Great Artists Series 2: Watazumi Doso Roshi.

'Stop the war'.

John Tarrant presented this old Japanese koan over on his blog Zenosaurus (see blog roll):

Stop the war.

Coming as I do from Belfast this one resonated with me for the obvious reasons, but I suspect that if any of us though about it for a while we'd come up with areas of 'war' or conflict that we could directly address ourselves:

'Me' versus 'him or her' and/or vice versa.

'Me' versus 'them' or 'that group' and/or vice versa.

'Me' versus 'aspects of myself' and/or vice versa.

'Me' versus 'Zazen' and/or vice versa.

'Me' versus 'The world' and/or vice versa.

'Me' versus 'work' or 'this situation' and/or vice versa...

Besides such obvious ones, it seems that the 'war' gets down to very, very subtle levels. It seems, in practice, that there are even nameless, formless arenas of conflict.

One such front that strikes me today is this: Can we take the concrete step to disarm the war between delusion and realisation?

Regards,

Harry.

Buddhist Magic: The Big Bag of Enlightenment Tricks... REVEALED for FREE!!!

Yeah. Ain't it grand.

I get pissed off from time to time much like many, if not most, people.

What may be particularly tragic (or funny, if you're in that sort of mood) in my case is that I bought into this bizarre belief system that says that if you sit on your choco donut for an hour a day that, as if by magic, your problems will disappear; you will be able to see through your delusion; you will become a Buddhist class act and will be able to point and laugh and offer stunning advice from high to others on the ground under your cloud; you will be cured of all pain; you will be cured; I WILL BE CURED of PAIN...!!!

Me versus The Inevitable Pain of Living (...pain wins... ding, ding).

What sort of an ass would heap the pain of trying to avoid pain atop the feeling of pain?

Answers on a postcard to:

Donkey Mc Ass,

The Back Alley,

Rear View,

Bottomley,

Asstrailia.

Family.

I'm more grateful than I'll ever know -

This great Life,
Which tonight made way for my ceaseless wrongs
And sighed so that our children might breathe.

..................

Great Artists Series 1: Hermeto Pascoal

New Koan Workshop Blog!

Ok, that probably sounds grander than it's going to be, but I propose to put up a koan here from time-to-time and have a little look-see at it.

I'll be using Master Dogen's own collection of 300 koans, Shinji Shobogenzo. These are the koans that Master Dogen collected in China on which he largely based his philosophical masterwork Shobogenzo.

There are two major translations/commentaries of the collection available from Amazon: Master Nishijima's and the late Daido Loori Roshi's (trans. Tanahashi).

Master Nishijima's commentary is very clear and practical while Loori Roshi's probably retains a bit more of the old Zen spirit (he says people are talking shit a lot).

I think it's good to read various commentaries on koans, and to come up with our own interpretations: as we're all different then the koan will necessarily 'say' different things to us; one person might notice one thing in particular while another might see something else as our individual circumstances dictate.

It seems to me, from reading Master Dogen's approach to koans in Shobogenzo, that he took up these old stories and, basically, played with them. He reimagined them somewhat, he didn't seem too threatened by the weight of tradition and, while we have the commentaries of Masters such as Nishijima Roshi and Loori Roshi, we won't go too wrong if we approach them in earnest IMO. Master Dogen saw koans as expressions of the truth of reality and he encouraged us to take them up and engage their potentials in so many ways.

First koan coming soon.

Regards,

Harry.

Loving/ Liking/ Doing the Right Thing... Cats Again.

Exibit A: This cat, caught off guard, shows it's original Cat-Nature.

I don't think you really need to love somebody, or love everybody, or even like somebody or everybody, to do the right thing by them.


My Good and long-suffering missus is a cat person; she really does love cats. I'm not a cat person... they creep me out and bug me what with the purring and the rubbing-up-against and the slinking around all the time... I can't say I 'love' or even 'like' cats as such in any overt or obvious way.


At the same time I couldn't bear to see one of 'our' cats (or any cat) in trouble, pain or distress. I'd help a cat out if I could (and I have helped 'em out a bit when I can).

I think I'll stop worrying about being a 'not-being-a-cat-person' person.

Regards,


Harry.