A Zen Master Blogs...

February 25, 2006 5:01 PM

"My name is Gudo Wafu Nishijima, a Buddist Monk, who is 86 years old, and recently because of my old age, I finished my Buddhist lectures, which were held at many places for many years, and so I decided to open Dogen Sangha Blog, to express the Buddhist thought. It might be very short sentences, but I would like to continue it as far as possible almost every day."

The blog of Zen Master Gudo Wafu Nishijima, founder of Dongen Sangha Buddhist group. Learn from his video, How to Practice Zazen, or read some of Nishijima Roshi's lectures and articles, including the interesting talk, Zazen, A Better Way of Experiencing Pain.
posted by MetaMonkey (44 comments total)

That's awesome. I'll have to visit his temple sometime (only a short train ride away!).

Thanks for the links, MetaMonkey.
posted by armage at 5:18 PM on February 25, 2006

Great post. Thanks.
posted by RokkitNite at 5:53 PM on February 25, 2006

Isn't this Metafilter? Don't you know that religions are bad and only for the weak minded?
posted by acetonic at 6:13 PM on February 25, 2006

Zen masters rule.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:17 PM on February 25, 2006

Actually I salute Buddhism as the only major world religion with bullshit at its periphery rather than its heart. (I don't regard Confucianism as a religion).
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 6:18 PM on February 25, 2006

[this is good]
posted by blacklite at 6:18 PM on February 25, 2006

acetonic: Ah, but Zen is an unusally empirical and overall palatable religion - more of a philosophy, really. It makes very few supernatural claims.
posted by abcde at 6:20 PM on February 25, 2006

The most recent post in that blog is terrific. How often do you come across actual honest to Glub wisdom and spiritual enlightenment on your cyberweb interscreen? Never, that's how often.

Thanks for this. I'll be reading it lots.
posted by fleetmouse at 6:23 PM on February 25, 2006

Acetonic has answered the zen koan:
"What's the sound of one hand fapping?"
posted by joe lisboa at 6:29 PM on February 25, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

ZenMasterThis wrote...

Zen masters rule.

Read The Empty Mirror for a slightly more down to earth perspective of that.

Actually, Afterzen has better examples and is more fun to read.

Both give firsthand accounts of both the benefits and limitations of Zen masters...
posted by tkolar at 6:45 PM on February 25, 2006

None of this is going to help me maintain my Harley.
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 6:49 PM on February 25, 2006

Oh, I forgot. We only bash religion as stupid in threads about Christianity. I guess I'll reincarnate as a frog for that one!
posted by acetonic at 6:58 PM on February 25, 2006

Islam is really stupid too.
posted by I Foody at 7:00 PM on February 25, 2006

When ya'll stop drinking the blood of your scapegod then ya'll can start making fun of reincarnation, acetonic. Let it go, son.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:06 PM on February 25, 2006

acetonic, many Buddhists do not believe in literal reincarnation.

For the record, the following religions are really stupid:
Christanity
Judaism
Islam
Hinduism
Zoroastrianism
Rasta
Scientology
Voodoo
Jedi
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 7:06 PM on February 25, 2006

... and Protocols owes me the obligatory new keyboard. Nicely played.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:07 PM on February 25, 2006

For the record, no one was "bashing religion" in this particular thread until acetonic (doing wonders for stereotypes, I might add) assumed the mantle of martyr three posts in.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:10 PM on February 25, 2006

Well, judging by the first two posts before acetonic derailed the thread, the discussion was really about thanking MetaMonkey. Damn you, acetonic!
posted by mullacc at 7:17 PM on February 25, 2006

Yes, thanks for a cool post, M.M.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:22 PM on February 25, 2006

Brad Warner, the author of Hardcore Zen, is a student of Nishijima's.
posted by homunculus at 7:23 PM on February 25, 2006

acetonic wrote...
I guess I'll reincarnate as a frog for that one!

Actually I'm guessing you'll reincarnate as a troll.

Oh, wait....
posted by tkolar at 7:34 PM on February 25, 2006

acetonic, many Buddhists do not believe in literal reincarnation.

I'm no good at theological debates, but my understanding as that Buddhism talks of 'rebirth' rather than reincarnation - the reappearance of tendencies or skandhas. Since Buddhism doesn't accept the existence of an eternal, immutable self, reincarnation per se isn't really possible.
I consider myself a Buddhist, but I'm still learning I guess. And I don't mind other people bashing it - life is suffering, after all!
posted by RokkitNite at 7:34 PM on February 25, 2006

A pack of Buddhist monks descended on my life once and wouldn't - for a precious few weeks - go away.

One had been tortured, in Chinese prison, for many years. He seemed to have nothing but good for the world. I was impressed.

Eventually they left, but I was changed from the proximity.


I couldn't avoid those monks, and their American friends. They needed a place to stay, and so I just called up my friend Ben - and together we pitched all the excess car parts and detritus of my life straight out the door into the roofed 3000 square foot space that was my garage.

