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CNN has a beautiful article on Bernie Glassman ...
An American Zen Master has died: An oral history of Roshi Bernie Glassman
By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor
Glassman, who died November 4 at age 79, was a Brooklyn-born Jew, a recognized Zen master, a Buddhist trailblazer, a restless mensch and a serial plunger.
Glassman plunged into aeronautical engineering, into Zen, into leading a Buddhist community, into running a bakery, into growing that bakery into a constellation of social services, into holding spiritual retreats among the homeless and at Holocaust-haunted concentration camps, into writing a book of koans with a Hollywood star, into mourning when his second wife died and into learning to walk and talk again two years ago after a stroke.
The plunges, as Glassman called them, served a spiritual purpose: to uproot preconditioned ideas, bear witness to what's going on and serve those most in need. At a time when many American Buddhists preferred self-development to social engagement, Glassman dismissed "mannequin meditation" and carried his Zen practice from clean-aired monasteries to chaotic city streets, where he led weeklong retreats on sidewalks and in crowded parks.
"Bernie was very clear that meditation was not a refuge from life," said Roshi Eve Myonen Marko, Glassman's third wife. "For him, meditation was total engagement."
Kaidō (皆道) Every Way
Washin (和信) Harmony Trust
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I am a novice priest-in-training. Anything that I say must not be considered as teaching
and should be taken with a 'grain of salt'.
I was up last night, couldn't sleep, watching YouTube. One video was Jeff Bridges going through all his roles. When it came to The Big Lebowski, he said this:
A friend of mine, Bernie Glassman, who happened to be a Zen master said, 'You realize in many circles The Dude is considered a Zen master.'
I said, 'What are you talking about? We never talked spirituality, Buddhism, or none of that.'
He said, 'Oh, yeah. Who wrote and directed the film? THE KOAN BROTHERS.'
A koan are these zen questions like what's the sound of one hand clapping, these sort of things. He said, 'That movie, The Big Lebowski, is filled with modern day koans.'
I say, 'Really?'
He says, 'Sure. Like, "the Dude abides", that's a very Buddhist kind of thought. Or, 'That's just like your opinion, man'
Sat today. Gassho.
No merit. Vast emptiness; nothing holy. I don't know.
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