The Doctor is Within

The Dalai Lama has been in exile for 50 years now. The New York Times has a short reflection from a reporter that has been covering him for many years. It's as good as synopsis of H.H. Dalai Lama I've seen. Here's a sample:

I’ve been spending time for 18 years in a Benedictine monastery, and the monks I know there have likewise found out how to be delighted by the smallest birthday cake. Happiness is not pleasure, they know, and unhappiness, as the Buddhists say, is not the same as suffering. Suffering — in the sense of old age, sickness and death — is the law of life; unhappiness is just the position we choose — or can not choose — to bring to it. (source)

Being in my own Benedictine Monastery, I know what this writer says to be true--you do find great happiness in little things, which aren't necessarily pleasurable or not pleasurable. It's just a different orientation of spirit in the cloister that changes everything.

-t

Random notes from a Saturday

Not much to say, really. Friday was busy, and somewhat challenging. In particular, I had a challenging pastoral care case that took some delicate care on my part. But I think I managed it fine. Wish I could say more, but can't, unfortunately. Suffice it to say that I learned some lessons and had some old one's confirmed in their wisdom.

Friday night Betsy and I went to a lecture at the U. of T. about Tibetan Buddhism. The lecturer, Jeffrey Hopkins, is well known in his field. He was also the Dalai Lama's chief interepreter into English for many years. It was an interesting lecture, but as technical and detailed as I might have liked.

Today I had our new healing prayer service. Just two of us, but that's fine for a start. Monday I'll have a banner to put outside that may attract a few folks--we'll see!

-t

Thoughts of Kathmandu

The NYTimes is running a feature about Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. It's one of my favourite places on earth from when I visited there in the fall of 1997. This has been a sacred place for a very, very long time. It possibly predates the historic Buddha, Shākyamuni. The thing to do when visiting the Stupa is simply to walk around it in a circle--circumambulating. I did this for a few hours, in fact, one afternoon just for the experience of it.

In those days I was experimenting with Buddhism and sat at the feet of some truly great teachers of that religion. I even spent a month taking the Lam Rim teachings at a monastery on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley. I was there with a few hundred others, mostly Westerners, receiving the teachings and learning to meditate. It was very hard work, actually. One of the things I learned was that I was definitely not a Buddhist! I appreciate the meditation and many of the insights that Buddhism has to offer, but in the end the revelation I have received in the Gospel is simply not compatible with some basic tenets of Buddhist dogma. This might seem obvious, but I'm not sure how many people really thoroughly examine and test the world view they inherit. I'm not saying that I did any profound, epic examination, but I did at least try to examine my faith by offering it up for a serious challenge from a worthy contender. I still like meditating with the Buddhists when I can. I think they have many wise and worthy and even holy things to say, but I'm not going to be taking refuge in the Buddha anytime soon!

I miss those days. The seductive quality of Kathmandu and Tibetan Buddhism did not fade after four months of living in-country. When I did need to touch base with my roots I'd simply head over to the British Embassy for Anglican worship (from the BCP, of course) or else go to Mike's Breakfast.

Mike's Breakfast is kind of like "Rick's Café Américain" from the movie Casablanca, except it's oriented around breakfast, obviously, and there is no casino! Sometimes I would sit for hours at a table in the courtyard sipping the ubiquitous sweet tea of Nepal and India known as Masala Chai and reading or writing. I felt like a real sophisticated expat at 21!

In reality I can barely say that I knew Nepal, let alone Kathmandu. I think you could probably live there your entire life and read every book and barely know a place as complex as that! Truly, it's the most complex and layered city I've ever visited--even more so than New York, Istanbul, or London!

-t

Nantenbo Scroll Photos

As promised, here is a picture of that scroll by Nantenbo.

Interestingly, neither the dealer that sold the scroll to me (who is Japanese, btw) nor the dealer he bought it from (a specialist in scroll collecting) can read the script. Nantenbo was never very interested in making particularly legible characters; he was more interested in cultivating a kind of unstudied immediacy in his work. By comparing this work with others by the same artist, I think the characters in the upper left hand corner (next to the signature stamp) say "Daruma." Daruma (Sanskrit: Bodhidharma) is the saint who took Buddism from India to China. He's a popular motif in Zen art. That's him seated at the bottom of the scroll.

