October 26th-27th Treeleaf Weekly BOO!!zenkai - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

**Shokai** · 10-27-2018, 02:42 AM

Thank you one and all, have a happy Hallowe'en

gassho, Shokai
stlah

Attached Files

**Seishin** · 10-27-2018, 06:43 AM

Will be catching up On Demand over next few mornings, thank you all.

**Jika** · 10-27-2018, 08:31 AM

Gassho
Jika
sattoday, lah

**Koki** · 10-27-2018, 12:55 PM

Sat with you all this morning from Cleveland Ohio. Wonderful Zazenkai...loved the costumes

Gassho
Frank
Satoday

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

**Tairin** · 10-27-2018, 01:25 PM

Sat the BOO!!zenkai this morning.

Thank you everyone.

Tairin
Sat today and lah

**sjlabat** · 10-27-2018, 04:25 PM

Alas poor Yorick! I knew him….
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet (and I need to be careful here, I am no Shakespeare scholar!), Hamlet views Yorick’ dead skull and reminisces on an old beloved court jester from the prince’s youth. So, impermanence – and also a ‘clown’ of sorts! Dani’s clown costume, I think, can have meaning for this sitting! Many spiritualities, religions, around the world have clowns, tricksters, holy fools whose job it is to close dualities that seemingly can’t be closed. In some Native American myths ‘Coyote,’ and ‘Raven’ (anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss discusses this in his book Structural Anthropology) are tricksters that close the duality of ‘dead’ vs. ‘alive,’ they eat carrion but do not kill what they eat. Court Jesters, like poor Yorick, holy fools, were people who sort of had a spiritual ‘shroud’ around them that gave them authority to sort of tell the King and other powerful people the truth – truth’s ‘normal’ folk dare not say! I think many of our religious/spiritual traditions and cultures don’t quite know what to make of ‘tricksters’ – tricksters are silly, and sometimes silly for silliness sake – and that’s great!, but sometimes the tricksters silliness had a point…and told truths others dare not say…
Gassho,
Sjl,
Sat, lah

**Jundo** · 10-27-2018, 11:24 PM

You can get a little taste of the traditional power of Soto Zen monks to tame ghosts, goblins, dragons and the like on pages 44 and 45 here. It is said by many historians to be one of the main drives behind the spread of the lineage of Sojiji/Keizan Zenji widely through the countryside, far surpassing the number of temples linked to Eiheiji.

The Other Side of Zen

https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=EPXEoMtND24C&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=soto+zen+ghosts&source=bl&ots=uKp7BnnYv0&sig=Ysnr2TqbISIbpBBdW7pD_quHteU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij7PPM4KfeAhVNUN4KHQrCCOEQ6AEwCnoECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=soto%20zen%20ghosts&f=false

Popular understanding of Zen Buddhism typically involves a stereotyped image of isolated individuals in meditation, contemplating nothingness. This book presents the "other side of Zen," by examining the movement's explosive growth during the Tokugawa period (1600-1867) in Japan and by shedding light on the broader Japanese religious landscape during the era. Using newly-discovered manuscripts, Duncan Ryuken Williams argues that the success of Soto Zen was due neither to what is most often associated with the sect, Zen meditation, nor to the teachings of its medieval founder Dogen, but rather to the social benefits it conveyed. Zen Buddhism promised followers many tangible and attractive rewards, including the bestowal of such perquisites as healing, rain-making, and fire protection, as well as "funerary Zen" rites that assured salvation in the next world. Zen temples also provided for the orderly registration of the entire Japanese populace, as ordered by the Tokugawa government, which led to stable parish membership. Williams investigates both the sect's distinctive religious and ritual practices and its nonsectarian participation in broader currents of Japanese life. While much previous work on the subject has consisted of passages on great medieval Zen masters and their thoughts strung together and then published as "the history of Zen," Williams' work is based on care ul examination of archival sources including temple logbooks, prayer and funerary manuals, death registries, miracle tales of popular Buddhist deities, secret initiation papers, villagers' diaries, and fund-raising donor lists.

Gassho, J

STLah

**Seishin** · 10-29-2018, 07:43 AM

Completed Boozenkai this morning. Thank you all.

**Kokuu** · 10-30-2018, 01:31 PM

Spooky! The ghost was the old Buddha all along! (like an episode of Scooby Doo!)

Thank you.

Gassho
Kokuu

**Kotei** · 10-30-2018, 03:58 PM

BOO!
Gassho,
Kotei just sat.

**Adee1970** · 10-31-2018, 01:40 PM

Gassho

**Meitou** · 10-31-2018, 06:50 PM

Great to sit this actually on Hallowe'en! Thank you Jundo and everyone and all the ghosts in the machines that make this technology possible.
Gassho
Meitou
satwithyoualltodayBOO!

**Eishuu** · 11-06-2018, 11:39 AM

Thank you all.

Gassho
Eishuu
ST/LAH

October 26th-27th Treeleaf Weekly BOO!!zenkai - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment