Brad Warner's Blog, page 29

USE YOUR ILLUSIONS

I know I promised an article about jukai, the precepts ceremony. But someone wrote in with this question and I'd like to try and answer it:

How does one reinvigorate one's practice after losing the illusions that brought one to practice in the first place? That's where I'm at now. I originally practiced hoping to get to "some place better than this one," or at least to be able to "have it all figured out"; I now despair of either one and so I ask myself, "Why sit?" I'm slowly finding my way...

TRANSMISSION and HAYATA

Man! I woke up at ten o'clock this morning. I don't think I've woken up that late since I was like 25. I used to be a late sleeper when I was a rock musician. You have to be when you get back at 4 AM from a gig. But these days even on the rare occasions I actually do get back from a gig at 4 AM I still wake up by seven. This is one of the many reasons I can't do those kinds of gigs anymore. I guess I must be really jet-lagged from all that travel!

Anyway, this girl named Sarah was minding my a...

I HAVE NOT RESIGNED AS PRESIDENT OF DOGEN SANGHA

As I'm certain most readers of this blog are aware, Mr. James Cohen (aka Jundo), President of Treeleaf Zendo, has recently uploaded a number of comments to this blog regarding my status as president of Dogen Sangha International. These comments appear in the post below this one entitled "Bye Bye Tokio." There are only two people who can erase any of these comments, me and Mr. Cohen. I have chosen to allow them to stay up permanently. If you check and they have been removed, this is the work o...

BYE BYE TOKIO!

My World Domination Tour 2009 is officially done (though it looks like I'll have some Canadian dates to announce in November). The retreat at Tokei-in temple in Shizuoka, Japan ended yesterday. It was real and it was fun and it was real fun. We had 14 people at the beginning and ended with 16. This is a reverse of the usual order of things, in which someone always runs away from the retreat before it's done. We actually gained in numbers this time! How about that?

About my only complaint was t...

日本に帰りました！

Yep, that's right cats and kittens, I'm back in Japan! And boy are my arms tired.

The flight I was on was full of junior high students so I got bumped up to business class. Classy!

Actually I've always had complete contempt for people who ride first or business class*. It just seems to wasteful and elitist. Yet there I was, up front with all the wasteful elitists. They even close off the doors between the two classes so those of us in business don't have to be bothered by seeing the suffering o...

THE BRISTOL STOMP!

I'm in Bristol now. Here's the info on the talk I'm giving tonight:

• September 14, 2009 (Mon) 7 PM Oddfellows Hall, West Park, Cliffton, Bristol for details contact awarenessworks@btconnect.com

I rode the train here last night with Mike Leutchford, an old friend and one of Nishijima Roshi's Dharma Heirs. At train stations all over England there are posters for some insurance company featuring either Iggy Pop or someone who looks just like Iggy Pop. I've put a photo of one on the top of this ar...

DURHAM DONE, NEXT STOPS LONDON & BRISTOL

My first talk in Great Britain went swimmingly. I managed to answer questions asked in deep Geordie dialect with not too much difficulty. Sold some Zero Defex CDs as well!

Tomorrow at 2pm I'll be speaking at King's College. Lots of people have already confirmed but there are still spaces available. So be there.

Then on Monday I'll be in Bristol where the kids are sharp as a pistol when they do the Bristol stomp. Does anybody remember that song? Also open to all comers. So come, you comers!

Anywa...

DON'T WANT TO BE IN YOUR LONDON DUNGEON

They called us walking corpses
Unholy living dead
They had to lock us up
Put us in their British hell

Make sure your face is clean now
Can't have no dirty dead
All the corpses here are clean, boy
All the yanks in British hell

I don't wanna be here in your London dungeon
I don't wanna be here in your British hell
Ain't no mystery why I'm in misery in hell
Here's hoping you're swell

- The Misfits "London Dungeon"

It wasn't a London dungeon I visited yesterday but the House of Commons. Thanks to the wonderfu...

(INNER) ANARCHY IN THE U.K.

I'm in London now! No time to post. See the schedule over to your left for where I'm gonna be talking and suchlike.

Now I'm off to find Forbidden Planet.

ANOTHER DARNED ZEN RETREAT

Today the Zen retreat in Munich begins. Yay?

I got in trouble when I called the retreat in Frankfurt "another darned retreat." Some people who read that statement took offense at what they felt was my disparaging of the event. I didn't mean it that way.

I thought the irony would be obvious. If you look at my schedule (linked to your left) you'll see I do a lot of retreats. Last year I even attended Zen retreats that I did not lead or organize, in which I was a mere rank-and-file grunt rather th...