Comments on: A Zen Master Blogs...

A Zen Master Blogs...

MetaMonkey — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 17:01:45 -0800

"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.

By: armage

armage — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 17:18:41 -0800

That's awesome. I'll have to visit his temple sometime (only a short train ride away!). Thanks for the links, MetaMonkey.

By: RokkitNite

RokkitNite — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 17:53:19 -0800

Great post. Thanks.

By: acetonic

acetonic — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:13:23 -0800

Isn't this Metafilter? Don't you know that religions are bad and only for the weak minded?

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:17:38 -0800

Zen masters rule.

By: Protocols of the Elders of Awesome

Protocols of the Elders of Awesome — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:18:49 -0800

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).

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:18:59 -0800

[this is good]

By: abcde

abcde — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:20:58 -0800

acetonic: Ah, but Zen is an unusally empirical and overall palatable religion - more of a philosophy, really. It makes very few supernatural claims.

By: fleetmouse

fleetmouse — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:23:09 -0800

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.

By: joe lisboa

joe lisboa — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:29:50 -0800

Acetonic has answered the zen koan: "What's the sound of one hand fapping?"

By: tkolar

tkolar — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:45:39 -0800

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...

By: Protocols of the Elders of Awesome

Protocols of the Elders of Awesome — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:49:42 -0800

None of this is going to help me maintain my Harley.

By: acetonic

acetonic — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 18:58:18 -0800

Oh, I forgot. We only bash religion as stupid in threads about Christianity. I guess I'll reincarnate as a frog for that one!

By: I Foody

I Foody — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:00:48 -0800

Islam is really stupid too.

By: joe lisboa

joe lisboa — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:06:28 -0800

When ya'll stop drinking the blood of your scapegod then ya'll can start making fun of reincarnation, acetonic. Let it go, son.

By: Protocols of the Elders of Awesome

Protocols of the Elders of Awesome — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:06:58 -0800

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

By: joe lisboa

joe lisboa — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:07:44 -0800

... and Protocols owes me the obligatory new keyboard. Nicely played.

By: joe lisboa

joe lisboa — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:10:48 -0800

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.

By: mullacc

mullacc — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:17:27 -0800

Well, judging by the first two posts before acetonic derailed the thread, the discussion was really about thanking MetaMonkey. Damn you, acetonic!

By: joe lisboa

joe lisboa — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:22:48 -0800

Yes, thanks for a cool post, M.M.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:23:20 -0800

Brad Warner, the author of Hardcore Zen, is a student of Nishijima's.

By: tkolar

tkolar — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:34:04 -0800

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....

By: RokkitNite

RokkitNite — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:34:19 -0800

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!

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:58:07 -0800

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.

By: ashbury

ashbury — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:58:25 -0800

people, let acetate float like a cork on the ocean of life. He has his own path to follow.

By: ashbury

ashbury — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 19:59:11 -0800

troutfishing, that's a good story. Thanks.

By: thirteenkiller

thirteenkiller — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 20:02:20 -0800

For the record, Buddhism is also stupid.

By: kryptondog

kryptondog — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 20:20:00 -0800

Thanks for the link! Interesting stuff.

By: lee

lee — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:00:00 -0800

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

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:20:14 -0800

For the record, thirteenkiller is also stupid.

By: beth

beth — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 21:28:05 -0800

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.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 23:53:16 -0800

Todai Law '46, MoF in the postwar. This guy had connections. Explains his English skills at least.

By: acetonic

acetonic — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 23:59:13 -0800

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)

By: Freen

Freen — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:06:29 -0800

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.

By: moonbiter

moonbiter — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 02:57:46 -0800

Christian feelings hurt, shill cries of hypocrisy, incessant whining.

By: moonbiter

moonbiter — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 03:03:26 -0800

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.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 03:04:26 -0800

MetaFilter: a haiku about whining.

By: MarkO

MarkO — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 07:50:32 -0800

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.

By: pepcorn

pepcorn — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 08:30:13 -0800

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.

By: Azhruwi

Azhruwi — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 10:14:34 -0800

For the record, Goofyy is double stupid. >:|

By: Sparx

Sparx — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:16:09 -0800

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

By: Coventry

Coventry — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:42:32 -0800

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.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 20:30:04 -0800

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.

By: Jelreyn

Jelreyn — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 23:41:53 -0800

hey... if those religions up there ^ suck, which ones don't? Is buddism the only one that's 'ok'?

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 00:10:33 -0800

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!