The monks arrived wee minutes later. They slept on the concrete floor - on carpets such as I had but little more - and were content. They liked the vibes. I liked theirs.
posted by troutfishing at 7:58 PM on February 25, 2006

people, let acetate float like a cork on the ocean of life. He has his own path to follow.
posted by ashbury at 7:58 PM on February 25, 2006

troutfishing, that's a good story. Thanks.
posted by ashbury at 7:59 PM on February 25, 2006

For the record, Buddhism is also stupid.
posted by thirteenkiller at 8:02 PM on February 25, 2006

Thanks for the link! Interesting stuff.
posted by kryptondog at 8:20 PM on February 25, 2006

For the record, buddhism is a philosophy, I have found no G-d in it. The god is there and not there.
posted by lee at 9:00 PM on February 25, 2006

For the record, thirteenkiller is also stupid.
posted by Goofyy at 9:20 PM on February 25, 2006

tkolar it is nice that you mention Afterzen. I need to re-read it, I think. I was struck in that book by the part where he is asked what a Buddhist would do for a dying person, and I believe his response was along the lines of: hold their hand, and keep them company. And I thought that was really cool.

I had the opportunity to do that once for someone, almost. Well, she didn't die that night, but she was terribly scared and troubled. This was one of the first nights I worked at a nursing home, and I was admonished that I was not to do so in the future - there simply wasn't time to give a single person attention like that. So sad.
posted by beth at 9:28 PM on February 25, 2006

Todai Law '46, MoF in the postwar. This guy had connections. Explains his English skills at least.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 11:53 PM on February 25, 2006

Sorry, I did not mean to mock the one true religion. I was mocking MeFi's hypocritical attitudes about religious posts. If this were a FPP about a Baptist minister the flames would reach to the non-existent heavens.

Protocols - those and many more are stupid (too bad about the Jedi thing)
posted by acetonic at 11:59 PM on February 25, 2006

When buddhists start trying to change public school's science curriculum, then I'll start to ridicule it's practitioners.

Belief systems, I (and from what i've gathered, Mefi as a whole) have no problem with. It tends to be the fanatical, evangelical, literal blowhards that are the problem.

That said, thanks for the post.
posted by Freen at 12:06 AM on February 26, 2006

Christian feelings hurt,
shill cries of hypocrisy,
incessant whining.
posted by moonbiter at 2:57 AM on February 26, 2006

Meh. That was a pathetic attempt at humor, and not even on-target. Oh well.

Re: the FPP: Someone needs to tell Dogen Sangha about the HTML paragraph element.
posted by moonbiter at 3:03 AM on February 26, 2006

MetaFilter: a haiku about whining.
posted by blacklite at 3:04 AM on February 26, 2006

Uh, don't those blowhards all have an airtight belief system?

Re: the FPP: Someone needs to tell Dogen Sangha about the HTML paragraph element. LOL.
posted by MarkO at 7:50 AM on February 26, 2006

For the record, buddhism is a philosophy, I have found no G-d in it. The god is there and not there.

Buddhism is a religion because one has to have faith in the teachings of Buddha; this is just like having faith in the teachings of Jesus, Mohammed, etc. However, the importance of faith is emphasized in Christianity (one has to believe in the Son of God) and not so much in Buddhism (you don't necessarily have to believe the Buddha was enlightened - just investigate for yourself). Buddihism has all the elements of any major religion, but it doesn't include the concept of a creator God.
posted by pepcorn at 8:30 AM on February 26, 2006

For the record, Goofyy is double stupid. >:|
posted by Azhruwi at 10:14 AM on February 26, 2006

acetonic: Wrong

pepcorn: one has to have faith in the teachings of Buddha

you don't necessarily have to believe the Buddha was enlightened - just investigate for yourself)

mutually contradictory statements.

FPP: clearly enlightenment precludes spellchecking. I'm a huge fan of Zen, but this guy is a tosser. ...and we can sit in Reality. Therefore we can sit in Reality. Pillock
posted by Sparx at 11:16 AM on February 26, 2006

pepcorn: Well, at work some of us talk about Bayesian statististics being our religion for approximately the same reasons you give for Buddhism being one. But I'm pretty sure we're all joking.
posted by Coventry at 12:42 PM on February 26, 2006

There's a discipline < -> religion continuum. Christianity-qua-discipline is relatively cool, Christianity-qua-religion is what sucks (burning witches at the stake, putting Galileo under house arrest, pushing creationism in the schools).

IM (limited) E, Soto Zen (Zazen) is heavy on the discipline and relatively light on the religion. Other schools of Buddhism, esp the Mahayana branches that push an actual salvation/heaven angle , are in fact quite religious in nature.

Buddhism in Japan had its own St Paul character (Nichiren), going about in the 14th century establishing a more palatable and emotional version of buddhism for the masses.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 8:30 PM on February 26, 2006

hey... if those religions up there ^ suck, which ones don't? Is buddism the only one that's 'ok'?
posted by Jelreyn at 11:41 PM on February 26, 2006

A pack of Buddhist monks descended on my life once and wouldn't - for a precious few weeks - go away.

Watch out trout, sometimes those dasterdly monks are pursued by SWAT teams!
posted by homunculus at 12:10 AM on February 27, 2006