The Day the Fire Arrived

Is somebody writing a screenplay? This story has everything you might want in a movie -- action, drama, Buddhist monks. Well, OK, everything I might want in a movie.

A first-person account of the day the fire arrived at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center has been posted by David Zimmerman, Tassajara's director. Tassajara, in the Carmel Valley/Big Sur area of California, was threatened by the raging wildfires that have consumed tens of thousands of acres since June. Just five priests by themselves battled walls of fire, some 40 feet high, that converged fast on Tassajara from all four sides at once. Unimaginable.

"The Day the Fire Arrived" is the second part of a series. For the entire saga, see Part One, "The Events Surrounding the Third Evacuation and the Tassajara Five's Return" and Part Three, "Now that the fire has passed." Tassajara is the oldest Zen monastery outside Asia and possibly the oldest Buddhist monastery in the Western Hemisphere, and its loss would have been a great tragedy.

See also The Firefighter Blog, where Captain Mike provides professional perspective on this summer's fires, and the Sitting With Fire blog.