Northern Dojo

18/10/2021

The webinar is tomorrow and in the middle of the night for Europeans, but I will try to watch the recording if there is one: https://www.japansociety.org/arts-and-culture/talks/zen-living-traditions

Scholars and practitioners share their perspectives, examining Zen's role and perception in Japan and the West, differences in practices, and the path forward

10/10/2021

Kōyō ( 紅葉) — the Japanese word for autumn foliage — is made up of the characters 紅 (crimson) and 葉 (leaf), which beautifully illustrate the changing colors of the season. Like hanami, or cherry blossom viewing in the spring, the tradition of admiring fall leaves (momijigari) was born in Kyoto during the Heian period and remains an important pastime today.

(from the Japan Society)

12/08/2021

It's true, French trains are proper trains:

It is truly unthinkable that les Anglais could win the war of the vaccine

29/07/2021

Tokyo Digest 29/7/'21 via Aeon magazine: art critic James Payne on Katsushika Hokusai's 'Great Wave' (video, 17 mins).

Why Hokusai’s Great Wave – created amid Japanese isolation – became a resounding artistic and commercial success worldwide

28/07/2021

Tokyo Digest 28/7/'21 via The Japan Society: Kengo Kuma, designer of the Japan National Stadium, mentions (at 1.05) the architecture of Horyuji, the temple of the Hosso School where Master Kodo Sawaki studied.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rypfwH-O82k

25/07/2021

Tokyo Digest 25/7/'21 via BBC World Service and youtube: 'Inori' (Prayer) by Hatis Noit - voice and waves recorded on the beach at Fukushima.

Taken from “Erased Tapes 1+1=X” by Various ArtistsOrder it from Erased Tapes: https://bit.ly/ERATP100Listen on Spotify: https://bit.ly/ERATP100_SpotifyListen...

19/07/2021

Perfidious Albion...

The dead cat political tactic is attributed to Sir Lynton Crosby, the Australian wizard who helped Boris Johnson to b...

17/07/2021

Dogen is deceived by Dogen - commentary on the verse accompanying Dogen's self-portrait from Sanshin Zen Community.

Shohaku Okumura

13/07/2021

Blind Men Crossing a Bridge by Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1768)

Hakuin painted this scene many times, the version you can see in the post has only two blind men, although the one discussed below has three (click the link to see it and the rest of Stephen Addiss's article).

'The blind men start from the right and seem to be struggling harder and harder to cross the bridge. The first holds his sandals in his hands as he reaches out with his staff, the second puts his staff in his belt and reaches out with his fingers, and the third crawls forward with his sandals tethered at the end of his staff for balance. To make the situation more difficult, the bridge does not quite reach the other shore. Will they all make it across?' Stephen Addiss in Lion's Roar

https://www.lionsroar.com/inside-art-blind-men-crossing-the-bridge/

08/07/2021

I was hoping to find a good image of 'The First Principle' calligraphy for the July flier, but all of the images I found were small.

Nevertheless, you might be interested to read the story of the calligrapher and his pupil in '101 Zen Stories' (it's number 19) and see a tourist guide to the temple where the calligraphy decorates the somon (entrance gate).

https://terebess.hu/zen/101ZenStones.pdf

https://www.japanvisitor.com/japan-temples-shrines/manpukuji-temple

06/07/2021

Scholars say that when Buddhism came to China from India, monks had to support themselves with work instead of alms (begging was traditional in India but not in China) - this article describes a similar process in Christian communities:

Benedictine ideals have attracted attention of late. There has been a reprint of John Henry Newman’s

04/07/2021

Huang Po ('Obaku' in Japanese) was the teacher of Linji ('Rinzai' in Japanese). He said:

"All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. This Mind, which is without beginning, is unborn and indestructible... Only awake to the One Mind, and there is nothing whatsoever to be attained. This is the real Buddha."
pdf of 'The Zen Teaching of Huang Po' here:https://terebess.hu/zen/Huangpo.pdf