About the Author
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile / Koreaphile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the Internets a better place. Thanks for reading!
Category Archives: Zen
You’re Not Getting Any Younger
Recently I found this old comic from Sinfest,1 and wanted to talk about it here. The Buddha described the “Four Sufferings” (or “stresses” as I like to call them) in his first sermon: Birth is stress (as a parent, I … Continue reading
Another Side of Soto Zen Buddhism: Sojiji Temple
One of the nice things about meeting blog readers, especially overseas, is that you get to see and learn so many cool things. I was fortunate once again to meet Tokyo expert and blog reader, “Johnl”, who has his own … Continue reading
Posted in Japan, Religion, Travel, Zen
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Year 2011 wrap-up
New Year’s Eve didn’t go as planned, but it was interesting too. Originally we planned on taking my daughter and I to a local temple to take part in the bell-ringing service, or joya no kane, but I had to … Continue reading
Understanding the Buddhist Sutras: a (somewhat) brief overview
(Photo is a screen shot from the movie “Kūkai 空海” by Toei Video Co. Ltd., all rights reserved) As an extension of my very brief history of Buddhism, I wanted to talk about this subject. The key to understanding Buddhism … Continue reading
Tsunamis and Radiation: a matter of history and perspective
While turning off the computer and cooking some oatmeal a while ago, I was reading Prof. Bodiford’s history of medieval Sōtō Zen, and I stumbled upon a fitting passage. In Tōtōmi Province in 1498, the countryside had been ravaged by … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Japan, Religion, Zen
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Ven. Yin-Shun explains Buddhist meditation
One of my favorite books on Buddhism after all these years is Ven. Yin-Shun’s book on Buddhism called The Way to Buddhahood. I was thumbing through the book recently looking for something, when I stumbled upon this lengthy explanation about … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, China, Religion, Zen
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Buddhism: Getting what you wished for
Lately, I have been continuing my read of Prof. Reader’s and Prof. Tanabe’s book on practical Japanese religion. I mentioned this book before when talking about “American-Protestant Buddhism“, and in Chapter 2, the book takes up the subject of “orthodox” … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Jodo Shinshu, Religion, Shingon, Theravada, Zen
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A Look at Rinzai Zen Monastic Life
A while back, I wrote a post that reviewed a certain bilingual Zen book I purchased in Japan called What is Zen? 禅ってなんだろう？. by Rev. Fujiwara. One aspect of the book that is discussed in detail, but I did not … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Japan, Zen
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An Example of Rinzai Buddhist Liturgy
In April readers will no doubt recall my trip to Japan and in particular Kyoto/Nara which I hadn’t seen in five years. Among the many sites there we saw the Silver Pavilion, which is technically a temple of the Rinzai … Continue reading
Why Buddhist meditation?
An article on Brad Warner’s blog caught my attention recently about how people perceive meditation. Buddhist meditation seems to divide people into the category of those who romanticize it unnecessarily, and those who demonize it. This article is a brief … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Religion, Theravada, Zen
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