It's becoming fashionable in American Buddhist circles for teachers of my generation (I'm 41) or even younger to try to make Buddhist practice "hip" or "relevant," which often means dispensing with form and ritual. The argument usually goes that it's the only way to remedy the problem that Dharma centers in America are, with few exceptions, the habitat of older, middle class or upper class white people.

And that's definitely a serious problem. But I think adapting Buddhist practice by leaving out ritual makes that problem worse, not better. A meditation practice without ritual and form runs the risk of not being a meditation practice at all, but just another narcissistic indulgence, a method of  "self-help," the kind of activity favored by pampered white people (and, in saying "white," I'm not talking about skin color, or at least not only about skin color).

Zen doesn't have to be adapted to become hip or relevant. When practiced sincerely in these times, it already is. Take a look at the Hoodie Monks website - and then consider the fact that everyone you see there is practicing in the way that Zen monks have practiced for centuries. On the street we may wear hoodies, but in the sangha we wear robes.

Our sangha here in Phoenix is unusually diverse in its membership; at any meeting, there are people of varying age, ethnicity, social class and sexual orientation. It's so diverse that at first glance you might think it was a scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - a motley crew of people together in a room, sitting still, staring into space...

Except for the fact that there are rakusus and robes, and chanting, and bowing, and offering of incense. All the ritual that so many rising Dharma teachers want to forget about and just focus on meditation. But they're missing the point - the form and ritual isn't just an irrelevant feature of the practice. In fact, it isn't a feature of the practice at all - it is the practice. Without it, there's no zazen, just sitting on a cushion picking and choosing what we like doing and what we don't like doing. The zendo must be a place where the ego starves to death, and the forms that have been practiced for so many centuries are essential for the creation and manifestation of that place.

I have no interest in revamping Zen practice for the urban world. Zen is perfect just the way it is. It was perfect when the Buddha taught it, it was perfect when Bodhidharma taught it, it was perfect when Dogen taught it, and it's perfect when it's taught today. It's perfect in mountain temples, and it's perfect in ghetto rooms. For Zen practice to remain urgent and necessary in urban America, we need to keep and polish the precious jewels of the tradition, not throw them away. It is the practice as a whole that is the gateless gate to freedom from suffering.

As my teacher once told me, "You don't bend the Dharma to suit yourself. The Dharma bends you."