BIG JOKE

Once I told a man who asked me What is the Zen.

I said him, I am the Zen, my daily life is the Zen.

Making tea as the Zen. Drinking it as the Zen.

Cutting a metal as the Zen. Soldering electronic circuit as the Zen.

As I believe it is the Zen while I’m doing it, so it become the Zen.

Whether it looks mythical and fancy to others, is not a matter at all

and whether it is perfect or yet is the matter of time.

One day it might become perfect.

At moment, I only doing it in my best.

Tomorrow’s best may be better than today’s,so I just keep doing it.

And it may get perfect one day. Who knows ?

———–

Nirvana ?

I have no idea as I’m still here.

If I got it I have no idea neither because when I got it

I’m dead and can’t answer you, Can I ? Ha Ha Ha 😀

Starting point of Yoshizen

It was the last moment as I was leaving the temple, when Master Kogetsu stopped me at the gate and asked me,

“I’ve been wondering since I saw you on the first day. Who the devil this guy ?

Have a tea and talk before you go”

While receiving his tea I told him who I am.

Finding my father’s name in the Soto Temples Directory and heard that I was a veteran mountain climber,

he understood why he felt me as if I were a seasoned monk.

It was the time soon after the collapse of the 70th students’ uprise (lots of ex-activist left Japan then) and

my Degree was in Sociology, I had enough ammunition to ask him about the viability of the Buddhism

in the aspect of the society and human existence.

His answer was what I wrote before, still I promised him I’ll see him again.

I’m afraid it must be too late to report him back, still I feel my duty to tell his tombstone what I found.

——Since, without encountering Master Kogetsu, Yoshizen couldn’t exist today and I believe it was

the destined Karma.

And me to encounter a new friend who directed me to Zen blog site, and me to start blogging was

also a pre-destined Karma which meant me, the time is ripe.

[]

PS :  To follow-up this, you may read a post “Tiny Comment” which would explain the point best.

[]

Karma?

Buddha’s teaching “Everything in life and the life itself is the continuous flow of all sorts of occurrences which

occurs in relation to other existences and in relation to everything in the past, present and future,

therefore nothing can be defined as a solid one existence, since it is constantly changing.

Then the death will halt this constant flow of Karma, therefore, it is the Nirvana”

(This teaching was utterly contrary to the Veda’s foundation, the (imaginary) existence of the Atman

and its perpetuity is the basis of their idea of the re-incarnation.)

Though, the early Buddhist who couldn’t capture the Buddha’s teaching as its entirety, started fuss about

the superficial details “Wait a moment, we have to elucidate the meanings of what the Buddha taught”

and tried to define each notion, word by word ofwhich the written word itself could have been already

mislaid or misinterpreted over hundreds of years.

The result was the huge mountain of Abidharmakosa scripts.

Still, the Buddhism survived more or less in its original form, thanks to the direct transmission.

This is the answer to BlindRob

* * * This blog was originally posted on a site which has been talking about whether Zenist should be

allowed to use cushion or chair for their meditation practice.

And this one was intended to be the response to BlindRob who asked me the sitting situation among

the Japanese young people today.

Hi Rob

The situation in Japan is what you guessed it. Now a day, to have Tatami mat room is only kept by rich people,

as its labour intensive product became too expensive and the dwindling number of the craftsman who makes it.

In the same time, the westernization of the culture and life style made even the body shape changed.

In the old days Japanese had bent shoter legs.

(which is good for Judo and Sumo—–incidentally it is one of the reason why Japanese lost its dominance)

When young people happen to attend such as Tea ceremony or even funeral, they can not sit in traditional way

more than 15 minutes —- let alone lotus posture.

When Master Dogen started his Soto sect, he was a young man of only late 30 th. I don’t think he could foresee

what would happen in the later age.

In Japan a doll called “Daluma” is very popular.

It is a round egg-shaped doll without leg and painted in red. It is the effigy of the BodiDahrma.

The legend says, he kept sitting facing the wall for 9 years and got enlightened (with the price of legs )

——-M M M ? ? ?

I rather like to remain a man with legs, walking around meeting the people

and live as an ordinary folk like Vimalakirti.

——- When I submitted this, it was blocked and disappeared. I found the script in the server’s memory

as a previous page. And when I re-submitted it again the screen showed a notice;

“Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that !”

It signify that they received it and has been filed,though they do not publish it, in another word “Censorship”

——Yet here in my site, this is the answer to Rob.

