Zazen
My interest in Zen Buddhism was oddly reawakened three months ago, (I really have no idea why, I mildly studied Zen in my teens at the Berkley Zen Center but hadn't practiced in many a year), so after poking around at the various Zen centers in my area (most of which made me want to endlessly vomit) I have found myself drawn to the SF Zen Center.Anyway, recently I read a book by a guy named Brad Warner who is a Buddhist Monk, Punk Rocker and a Japanese film monster lover that was fantastic in its ablity to describe the Monk Dogen's writings. Dogen was a 13th century bad ass Monk who didn't like the Buddhist schools of his day, so he took off from Japan, studied with a bunch of other monks and eventually took it all home back to Japan and established his own temple.
Here's a Warner article that I like.
Link
And a link to his second book "Sit Down and Shut Up" that I heartily recommend.
Amazon Link
Back to South East Asia.
posted by MBO at 10:49 PM
4 Comments:
Tooth Fairy 1
MBO 0
Heh...that's a wildy misinformed comment, but funny enough.
Actually Zazen has nothing to do with the Tooth Fairy. No "God" is ever mentioned or implied, no "book" is required reading. It's actually very easy to be an Atheist and study/practice Dogens style of Zen Buddhism. I might even venture that the two schools of thought go together very nicely.
Check out the book "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris for a interesting take on the subjects.
Or dont, Mr/Mrs Anonymous.
I've been reading "Essays in Zen Buddhism" by DT Suzuki. Honk shu, grasshopper.
thanks for article
Cool.
I have a real hard time with most writing about Zen and this Dogen guys stuff is a real mind fuck. Beautiful but hard to handle. I guess this is why the "teacher" is so important in the Zen discipline. Of course, finding a good teacher is difficult as lots of Zen "masters" have their heads firmly up their asses. I know as soon as I hear about "Mystical experiences" or "Achieving enlightenment" I get up and leave. Those people are pushing bad drugs if you ask me. That's why I like the Dogen style, his bullshit detector was always on. Luckily I live near the SF Zen Center, which is pretty dang good.
Snatch the Pebble Beyach.
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