Thanks to you Robert, for the wonderful quote. It said part of what I
was getting with such poetic beauty.
Peter
--- RbtJonas@aol.com wrote:
> Thanks to Peter for introducing a great topic. I too am enjoying all
> the
> contributions about spirituality and shakuhachi.
>
> Just a little note to Thomas Hare. Thank you for your thoughtful
>
> questions and observations. Of course, the clear distinctions that
> you make
> between Christianity and Buddhism (eg., God, no God) only hold up if
> you
> focus on particular brands of each religion.
>
> As you mention, Pure Land is more similar to Christianity than
> Zen is
> because of the notion of other-power (tariki), in contrast to
> self-power
> (jiriki). But of course, there's plenty of other-power at work
> within
> self-power if you take the importance of Sangha (community)
> seriously. Yes,
> in Zen, you do everything yourself, but one cannot say that it is an
> individualist practice in the western sense. Inside yourself, the
> Sangha is
> working to support you, and in the end, the bodhisattva is more than
> himself.
>
>
> In Sui-Zen, inside yourself, the teacher and school is working.
> It is
> good to be thankful for that. When one sits with a teacher,
> something can
> happen that is just you, self-power, and simultaneously in the field
> of
> other-power. Sitting knee to knee, just blowing Ro, one can blow
> down the
> bamboo in the field of mutuality that brings joy, even as it is only
> "what
> is." Sometimes, when this merger of student and teacher is
> particularly
> deep, there is what is called Kanno-Doko a precious "mutual exchange
> of
> feeling". My experience is that Kanno-Doko is (paradoxically) a
> source of
> self-power, welling up within me from the common ground passed on to
> me from
> the teacher. To me, this has been a precious Sui Zen experience.
>
> With respect to Christianity, Thomas's comments seem directed
> more toward
> the literal, Protestant variety of Christianity rather than to the
> contemplative and mystical varieties (ie., Roman Catholic and
> Orthodox). For
> example, the great Zen writer, D.T. Suzuki saw many parallels between
> Zen,
> Pure Land and the Dominican (Christian) spirituality of Meister
> Eckhart (14th
> c.). See Suzuki's book, Mysticism, Christian and Buddhist.
>
> One can also find many deep resonances between Zen and Christian
> practice
> in the works of Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. See his Mystics & Zen
> Masters,
> The Way of Chuang Tzu, and Zen and the Birds of Appetite. Current
> Buddhist-Christian dialogues continue to break down the stereotypic
> differences. See, for example the Dalai Lama's commentaries on the
> Gospels
> (The Good Heart), and such books as The Gethsemane Encounter, a
> record of
> continuuing conversations between monks and nuns from both traditions
> that
> take place periodically at Merton's monastery.
>
> One can also point to many books being written by Roman Catholic
> monks
> who are also officially recognized Zen masters (eg., Robert Kennedy,
> Thomas
> Hand and William Johnston). All of these Christian folks that I've
> mentioned
> experience a parallel to the Zen saying "If you see the Buddha on the
> road,
> kill him." With Meister Eckhart, they say it eventually becomes
> necessary
> "to let go of God for God's sake," or that one must eventually enter
> "The
> Cloud of Unknowing," in God, or that "the God that we can think of
> cannot be
> God because otherwise, when the thought goes, God would go too."
>
> Serious Sui Zen students hope to have the experience (beneath
> cognition)
> of Ichion Jo Butsu, or becoming Buddha in one sound. Perhaps the
> Christian
> parallel is to have the experience of the mind of Christ and the
> kenosis
> (Greek, self-emptying) of Christ in one sound.
>
> Peace,
> Jonas
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more
http://tax.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 06 2004 - 14:09:32 PST