Daruma--the Patriarch of Chinese/Japanese Buddhism
The contrast between the quick, almost careless calligraphy at the top and the carefully executed Daruma at the bottom of the scroll is deliberate, obviously. Nantenbo was famous for his sense of humor and playfulness.

One of the stories about Daruma that fascinated Nantenbo goes like this: some time after arriving in China, Daruma was called before the Emperor. The Emperor asked, "What is your teaching?" Daruma replied: "Vast empiness; nothing sacred." Then he went away and spent nine years meditating facing a wall, speaking to no one. Nantenbo and other Zen Masters painted portraits of Daruma facing the wall. In this instance, it seems that we are the wall Daruma is facing. Nor does he seem particularly happy about that!

The composition of this portrait of Daruma also incorporates another important Zen motif: the Enso circle. It symbolizes "...enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and the void"--in other words, everything. But what's most beautiful about the Enso in the moment of creating it. Drawing a circle free-hand is much more difficult than you might imagine, and the very task requires Zen-like presence. If you don't believe me, just try it!

Inside this Enso Nantenbo wrote:

Born within the ensō of the world
the human heart must also
become an ensō

Good stuff. I'm going to enjoy thinking about this scroll more.

-t

Nantenbo

Yesterday I finally bought that Japanese Zen scroll I've been thinking about. It was written in 1918 or 1919 by a Buddhist priest named Nakahara Nantenbo. He was a colorful figure that served as an important bridge to 20th century Zen. Here's a bit about him:

"If I cannot become a priest of extraordinary accomplishment, I will not walk upon the earth," vowed eighteen-year-old Nantenbō (Tōjū Zenchū) to his Zen Master.' The impassioned spirit of this precocious young man was to burn brightly throughout his eighty-seven years. Not only did he rise through ecclesiastical ranks to an exalted position at one of the most prestigious Rinzai Zen monasteries in Japan, he was "a Zen priest of the people."' In his determination to restore Zen to its former purity and brilliance, he emulated the severe methods of legendary Zen masters from the distant past. The thick staff of nandina he used to "encourage" disciples and frighten "false priests" resulted in a great deal of notoriety, giving him the nickname Nantenbō (nandina staff). He also published ten volumes of Zen commentaries, headed numerous Zen study groups and, by his own estimate, brushed over one hundred thousand calligraphies and paintings, which he freely gave away to anyone brave enough to ask. Certainly his efforts helped maintain Zen during Japan's tumultuous modernization. By wielding the brush with unmitigated vigor, he also may have unwittingly exerted tremendous influence on twentieth-century "action" artists and avant-garde calligraphers."

This son of a Samurai attacked the scroll with unusual speed and energy. "Splash" marks at the beginning of his strokes are common, as are abbreviations and bold, dynamic movements.

I'll post a picture when I get a chance. It's not often that I get to collect a piece of fine art, so I'm very pleased about this acquisition--a real treat.

-t

Buddhism's Struggles in Japan

D.C. calls my attention to this article in the NY Times: In Japan, Buddhism May Be Dying Out. Japanese Buddhism has always been a pretty complicated phenomenon. The Mahayana Buddhists with whom I studied were somewhat critical of what they judged to be a corrupted tradition. It's one of the reasons I'm always amused when Westerners imagine that Eastern Religions are free of the politics and judgmentalism that they ascribe to Christianity. Anyway, Buddhism appears to be in decline in Japan:

Over the next generation, many temples in the countryside are expected to close, taking centuries of local history with them and adding to the demographic upheaval under way in rural Japan.

Many reasons are given. Some are demographic. Some are more troubling:

He said Japanese Buddhism had been sapped of its spiritual side in great part because it had compromised itself during World War II through its close ties with Japan’s military. After Buddhist priests had glorified fallen soldiers and given them special posthumous Buddhist names, talk of pacifism sounded hollow.

Mr. Mori, the priest here, said that after the war there was a desire for increasingly lavish funerals with prestigious Buddhist names. These names — with the highest ranks traditionally given to those who have led honorable lives — are routinely purchased now, regardless of a dead person’s conduct in life. (source)

What's really sad is some of these priests who are umpteenth-generation priests and have no heir.

-t