* FUNNY STORY (1)

Many years ago I was talking with my friend about the Zen.

When I said ” The matter of the Zen is to control one’s subconscious”.

My friend said ” No, subconscious is outof one’s control”.

So, I told him “Have look, as you got young daughter, you must have noticed, when she wear mini-skirt

her body movement become completely different, and she does it unconsciously”.

“Another sample is the time when we encounter an escalator which is not moving. When we step on it we

almost tumble as the body is adjusting to the expected movement.

But it couldn’t happen in the second time. And we are not necessary consciously thinking about it”

—— A question here, if we can behave or act without conscious, WHO is operating the puppet / us.

(Of cause now all we know it is the programed movement in our motor legion of the brain)

This is what the Mantra described “Mind is there as it is not there, therefore it is there”

(Before the notion of  Subconsciousness was defined,  it was so difficult to explain the

phenomenon even to the Buddha himself, and made the follower to puzzle.

The Buddhism to find the notion of Alaya (close meaning to subconscious) is

300 years after Buddha’s death.)

Any how my friend was convinced that this phenomenon is the one of element of the Zen.

The conscious of wearing mini-skirt, went down deep into the subconscious, and started to

control her behaviour.

So, when you  were re-programed or put a conscious of that you are a Buddhist, deep down

into your invisible subconscious, you start to behave and live as a Buddhist.——Provided,

you know what the Buddhist is, in the same time.

And this is the reason why all the Buddhist sects employ the physical practice as a part of

the Buddhism study.   Since, physical practice goes into subconscious faster as a routine.

—————-? ? ?     Really ?

Once you have been re-programed, you no longer spread your legs wide open.

Though, I wouldn’t imply that’s the reason why Buddhist is not sexy.    Ha Ha Ha 🙂

Do it!

If anybody want to live as a Buddhist, just live don’t waste the time thinking.

Unlike the Hinduism which started from the myth or story, the Buddhism was started by the man who

got the clearest eyes and his observations, it is based on the realm of the fact.

The realm of the fact mean, it is not the imaginary world, but the solid reality of the life.

In deed the Buddhism is the way of the life, not a fantasy.

In the same context if anybody attempt to dissect and analyze the Buddhism, the answer can not be found

from the theoretical thinking. It can only be found from the practice.

That is the reason why , like the Soto-Zen prohibit the teaching in the verbal mean.

Who is Yoshizen?

I’ve born in a Zen temple, as my farther happen to be a priest there, though I’m not a

monk yet, since I still have a lots of hair on the top.        Ha Ha Ha.

Before I left Japan, I spent a time in the Eihei-ji Tmple, where Master Kogetsu sentenced me

“You never get enlightenment, since you know too much which keep you

away from the Enlightenment”——it was nearly 40 years ago.

Yet still, I used my damned knowledge, science, history of human evolution,

neuroscience, psychology, etc, above all common sense,  to evaluate Zen phenomenon,

while actually testing the many different practices and body action.

My question was, What is Zen, and why and how the Zen created and shaped the human

activity, such as Ethics, Tea ceremony, Martial art— down to all aspects of daily life

(of Japanese especially).   And I went back to the most likely original form of the

Lord Buddha’s teachings, not necessary from the Scriptures which seems to be heavily

re-written for the sake of glorifying the Lord Buddha,

but followed the likely psyche of the Lord Buddha himself then.

The best sample is, whether the Spirit remain after a person’s death and the Heaven or

Hell exist ?  — When the Disciples asked this question, the Lord Buddha said to be kept silent.

Such an enlightened man who dare to utter, “The life is to get ill, suffering, get old and die”

could  mislead the followers by giving an illusion of the paradise ? ——- I don’t think so.

(The idea of the Mahayana Buddhism, the Heaven, the Savior, the Supreme God, came from

the influence of the teachings of a Christian Apostle Tomas who came to the southern India

and built / opened number of churches 2000 years ago, not from the Brahmanism / Hinduism.)

If the Lord Buddha could accept the idea of perpetual sou Atomanl, which is the idea of Brahmanism,

he could choose to be a Brahman high priest as he was the Royal Prince.

Since he rejected Brahmanism and the existence of perpetual soul or reincarnation, while saying

“When you die, it will be the end of all the sufferings, this is the Nirvana”,

it was really the revolutionary idea then.

—–To be continued—–

( this is the first time I ever expressed my view of the Buddhism in a public arena

and I would like to hear what you say)