Zen - The Possible Way

For Dogen fans

2012-01-11T10:48:00.002+02:00

Must read for all Dogen fans is Francis Dojun Cook's book "How to Raise an Ox - Zen Practice as Taught in Master Dogen's Shobogenzo."

Why is this book so good? Because it is straight and simple and still, really profound.

Photo by me.

New Radio TV song and video!

2012-01-02T03:00:00.002+02:00

Here's a new song and really expensive video from our band:

The Radio TV: Vision Without Action

(if video below doesn't work, here's a link)

Zen in men's room

2012-01-01T22:19:00.003+02:00

Above is a picture of me in men's room. So? Exactly.

I've been messing around in Barbara O'Brien's blog lately. Yeah, I'm childish very often, but that's who I am. This is not a role, occasionally I am an asshole when it comes to NambyBamby Buddhism.

I'm not saying Barbara's posts are NambyBamby or at least not always. NambyBamby is sometimes more than welcomed and come on, we all Buddhists need it sometimes. But Barbara's latest post is very nice where she writes about her daily life and experiences of practicing Buddhism as a mother. As a father of three kids, a husband, a student at the University of Helsinki (comparative religion, focus on Buddhism), a leader of Kajo Zendo (Soto Zen group), a writer, a musician blaa blaa, my practice can't be anywhere else than in my daily life. And I love it!

When someone says that monks or Zen teachers are superior or only they can practice Buddhism in an authentic way, I say: fuck that shit. We can only practice Buddhism where we are, but we have to make it our own. We need teachers and tradition, but we have to make them flourish in our own lives. A teacher or a Holy monk can't shit on behalf of us. That's why Zen in men's room is ours. It's yours. But my upcoming book is all about that.

Barbara's latest post is good and you can find it from here: http://buddhism.about.com/b/2012/01/01/happy-adjusted-arbitrary-time-designation.htm

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Buddha and his chicks wish You Merry Xmas!

2011-12-23T02:53:00.002+02:00

Couple of days ago I caught Buddha from my altar having fun with his chicks. Merry Xmas to You all!- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Life is easy

2011-12-19T09:42:00.001+02:00

Life is easy. And sometimes it's not. How marvelous!

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I hate Buddhism (tm)

2011-12-17T10:04:00.002+02:00

I hate Buddhism (tm). No, this is not somekind of koan. I really mean it.

When I discovered zazen in 1996 by reading Master Dogen's Fukan-zazengi, I fell in love. I've been practicing zazen since. But I hated Buddhism (tm) back then because Buddhism (tm) just seemed to be hypocrite, superstitious and really crazy religion: "you have to be normal and to respect all people but at the same you can't be normal. Instead of it, you have to worship hypocrite monks and to play holy games." I still hate Buddhism (tm), it really disgust me as a Buddhist. Maybe that's why I'm studying it at the university.

As a Buddhist I say: fuck Buddhism (tm). I've been practicing zazen over 15 years and I don't see any reasons why I would stop. I've been studying Master Dogen's Shobogenzo and other teachings over 15 years and I love studying those. But Buddhism (tm)... fuck off.

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Happy Jodo-e or something like that!

2011-12-08T11:48:00.001+02:00

Today is the day to celebrate Buddha's Enlightenment (tm). Yeah right. No one knows who Buddha was or when he lived and about this Enlightenment... that's just a big spiritual fairytale.

But we can try to do our best also today. That's being buddha. We can try to help ourselves and others also today. That's being a human being. We don't need Jodo-e days for that. But of course it's nice to play Holy Buddhist sometimes.

We had yesterday our Zen group's Rohatsu zazen. There were 16 of us and we sat 3 x 40min., it was really nice.

Be well everyone!

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Reader asks about emotional locks and Uku answers

2011-12-01T22:50:00.004+02:00

I receive quite a lot email from Buddhist practitioners and other people. Questions are everything between zazen, Buddhism and daily life. Sometimes they bash me, sometimes they praise me. I love to receive email and I'm doing my best to answer to them all, although I don't know anything. But I think I have learned something during these 15 years of practicing zazen.

And girls and boys, this is important: I'm learning all the time, everyone of us is learning. I make mistakes, and oh boy, I make them a lot. It's part of zazen, to learn to let go of important and non-important things. To fall down, to stand up again. Fuck, that's called life! My Zen teacher Peter Rocca taught to me some really important lessons recently, he really helped to put me back to Earth.

But anyway, here's one email badly translated from Finnish to English from someone who wrote me today:

"Hi! I've been watching your videos about Buddhism and I'm interested of the human side in those. I've been meditating for some time and I have noticed that I'm suffocating my feelings (I've been doing this since I was a child) I'm 18 years old high school student. What means do you have to offer to me for opening those mental locks inside of me and to face those feelings from now on?"

and my answer badly translated from Finnish to English:

"Hi *,
thank you for your email and questions.

Your questions are unfamiliar to me, and as a Buddhist, I don't know anything about mental locks or facing emotions or suffocating them. Zazen is not some method to know oneself or some therapy method. When I was 18 years old high school student, I was interested of women, skateboarding and snowboarding. And just practicing zazen. So, I don't have any advices to you regarding your questions, I'm sorry.

More info about practicing zazen you can find from our website. But I'm happy to answer to your questions!

Good luck with your studies!

With best wishes,
Uku"

Lately I've been listening quite a lot of Rancid. When I was in high school, I was a little punk in my violet skatepunk haircut, Rancid was very important to me. It still is. So, concerning this blog post, here's a great song from Rancid (lyrics below):

I saw an old man on the street
he was in a dumpster lookin’ for somethin’ to eat
he moved so slow like a dyin’ dream
like a machinist who got caught in the machine

I saw this lady and she was cryin’
she said it’s hard when someone you love is dyin’
I saw this kid who was about 5 years old
he was in the park all alone he was cold

there’s something coming around
as wicked as it may seem
as wicked as anything could be

I know this girl she’s barely alive
she’s all haggard she’s only twenty-five
she said she never had a friend before
I said “hey girl I’ll be your friend but who’s keepin’ score”
I saw this other little girl on the phone
her mother comforts her from far from home
the little girl was very hesitant
her best friend lie dead on the pavement

I always end up back on the hill
lookin’ down at the landfill
I always go there when I can
my friend Marty said Tim you’re a lucky man

To meet the Real Dragon face to face.

2011-11-30T14:02:00.002+02:00

"There was once a man who was fascinated by dragons. The walls of his house were covered with paintings of dragons and every shelf was lined with dragon statues and figurines. In fact, his whole house was filled with images of dragons. One day a real dragon happened to look in his window. When it saw all the images of dragons, it was overjoyed, for here, clearly, was a man who loved dragons. Surely he would be pleased to have a real dragon visit his house. But when the man looked out the window and saw the dragon, he was so frightened he fainted straight away.

So Master Dogen's advice is very clear. We should not chase after images of the Truth. We should not become attached to theories or intellectual explanations. Rather, we should meet the Truth directly. To practice zazen is to meet the Truth of the Buddhas. To practice zazen is to meet the Real Dragon - face to face."

Gudo Nishijima Roshi (b. 1919) in his book "To Meet the Real Dragon" (p. 191, 4th edition).