almost 40 years.
Daigans-Altar_taiyolipscomb
Daigan
I loved you
even though you didn’t want it (too sentimental)
I loved you anyway
you had soul – the kind found deep in the marrow of living
down where grit meets vulnerability
and this presence means more to me than your absence
If we were Hindu wanderers, we would have known Daigan Tatsudu to be Mahatma, great soul. Great soul, farewell. I’m grateful you graced this Place with your rich, tough, bone marrow presence.
Three bows,
Konen
Snow on the pines
thus breaks the power
that splits mountains.
— Shiyo
Daigan — your beauty, your grace, your blending of light and darkness, your humor, your and Arlene’s miraculous love — though all these are deathless, your passing blasts an enormous hole in the world. Love and bows for your transition. — Shosan
Thanks for being a being of thanks, Love ya!