Monthly Archives: April 2009

Idolizing our teachers

Recently I was enjoying a really great post by “Dhammabum” on chanting in Theravada countries, and the different styles and variations. One chant was by a famous Burmese monk named Mingun Sayadaw who managed to memorize the entire Pali Tripitika, … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Jodo Shu, Theravada | 1 Comment

Shin and Zen: two sides of Japanese Buddhism

Today has been a tiring day, and in frustration I removed a couple blog posts from the last 24 hours. Honestly, they weren’t great posts anyways, so it was no big loss. In any case, while on the way home, … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Jodo Shinshu, Religion, Zen | 8 Comments

It’s a small world after all

I have to confess that I’ve been gone this weekend to Disney Paris with the family, enjoying a much needed vacation. My wife is a big Disney fan and has been to the one in Tokyo (since she’s Japanese) and … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Family, France, Religion, Theravada, Travel

The Living Message of the Lotus Sutra

Recently, while walking to work, I was thinking about the Buddhist text, the Lotus Sutra or hokkekyō (法華経) in Japanese.1 I was thinking of what the entire sutra means, since it is so long, and how this applies to life … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Nichiren, Religion, Tendai, Zen | 4 Comments

Woman Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Priest

This story was originally posted at the E-sangha forum, but I wanted to repost here to a wider audience. It’s about a British woman who married a Japanese man in Japan, and started a family, before becoming ordained as a … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Jodo Shinshu, Religion | 2 Comments

Part 3: Technical Japanese I wish I had known sooner

Previous episodes can be found here and here. In this episode, I just wanted to pass along a few more words that I learned recently that I think are useful (in no particular order): 回線, kaisen – A network circuit … Continue reading

Posted in Japanese, Language | Leave a comment

Appearances can be deceiving

After my post recently about the discriminating mind, and the emptiness of “views”, I think this video is a good example. If you haven’t watched the video before, you can see how your own mind forms impressions and ideas when … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism | 2 Comments

日曜日よく寝た

やっぱり寝ることが必要。毎晩マミーとベビーが寝た後僕が皿を洗ったり日本語を勉強したり何か書いたりするのでたいてい12-1時ごろ寝て7-8時起きる。毎日事務所でコーヒーをたくさん飲むのにずっと眠い。でも日曜日の晩に10時ごろはやく寝てからすごい気持ちよくなって仕事がたくさん、たくさん出来た。さらにその日が気分がもっといい感じだった。しかし月曜日の晩また遅く寝たので火曜日また眠かった。 ブログや勉強が楽しいけれどちゃんと寝たほうがいいよね。仕事のほうが大切だと思う。そして昼休みに勉強ができる。:) Note to English readers: complaining about not getting enough sleep due to late night projects. Sunday night I slept really well and realized that sleep is really important for work and good mood, since coffee doesn’t really help. … Continue reading

Posted in General | 2 Comments

A nice weekend in Spring

It was a great weekend, despite being on-call, here in Ireland. A few points I wanted to bring up: As I move on in my preparations for the JPLT, I find I am struggling very badly with the Japanese language … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, General, Japanese, Language, Zen | 5 Comments

Eitaikyo: The Perpetual Memorial

April 17th through 18th is an important holiday in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, called Eitaikyō (永代経), or the “Perpetual Memorial”. This is a holiday commemorating the contributions of Buddhists in past, who’ve kept the tradition going. Since Jodo Shinshu draws heavily … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Jodo Shinshu, Jodo Shu, Religion, Theravada, Zen | 2 Comments